Boosting a video can be a great way to generate exposure in a short term window, especially in Kansas. A lot of our video production clients around Lawrence, KS are curious about the value of putting ad dollars behind videos. Like any marketplace, it depends on supply and demand. And that formula is not the only consideration.
Oftentimes, there is much more value in a longer-term approach to video marketing where companies get time and structure on their side. However, when small businesses and organizations have a short-term offer or small window to promote an event, boosting a post is worth considering. Here are some recent examples. These are some results from very small campaigns boosted around Lawrence, Kansas.
“Boosting” simply means that you’re putting advertising dollars behind content so that it reaches more people online. Conversely, social media content that doesn’t get boosted but still gets exposure is often called “organic” reach.
Results of Facebook Boosts in Lawrence, Kansas for 2023
Our business recently did its own short-term campaign to promote our VHS to Digital service on Facebook. The target audience was focused on people who may have had their childhood or their kids childhood’s captured on a tape recorder. Therefore, people in Lawrence ages 25 to 54 were focused on. Another subgroup of individuals between 55-64 was another option within Facebook that we avoided for this small campaign.
The boosted post performed the best with people ages 35-44. For a modest $88 bucks, 42 people clicked on the weblink to learn more about our digitization services. That’s a rate of $2.10 per click. Would that be worthwhile for your business? Again, this is an inexact science.
The example above was actually a boosted post with a photo, not a video. Because videos generally perform better on social media, one can assume that these values would be more advantageous by uploading a video (and not a photo) in the first place.
What to expect when boosting a YouTube video
Videos can be boosted on all major platforms. By itself, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. It’s second place only to Google. However, YouTube is owned by Google. So you can see why there would be a benefit to putting your video on YouTube if you’re looking for “free” or “organic” reach.
That said, there are also many options when it comes to boosting a YouTube video.
The bells and whistles displayed on a YouTube ad call for brevity. That’s not surprising in our attention deficit culture. You’ll have 15 characters to write a headline. For example, when we boosted a video for the 2024 Lawrence Home Show, the word “Lawrence” got cut from the headline. Only the “2024 Home Show” headline would fit into a 15 character limit.
Similarly, the little blue button within the video ad needs to be even more brief. This is the button that viewers can hit when they’re interested in your ad. You’ll only have 10 characters to get your point across here. We said “Get Coupon,” in this video ad. That’s because the call to action in our promotional video is for people to visit the website and get a coupon for $2 off the Lawrence Home Show tickets.
When choosing a geography, YouTube gives a little preview of what exposure to expect.
During this initial stage, you’ll have an opportunity to choose your target audience geography, age, and whether someone is a parent or not. Initially, YouTube’s preview showed that the ad will cost between 1 and 3 cents per video view. However, that price ticked slightly more expensive when we targeted only parents verses non-parents. The price only moved from 1-3 cents to between 2-3 cents per view.
For this campaign, we are not prequalifying parents only.
The next step involves picking hobbies and interests. This is probably the most important step to picking the right audience. You can’t predict whether someone will like home decor based on their age, gender, et cetera. However, you can predict whether someone likes home decor by litarlly checking a box within YouTube ads that says home decor.
When doing a keyword search for the word “home,” multiple other options pop up. Interior design, bedroom, home decor, home & gardening services, flooring, living room, painting, Home Depot, and about 10 more subcategories emerge. On another interest category, the keyword “DIY: Do it Yourselfer” shows up. For this campaign, we specifically want to avoid do-it-yourselfers. Instead, we would want to target people who are specifically looking for a contractor to do the work for them at their home. This tactic is called a “negative keyword,” because you’re choosing which keywords you do not want your ad budget to pay for.
Matty D. Media is a video production company, but can offer consultation services for clients who wish to boost posts. You can see during some of these targeting choices how the audience should be considered both before producing videos and before boosting ads in this way. To get personalized services for boosting posts with your video, please contact Matty D. Media today. Our hourly rate for these video marketing services are the same as the hourly rate for video editing and other editorial consultations. Please e-mail mattydmedia@gmail.com for a custom quote or click this link to see our current hourly rates. We look forward to working together!
