In February of 2005, YouTube was created by three former PayPal employees, and it took the internet and the world by storm. YouTube’s meteoric rise in subscribers and video content was extremely fast. In less than two years, the founders sold YouTube for $1.65B (adjusted for inflation, in case you were curious, that is $2.11B).
Today YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and it is directly connected to the largest search engine in the world. If you search something on google, and then go to the video tab, the majority of the search results will be from YouTube due to their entwined relationship.
So when you are considering how to build your brand, YouTube is really important. We live in the age of cord-cutting where there is more content being watched online these days than your typical cable and satellite providers.
Having an active user base on youtube following your brand aids your credibility, because even though anyone can start a youtube channel, only the best content gets shared and watched repeatedly. This helps build a loyal and engaged community. YouTube makes it easy to keep people on your content by bringing up recommended videos after you are done watching one. If you have a lot of quality content, people can end up watching your videos for hours.
In turn, this will give you more subscribers, which will then drive more traffic to your channel, and, if you are smart about your content creation, to your own website for more personal interaction or e-commerce.
And what about the ads on YouTube? The in-stream advertising or pre-roll ads can help aid your brand as well if used appropriately. Pre-rolls can help guide people to your own YouTube channel or your e-commerce site. Research has shown (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-154/insights-inspiration/research-data/youtube-challenges-tv-advertising-roi/) that YouTube ads can double or triple your return on investment compared to TV ads, because they are more effective at targeting people. These quick ads can be crucial to driving web traffic to where you need it to go.
