📈 Organic growth from YouTube Ads?! It’s not only possible, but it can be a key differentiator from channels that thrive to channels that go nowhere. Driving organic growth on YouTube is challenging for most businesses. Even if you’re following best practices and doing everything right, your content can still likely benefit from an extra push. Especially in the early days of a channel.
YouTube’s current landscape adds another layer to this challenge. Success is no longer counted by the number of times a video was watched. Today, the spotlight is on watch time, making the journey to organic growth even more complex. 🤯
where do YouTube ads fit in?
Amid the diversity of ad types – skippable and non-skippable in-stream ads, in-feed video ads, bumper ads, and more – you might question whether the effort to figure it out is worth it. Will viewers just skip the ads? Can these ads truly fuel organic growth? 🔥
YouTube ads have the potential to be your secret weapon. They can give your content that critical initial push, increasing its visibility among your target audience. Even if some viewers skip the ads, the increased exposure alone can have significant benefits. Now, let’s break down how you can achieve more organic growth from YouTube Ads.
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Increased Brand Awareness Through YouTube Ads
Running YouTube ads can significantly boost your brand’s visibility. The more viewers see your ads, the more they become aware of your brand. Even if they don’t click immediately, repeated exposure may lead them to explore your channel or website, leading to organic traffic growth over time.
By leveraging YouTube ads, you also gain exposure to different audiences within your target, which further expands the awareness of your channel. This will help your channel reach viewers you wouldn’t normally.
Non-skippable in-stream ads are great for this purpose. Given that viewers must watch the entire ad before the video they’ve selected, it ensures maximum exposure for your brand.
Leveraging Data For Audience Targeting and Retargeting
YouTube’s targeting options help you reach the right audience. Once you’ve reached viewers with paid ads, you can retarget them with additional content based on how they interacted. If they’re interested in what you are creating and watched through your ad for example, they’re more likely to engage with your brand organically, too. So it could be worth getting back in front of them until they come check out your channel and subscribe.
Audience targeting and retargeting are much more than just reaching people who might be interested in your products or services. They also provide valuable data about your customer behavior and preferences, which can help you further refine your ad strategies. By going through this data that comes from running ads, you can create more relevant content that will appeal directly to your target audience’s interests and needs.
Retargeting, on the other hand, reminds viewers of their past interactions with your brand, helping to establish familiarity and trust. This not only increases the likelihood of viewers becoming active consumers but also promotes organic engagement by encouraging viewers to share and recommend your content. So really, strategic audience targeting and retargeting builds a self-sustaining cycle of growth and viewer loyalty that is good for long-term YouTube success.
Boost Audience Engagement on YouTube
When you run an effective ad campaign, you’re not just racking up views. The ads can potentially boost engagement metrics as well. Viewers who discover your content through ads and find it compelling might like your videos, leave comments, share your content with their network, or watch more of your content. All of which increases your overall channel engagement and sends positive signals to YouTube.
These actions trigger algorithmic benefits, making your content more likely to be recommended to other viewers, and broaden your reach. Every type of engagement contributes to a cycle of organic growth from YouTube ads.
Grow Subscriber Count With YouTube Ads
YouTube’s subscriber conversion action is a powerful tool in driving channel growth. This specific type of ad campaign focuses on growing your subscriber base, a key metric to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program (which now requires at least 500 subscribers). A higher sub count also contributes to the social credibility of your channel. When viewers see channels that have 1K+ subs for example, it helps establish trust and brand authority which leads to better subscription rates from channel visitors.
These ads are designed to appear to viewers who are likely to subscribe to your channel, allowing you to attract an audience interested in your content. YouTube’s algorithms identify potential subscribers based on their past behavior, including their viewing history and the types of channels they’ve subscribed to before.
By running a subscriber conversion action ad not only helps you expand your organic audience reach on future videos, but also contributes to fulfilling the YouTube Partner Program’s requirements. It’s worth noting that these ads, and all YouTube ads in general, don’t contribute to your total watch time needed to quality to become a YouTube partner. That, you still need to hit organically.
This example above shows the results from a subscriber conversion action campaign that we are currently running on our own Vireo YouTube channel. You can see the steady growth of new subs that has resulted so far from this campaign, each costing ~$0.50 to ~$0.75 on average.
Improve Video Search Ranking
YouTube’s search and discovery algorithm decides which videos to display in search results and the ‘Up next’ section based on multiple factors. One of the big indicators is “watch time,” which measures the amount of time users spend watching your videos.
If you have compelling ads that keep viewers engaged for a significant period, your overall channel and video watch time increases. This can help signal to YouTube’s algorithm that your content is engaging, potentially pushing your videos to be suggested more.
Ads have the power to encourage viewers to watch more videos on your channel. This session time can also positively impact your search ranking. The end result could be a ongoing cycle where increased visibility leads to more organic views and subscriptions.
A Successful Investment in YouTube Ads
Let’s take a look at the example that infamous Tai Lopez sets. Most would recognize him from his “here in my garage” ad, where he casually chats about the merits of knowledge (and his new Lambo). Lopez invested heavily in YouTube ads. Remember when his ad was nearly impossible to avoid on the platform?
Well, it worked. His casual, direct-to-camera video ad allowed him to reach an enormous audience and create a memorable persona. His strategy was a masterclass in leveraging YouTube ads for brand awareness. He used paid ads to get his message in front of as many eyes as possible, which led to organic growth and helped him build a massive following.
Whether people found him endearing or annoying, there’s no denying the fact that his approach was effective. Today, Lopez is a well-known name in the digital marketing sphere, and a large part of that can be attributed to his aggressive, ad-centric approach on YouTube. It’s a perfect example of how strategic ad spend can snowball into significant organic growth over time.
Just remember though, every brand is unique, so what worked for him may not work for you exactly. The key is to find your own approach, test different strategies, and learn what resonates with your audience.
Wrap Up: Achieving Organic Growth From YouTube Ads
In a nutshell, YouTube ads can be the extra fire power your brand needs to really kick off its growth on the platform. From reaching more eyeballs to getting viewers engaged with your content, or even growing your subscriber base to meet YouTube Partner Program requirements, it’s all interconnected. The best part is that these ads aren’t just about immediate gains — they help you plant seeds for organic growth down the line.
Ready to give it a go? Our team at Vireo Video is here to help you make the most out of YouTube advertising. We’ll work with you to develop a strategy that suits your unique needs and helps your brand thrive. If you’re ready to get started or learn more, book a consultation with us today. 🚀
