How do we reach new audiences with our YouTube ad campaigns?

Reaching new audiences with your YouTube ad campaigns requires a well-crafted strategy that leverages YouTube's targeting features, creative approaches, and optimization techniques. Here are several strategies you can use to effectively reach and engage new audiences:

1. Leverage YouTube's Targeting Options
YouTube offers several targeting options that can help you reach new audiences based on different criteria:

A. Demographics Targeting
Age, Gender, and Parental Status: Target specific age groups, genders, or parents. This is useful if your product or service is more relevant to a particular demographic.

Household Income: You can also target people based on their estimated household income, which is useful for products or services that cater to higher-income brackets.

B. Interest-Based Targeting
Affinity Audiences: YouTube lets you target audiences based on their lifestyle, interests, or passions, such as "health and fitness enthusiasts," "tech lovers," or "travel junkies." This helps you reach people who are already interested in topics related to your business.

In-Market Audiences: Target people who are actively researching or considering products in your industry. For example, targeting people actively looking for a new smartphone, home improvement solutions, or skincare products.

Life Events: You can also target people going through major life events like getting married, moving homes, or graduating, as these are moments when people often make new purchases.

C. Custom Audiences
Custom Affinity Audiences: Create your own audience based on specific interests, behaviors, or keywords that define your target customers.

Custom Intent Audiences: Target users based on specific search terms they've recently used on Google or YouTube. This is especially useful if you want to target people who are showing intent to purchase or take action similar to your offer.

D. Lookalike Audiences (Similar Audiences)
Expand Your Reach: Once you have a strong customer base, YouTube can help you reach new people who exhibit similar behaviors and interests to your existing customers. This type of targeting is great for reaching new audiences who are likely to be interested in your product.

2. Use Compelling Creative and Engaging Content
Your ad content plays a pivotal role in capturing the attention of new audiences. Here's how to create ads that will stand out and engage potential customers:

A. Create Attention-Grabbing Videos
Hook Viewers Quickly: The first few seconds of your ad should grab attention and convey your message clearly. Since YouTube ads are often skippable (especially for TrueView ads), it's crucial to have a strong hook in the first 5 seconds.

Short and Sweet: Short-form ads (6-15 seconds) can be highly effective for capturing attention and driving brand awareness, especially when targeting new audiences.

Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Include a strong, clear CTA to guide viewers on what to do next. Whether it's visiting your website, signing up for a newsletter, or checking out a product, the CTA should be easy to follow.

B. Showcase the Value Proposition
Solve a Problem: Address a pain point or need that your target audience faces and present your product or service as the solution.

Tell a Story: Storytelling ads are powerful for connecting emotionally with viewers. A compelling narrative can draw in new audiences and make them feel more connected to your brand.

C. Experiment with Different Ad Formats
TrueView In-Stream Ads: These ads play before, during, or after a video. Viewers can skip the ad after 5 seconds, but you only pay if they watch for at least 30 seconds or engage with your ad.

TrueView Discovery Ads: These appear in search results, on the YouTube homepage, or as recommended videos. They can help you reach viewers who are already interested in similar content.

Bumper Ads: Short (6-second) non-skippable ads are ideal for creating quick, impactful messages to capture attention.

Overlay Ads: These are semi-transparent ads that appear at the bottom of videos. They can be effective for driving traffic to your website, though they are less intrusive than other formats.

3. Optimize for SEO and YouTube Search
YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google, so making sure your videos are discoverable is key to reaching new audiences:

A. Use Relevant Keywords
Keyword-Rich Titles and Descriptions: Use keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags that align with the search terms your target audience is likely to use. This improves your visibility when users search for related content.

Engaging Thumbnails: Create visually compelling thumbnails that stand out and encourage people to click on your videos.

B. Engage with Your Audience
Comments and Interactions: Respond to comments on your videos to build engagement. The more engagement a video gets, the more likely it is to be recommended by YouTube's algorithm.

Encourage Subscriptions: Ask viewers to subscribe to your channel, which helps increase your organic reach over time.

4. Utilize YouTube Ads Retargeting
While retargeting is primarily about engaging existing viewers, it can also help expand your reach by re-engaging those who may have interacted with your brand but haven't converted yet. You can target:

A. Website Visitors
Google Tag: Use Google Ads remarketing tags on your website to retarget users who visited but didn't convert. This helps reintroduce your brand to people who have already shown some interest in your product.

B. Engaged YouTube Viewers
Engaged Viewers: Retarget users who have previously watched one of your videos or interacted with your channel but haven't taken action (such as subscribing or visiting your website).

C. Video Engagement
Custom Audiences: If a user has watched your video for a certain amount of time, you can target them with follow-up ads to continue the conversation and move them further down the funnel.

5. Collaborate with YouTube Influencers
Partnering with YouTube influencers can help you tap into new audiences that already trust the influencer's recommendations. Look for influencers whose audience aligns with your target market:

Influencer Campaigns: Use influencers to create authentic content that resonates with their followers. This can expose your brand to their audience, allowing you to build credibility and trust.

Sponsored Videos and Product Placements: Have influencers feature your product in their videos, either through a full review or subtle product placement, to reach their community in a non-intrusive way.

6. Expand Your Reach with YouTube's "Expand Audience" Features
YouTube's Audience Expansion: You can use YouTube's audience expansion features to reach people similar to your current viewers or customers. This works by allowing Google's machine learning to identify new people who have behaviors or interests similar to your existing audience.

Custom Intent and Affinity Audience Expansion: These tools help you find new audiences by broadening your current targeting criteria to include people who show intent or interests related to your brand.

7. Run Test Campaigns and Use A/B Testing
A/B Testing: Run A/B tests on different ad creatives, targeting options, and ad formats to identify which combinations work best for reaching new audiences. Testing helps you optimize your campaign to maximize reach and effectiveness.

Continuous Optimization: Regularly monitor your campaigns to see which regions, demographics, or interest categories yield the best results. Make adjustments based on performance metrics to ensure you're continually optimizing for new audience growth.

Conclusion
To effectively reach new audiences with your YouTube ad campaigns, use a mix of targeted strategies that include demographic, interest-based, and behavioral targeting. Craft compelling creative content, optimize for YouTube's search and SEO features, and consider influencer partnerships to increase brand awareness. Testing and optimization are key to ensuring your campaigns resonate with the right people, driving not only engagement but also conversions.