With over 500 hours of video uploaded per minute on their platform, video marketing is no longer complete without YouTube. Brands and businesses are developing advanced marketing techniques for YouTube. The top YouTube marketing trend now necessitates a combination of creativity, effective and intelligent strategy, and data analysis. Since it is one of the most popular websites on the internet today, viewers, creators, and brands may benefit from being aware of the current trends influencing YouTube culture. In 2021, we have seen trends emerge and continually developed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued to influence the content on YouTube. Immersive retail experiences and live streaming are among the most popular types of content on YouTube’s trending tab.
Today’s YouTube audience is looking for a blend of education and enjoyment. Essentially, whether it’s organic or paid media, a video that delivers both of these qualities in the correct amounts works on YouTube. Since videos are the most preferred type of content today, YouTube marketing can do a lot for your business/brand if done correctly. On the other hand, brands frequently fail to connect with their target audiences due to a lack of audience targeting or video direction strategy. While there is no single technique to succeed on YouTube, several YouTube marketing strategies can assist you: spotting trends.
Here are our top 5 YouTube marketing trends that you can leverage:
1. Immersive Shopping
Did you know that about 80% of online shoppers watched a YouTube video related to purchase they were about to make at the start of their shopping process?? Today, immersive shopping videos have a considerable influence on consumer shopping trends. When these videos go viral, stores often sell out of the items featured in the videos.
You have engaged in “immersive shopping” if you’ve ever viewed a YouTube video that led you to purchase a particular product. Videos ranging from “hauls” to “shop with me” experiences and “gift guides” are all part of this new top YouTube marketing trend. The platform makes it simple for creators to create videos for shoppers in the pre-purchase and post-purchase stages. These videos are not all made the same, but their ultimate purpose is to make the customer experience as simple as possible.
Consumers view YouTube as a valuable buying resource and product research tool. For purchasers, watching shopping videos is no longer a passive activity. It’s an incredibly engaging experience that usually results in viewers purchasing products from brands. Shopping videos see high conversions, and now is the best time to take action on this trend.
In addition to its ongoing expansion of eCommerce tools, YouTube will soon launch an initial test of live-stream shopping with selected creators.
💡 Tips for brands:
- Product review videos and gift guide videos should not be overlooked by brands when creating immersive shopping videos or collaborating with influencers.
- According to Google, the number of “which product to buy” YouTube videos has doubled over the past two years. It implies that now is the ideal time for marketers to collaborate with YouTube creators to promote their products and services on this platform.
2. Video Series & Ad Sequencing
The goal of today’s YouTube marketing is to take your audience on a journey with your brand. The deployment of a series in both organic and paid content on YouTube resulted in a higher brand recall among YouTube’s audience. Sequential messaging, also known as sequential marketing, advertising, or retargeting, is a marketing strategy that tells a story through a series of events.
- +74% ad recall lift for video ad sequencing vs. single 30-second TrueView YouTube Ad
A docuseries on YouTube can be used to explore sequential marketing as an organic type of content. Docuseries are videos that are released in installments. These videos are hugely popular right now as one of the top YouTube marketing trends, and influencers and content creators are cashing in. Numerous crossovers and ideas complement one other in docuseries. Because docuseries are episodic, audiences are always on the lookout for what’s next.
As an ad, sequential marketing can be explored through a video ad sequence campaign on YouTube. Here are some guidelines and tips from Google on how to run a successful video ad sequence campaign. You can tell your brand story over a series of adverts in a particular order. You can also exhibit your product message throughout many videos using video advertising sequencing. Showing your content in a sequence can allow you to achieve higher engagement, awareness, and consideration levels. Marketers can accomplish this by creating specific videos targeting audiences from the top, middle, and bottom of the marketing funnel.
3. Gaming is Taking OverÂ
Gaming is already a lucrative industry, and it is rising rapidly in Asia. Did you know that gaming is represented by two of the top five most popular YouTube channels? Game broadcasting, commentary, and walk-throughs have become very popular on YouTube as a result of this. Here are the top 3 gaming channels on YouTube in 2020:
- PewDiePie – 110 million
- Fernanfloo – 42.4 million
- VEGETA777 – 32.5 million
According to Hootsuite, more than 40 million active game channels are on YouTube, with over 80,000 of them having at least 100,000 subscribers.
YouTube has already established itself as a leading platform for gaming content, and the industry is only now beginning to achieve widespread acceptance. Here are some additional statistics to support the popularity of gaming on YouTube:
- YouTube is where 56% of gamers say they connect with their gaming community.
- 74% of YouTube players use the platform to improve their gaming skills.
💡 What does this mean for your brand?
Not only does YouTube have a wealth of excellent material to reach your target audience, but gaming users are also open to advertisements. As a result, you don’t have to be a video game company to target gaming channels with your YouTube ads. Many brands are attempting to reach out to a younger demographic (i.e., Gen Zers), and using gaming platforms is part of their marketing plan. Check out the key ways to engage with female gamers – one of Asia’s fastest-growing gaming audiences.
4. Live Streaming will Remain Popular in Many Forms
Live streaming has swept the social media landscape, and YouTube has hopped on board. YouTube Live is a fantastic live streaming option that allows you to interact with customers in various ways. It is the most effective approach to retaining the audience’s attention because it is also known to improve the interaction rate. Today, a live stream on YouTube is now more likely to be seen than a standard video.
YouTube Live has grown popular in various forms for consumers. Such as engaging with influencers, attending virtual events and entertainment, virtual concerts and workout classes, watching video game content, and, more recently, discovering products through live shopping. Consumers spend eight times watching a live video as they do watching a standard video on YouTube. They get enticed by the concept of real-time interaction with a brand, which encourages them to stay longer.
BLACKPINK and YouTube Music are teaming up for THE SHOW: the first-ever live stream concert experience.
Consumers today prefer to watch videos that tell a story.
A better way to convey a compelling story to your audience is to broadcast it on a live stream. It is because live streams provide a first-person experience that allows customers to connect and relate with your brand in real-time.
Brands and marketers can leverage YouTube Live to initiate unfiltered conversations with their consumers. Having an audience ask you questions and speak to your brand directly via YouTube Live makes them feel valued. As a result, they will likely like the product or service you are introducing is higher.
💡 Tip: If you are a new brand, collaborating on a Live stream with an influencer can help boost your brand’s awareness and conversions. As one of the top YouTube marketing trends, it is a strategy to highly consider at all stages of your marketing funnel.
5. YouTube Ads > TV Ads
For a long time, television (TV) was the preferred marketing medium for corporate advertisements. However, the marketing landscape has suddenly shifted, and firms are seeing lower returns from television advertisements. Primetime television advertisements do not reach as many customers as they formerly did, are not targeted, and can be relatively expensive. The internet has ‘stolen’ away TV’s primetime audience, and brands are, predictably, moving away from television advertisements.
For a variety of reasons, many brands are now investing their budget into YouTube advertisements instead. YouTube advertising is less expensive, reaches a more significant number of people, and highly targeted. Indeed, according to a Nielsen survey, YouTube reaches more adult consumers on mobile than any cable network (Think with Google).
Other eye-opening figures include:
- During prime hours, consumers mostly view YouTube on their mobile devices (Think with Google, 2021).
- 75% of adults use their mobile devices to watch YouTube at home.
- Paid YouTube mobile advertising is 84% more likely than TV ads to capture consumer attention.
As we all know, trends change frequently, and many factors influence these trends, which is no different from YouTube. However, the trends we’ve mentioned above have shown consistency in dominating the YouTube landscape in recent years. New trends will continually spring up in the most unexpected time; there is no doubt about that. But for now, it’s time to take advantage of the existing top YouTube marketing trends. You may ride on the top trending videos on YouTube in your country here to fuel your YouTube marketing strategy!
