Comments on: Youtube Promoted Videos, aka Video SEM

By: Frank Perrotto

Frank Perrotto — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:26:19 +0000

No problem! I had forgotten about posting in here and wanted to follow up. Also, I realized I left out the name of the series in that first sentence! It's just a science fiction web series called the grey corridor. Anyway, I paused the campaign a little over a week ago, and because of that initial momentum that came from promoting it, I've gotten enough comments, ratings, and views to the point where I'm getting 50-100 views per day with no promotion. I've paused the campaign until the second episode, since that one is far more involved and more 'viral', but I plan to use it again at that point and I'm fairly certain the views will then skyrocket. So it's something where, if your stuff is good, you will continue to see the returns (i.e. - views) well after you stop promoting.

I think if you're doing something creative where you hope to get an ROI at some point WAAAAY down the line, then the promoted videos is a great tool to have in your arsenal. It's especially great now because there are so few people using it. I was routinely featured not only at the top right but also sometimes in a highlighted box above the actual search results. Like I said, being that it's extremely difficult to get that initial momentum to move up in youtube search and become 'discoverable', the money spent on promotion is well worth it.

By: Daphne Kwon

Daphne Kwon — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:32:23 +0000

Frank, that is a really insightful comment. I do think self-publishing on youtube isn't any different than self-publishing a book, or a blog. You have to figure out how to get seen in the morass of other publishers. I guess the point you make is that at least YT is offering another tool to allow people to try to drive traffic, and that it does work. Whether or not it's economical, it's at least empowering to be able to make the choice to promote your content in this manner. Thanks for the 'in the trenches' viewpoint.

By: Frank Perrotto

Frank Perrotto — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:48:37 +0000

I've been using it to promote a web series called and to be honest, besides a decent sized circle of friends, I don't know how else I'd get the views some other videos get. It really makes me wonder how these videos get hundreds of thousands of views. Youtube provides practically zero initial momentum for new videos, unlike Break.com, which you are guaranteed some nice numbers, at least on the first day. I also think that if you don't have good content, you'll learn pretty quickly that you're wasting money. So far, the response seems good because people have been watching the other videos as well, and when I pause the campaign overnight, I wake up with a lot more views than before the campaign.

That said, my search keywords are costing me, on average, eight cents per click, and being that I have three other similar videos that people are following through and clicking on, it's coming out to more like three or four cents. If you have the targeted content, well worth it in my opinion. Unless you have 10,000 facebook friends or it's a one-of-a-kind video that's less than thirty seconds, I see no other way to get that initial momentum.

By: Daphne Kwon

Daphne Kwon — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Spammer! You’re just trying to get link juice off my PR1.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:08:00 +0000

Like the post, DK. Hadn’t taken the time to understand this program but now I do.