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All About YouTube and Its Algorithm

YouTube is the largest global video-sharing platform. No wonder a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong highlights its power as the second most visited website in the world. Today, a social media agency Hong Kong notes that video marketing dominates content strategy. That is why a video marketing agency Hong Kong highlights that having a YouTube channel is now a necessity among brands. With 2.3 billion average monthly users, it can help boost brand awareness and conversion.

Like other social media platforms, YouTube algorithms change from time to time. It is to cope with modern consumers’ online behaviors. To further help brands, businesses, and creators understand video insights and trends, YouTube answers algorithm questions.

FACTS ABOUT YOUTUBE

YouTube has been a part of our lives since 2005. It was created by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen. Google later bought the platform in 2006. Today, the platform not only provides video entertainment. It now houses a lot of video materials, including how-to videos, movies, music, news, product reviews, unboxing, vlogs, and web series. Individuals and organizations from various corners of the world can also use YouTube for live streaming.

The YouTube domain was launched on Valentine’s Day of 2005. Two months later, Jawed Karim posted the first YouTube video entitled “Me at the Zoo.” It is an 18-second clip uploaded on the 5th of April 2005. The first YouTube video showed Jawed at the San Diego Zoo in front of an elephant cage. Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen all worked at PayPal. To fund YouTube, they use the money from PayPal’s eBay buyout after they resigned.

After Google bought YouTube in 2006, it launched the localized versions of YouTube in June 2007.  It means that people in different locations get different video recommendations. The first 10 regions to get a localized YouTube site are:

  1. Brazil
  2. France
  3. Ireland
  4. Italy
  5. Japan
  6. Netherlands
  7. Poland
  8. Spain
  9. The United Kingdom
  10. The United States

Today, YouTube supports 80 languages and has been localized to 100 regions.

ABOUT YOUTUBE ALGORITHM

People watch more than 1 billion YouTube videos around the world every single day. These videos are commonly suggested by the YouTube algorithm. That is why more creators and marketers are working hard to get recommended by the YouTube algorithm. But how does YouTube algorithm really work? We’ve got you covered!

Since 2005, the YouTube algorithm recommends videos that attracted the most views and clicks. But this led to click baits – misleading titles and thumbnails. So, in 2012, YouTube adjusted its algorithm by including time spent watching a video to rank recommendations. The move evolves in the belief that people watch videos longer if they find value in them. During that time, creators started uploading shorter videos to meet the algorithm’s completion time for watching.

In 2015, the YouTube algorithm started measuring viewer satisfaction through random surveys. It then began using artificial intelligence to power its viewer satisfaction algorithm. This is through the users’ context history and video features. Today, 70% of videos watched on YouTube come from personal recommendations.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In general, the YouTube algorithm has gone more personal today because of technology. Thus, brands, businesses, and creators should focus on creating videos that give value to their target audiences. It is not more of what people want to watch in general. But it is more of creating relevant videos for an industry or niche.

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGg-UqjRgzhYDPJMr-9HXCg

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The 4 Pillars of a Great Google Campaign

The World Wide Web was launched in 1989. It was created to meet the demand for online information sharing. After a year, the first search engine tool, Archie, was released. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to rank the importance of pages in the World Wide Web. It resulted in the creation of Google, the largest search engine in the world today.

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, Google marketing evolves from a vast expanse of information into knowledge that only a brand or business can provide. To succeed, they need to make it easier for modern consumers to find everything they need about their products and services. How can someone do business if they do not know where to buy and how much is the price? All the more, how can someone buy something if they do not know how it can solve their problems or use them in actuality.

Most brands and businesses target to rank on Google searches. It is what we call search engine optimization or SEO. This is because 87.8% of online searches happened on Google. More than 86% of online searchers looking for the location of a business on Google. Being the world’s largest search engine, there is no doubt that Google can help in the discovery of a brand or business. Below, here are the 4 pillars of a great Google campaign!

Build Mobile-Optimized Creatives

Out of 7 billion people in the world, 4.48 billion use mobile devices. It means more than half of online users do their searches using Android devices or smartphones. Thus, the 1st pillar of a great Google creative is to create mobile-optimized content. They are easy to read content when accessed even on small screens. Basically, these creatives minimize the amount of scrolling involved and use uncomplicated designs. 

The best way to build a mobile-optimized creative is to use a responsive web design. It displays a single design that automatically alters its look when clicked on a phone. However, a site optimized for mobile must still contain information about a brand or business. These include the address, business hours, contact information, and the list of products and services it offers. Allowing a user to click the phone number for direct calling is a must. So is a checkout option to add items to a cart and readily checkout.

Mobile-optimized creatives typically contain images with no overlaid text. If there is a need to put a caption, the text should not be over 20 characters. Such creatives performed 1.2 times better than those with longer overlaid texts.

Connect to a Wide Variety of Assets

A social media agency Hong Kong highlights the importance of connecting to a wide variety of assets as a pillar of a great Google campaign. Modern consumers can get bored seeing pure ads on a brand or business page. They are no longer purely interested in articles and blogs when doing a Google search. A great Google campaign includes images, videos, and text. Text formats may be memes, infographics, quotes, etc. Most people look for the helpfulness of content. More than 78% of online searchers expect brands and businesses to show them how they can help in everyday living.

For a video marketing agency Hong Kong, videos are now a part of SEO on Google. They are the most popular types of content when people want to learn how-to, product assembly, unboxing, etc. It is because many people retain information from moving media rather than a static image. Using people in your video can also boost engagement. More than 64% of consumers took action after seeing a diverse or inclusive ad featuring people in a video campaign. Through ratings, reviews, and testimonials, a lot of brands and businesses can better resonate with their audiences using people as assets.

Find Time to Test Your Creatives

The 3rd pillar of a great Google campaign is finding time to test your creatives. Google recently enabled automated bidding and video 360. It is an A/B testing framework that helps evaluates all dimensions of a campaign. Using these types of experiments, brands and businesses can test the dimensions of every single creative. These include interval settings and targeting. Google recommends waiting for 2 to 3 weeks to test your creatives. It is to minimize fluctuations in their performances. It will also allow the Google ad system to learn more about the creative. After finding time to test your creatives, Google can provide more accurate reports on:

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR)
  • Conversion Rate (CVR)
  • Cost-Per-Action (CPA) 
  • Cost-Per-Click (CPC) 
  • Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions (CPM)

Use a Clear Call-To-Action

The 4th and last pillar of a great Google campaign has to do with influence and motivation. How can you influence or motivate someone to do an action out of your Google creatives? The answer is through clear call-to-actions (CTAs).  They tell your target audience what to do next. The simplest call to action is “Buy Now.” Other common words for a CTA are:

  • Call today
  • Click here
  • Download
  • Fill up form
  • Find out how 
  • Get 50% off
  • Order
  • Register
  • Shop
  • Subscribe

Putting distinct or personalized CTA in the description or headline of a Google creative can also relate clearly to a target consumer. 

Reference: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ads-creative-performance/