YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing community—over four billion videos watched per day! Users perform so many searches on YouTube that it’s the second-largest search engine in the world behind Google. What was once just a way to look at cute kittens and classic music videos is now an increasingly popular medium for college research! From testimonials to tours, YouTube’s content shows no bounds in the education vertical. Launching a YouTube campaign just might be the secret ingredient to your recruitment efforts this year.
In a 2012 study, Google found the majority of students that watch videos as part of their college research watch them on YouTube as opposed to college websites. It’s never been easier or faster for college-bound youth to gain access to video content. With mobile devices, computers, and tablets, hearing a student’s point of view about a particular program or getting a virtual college tour is right at their fingertips! YouTube gives your school access to a large community of prospective students that are highly engaged with the content they are consuming, thus making it critical to tap into that audience in the space they occupy most.
With YouTube’s platform there are several methods for delivering your message. One of the most effective uses of YouTube advertising is through search, when your school’s videos are featured on the top or side of the YouTube search results page, based on the parameters you’ve set. There’s also in-content/in-stream placement, when your videos are shown during video content or as pre-roll prior to the start of the video. With all YouTube video ads, you can select placement through several parameters, including channel, keyword, topic of interest, and user location.
An increasingly popular strategy is YouTube remarketing, which targets two groups of people. The first are viewers who discover your school’s website through YouTube. The second audience is people who have already discovered your website and are now browsing on YouTube. The structure of a remarketing campaign allows you to hook your viewers for the first time through catchy videos or banner ads on relevant YouTube content or searches. If they’ve been to your site, you can remarket to this second audience with deeper and more informational video content, thus advancing the conversation and increasing their likelihood of converting. Remarketing videos will play in content/in stream.
When paired with your other recruitment strategies, a YouTube video campaign can be used to supplement that last bit of information a student might need before making a decision about which college to attend. Implementing some, or all, of these video campaigns is made easier than ever on the YouTube platform, but can require expert advice and consulting based on the needs of your school in this competitive marketplace. So talk to your Carnegie rep today, and get the ball rolling on a 2013 YouTube campaign!