‘Tis the season for year-end budget conversations and many brands find themselves asking the age-old questions: “How do we get more out of less next year? Should we lean more on brand building or performance marketing?” This time last year, CMOs were split on the matter, with 50.1% saying they plan to spend more on brand awareness vs. 49.9% who are choosing performance marketing.  

What if I told you there’s a place where you can have the best of both worlds? That’s right - I’m talking about YouTube. Of all of today’s platforms, it’s the sweet spot where brand building and performance marketing can coexist, driving both business results and brand loyalty.

A Home For Your Brand

In recent years, YouTube has evolved into more than just a video-sharing platform: it's a powerful tool for building brand awareness and driving conversions. It’s the #1 platform on which consumers read/watch/listen to creator content and 90% of said consumers watch creator content across different formats. YouTube has capitalized on this trend by leaning into all of them: 

• Shorts, livestreams, full-length features (and everything in between) - the breadth of formats on YouTube offers brands the versatility to tell their stories in ways that are going to resonate most with target audiences, building brand love while generating leads.

Emotional Connection: The Secret Sauce

One of the keys to establishing and maintaining a successful hub for your brand on YouTube? Creating content that hooks users and gets them to stick around. How do you do it? It’s all about making viewers feel something. The payoff: ads that evoke positive emotions can lead to a 40% increase in brand perception. Some ways to get started:

• Teach viewers something new or get nostalgic on them, evoking memories of the past that will influence their decision-making in the present. 
• Be direct - show them how what you’re offering them will positively impact their lives, whether it’s a product, experience or benefit. 
• Most importantly, make sure your message is authentic and relatable. This will build trust and trust leads to stronger performance and higher returns, no matter what you’re selling.

Make It Count: The Power of YouTube Ads

There’s no need to sugarcoat it: to be a successful brand on YouTube today, you need to be willing to advertise there. 70% of consumers say they’ve bought a product after seeing it on YouTube and unless you’re dedicated to maintaining a consistent, organic content engine, ads are the most efficient way to drive consideration for your brand. Here are a few formats you can leverage to strike the right mix of brand and performance:

• Bumper ads: Short, non-skippable ads that run before a video starts; opportunity to deliver personalized message with prominent branding
• In-stream ads: Skippable or non-skippable and run at certain points throughout your videos; most effective when combining attention-grabbing creative with a clear and direct CTA
• Masthead ads: Ads that run prominently at the top of the YouTube homepage; reward outside-of-the-box, strategically branded creative that takes advantage of the prime real estate
• Lead form: The most direct way to generate leads; attaches a form directly to a piece of creative that engages interested users, creates remarketing lists and ultimately drives conversions

So there you have it - with YouTube, there’s no need to fight over the age-old brand vs. performance debate. By pairing the most relevant types of content for your brand with the ad formats that will inspire people to take action, you can maximize the value you’re getting out of the world’s most watched platform.

Need a YouTube strategy that builds your brand AND drives results? Newfangled Studios delivers both. Click below to book a meeting today