Archive for the ‘YouTube’ Category

Google Innovations

February 28, 2009

David Pogue with The New York Times recently created a list of  innovations Google has produced or bought in its relatively short corporate history.

His list consists of Google products most any consumer who has been online in the last year would recognize including Google Earth, Gmail, YouTube and Blogger.

Some of the lesser known Google products and tools mentioned in Pogue’s New York Times article are: Google Docs, Picassa, iGoogle, Google Reader, Google Trends, Google Maps, Street View, Translator, 1-800-Goog411, Google SMS, Google Alerts and Google Sets.

Although the article begins by mentioning Google’s search box, Pogue doesn’t mention the greatest commercial result to come from Google’s search box by name: Google Adwords – arguably without which – none of Google’s other products would exist.

Maybe therein lies the keys to Google’s success.

Google Maps Local Business Center YouTube Tutorial

February 15, 2009

The Google Earth and Maps team has posted a video tutorial on YouTube for business owners looking to verify or append their business listing data in Google Maps.

From the Google Lat Long Blog:

Local Business Center allows business owners to edit the content of their existing listing, or to add a brand new listing to Google’s local database.  By ensuring that basic information is up-to-date and providing additional details, like photos, hours, and coupons, business owners can stand out on the map to attract more customers.

Update your Google Maps listing in Google’s Local Business Center.

Google Local Business Center

Google Local Business Center

Include Your Twitter Address in YouTube Videos

February 3, 2009

Danny Sullivan tweeted his plans for placing his Twitter address on his business cards.

Great idea.

I too have been considering ways to cross promote some of my content from one platform to another.

His tweet prompted me to follow through with several ideas I have had for extending my Twitter account’s reach.

I have added my Twitter address to my Google Adwords Professional video on YouTube.

YouTube Twitter

YouTube Twitter

To me, it seems only natural for YouTube producers to add their Twitter contact details to their videos.

I am surprised YouTube hasn’t yet added Twitter as one of their sharing options.

Share YouTube with Twitter

Share YouTube with Twitter

Its not an option on YouTube yet…

Surely adding Twitter to YouTube’s share options would help both properties further develop and deepen their respective shares audience attention.

Connecting YouTube’s  and Twitter’s audiences may provide further monetization opportunities as well.

YouTube Sponsored Video Ad Text Missing in Google Adwords Beta

February 2, 2009

Last week I received an invitation to participate in the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta.

I hope to be able to provide Google constructive feedback on any usability issues I may find within their latest version of the Adwords account management system through blog posts like this one.

In December I launched a YouTube sponsored video ad campaign.

I ultimately found managing my sponsored video ads from My Client Center more convenient and efficient than managing them through my YouTube account.

After receiving the Beta invite, I started using the Updated Interface and immediately found the data within my account loaded much more quickly.

I am planning to test more of the new Interface features this week.

The first issue I have found doesn’t seem too significant.

Previously in my Adwords account, Sponsored Videos ads text was displayed at the ad group level.

Sponsored Video Ads

Sponsored Video Ads

However, my Sponsored Video Ad text doesn’t appear in the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta .

YouTube Sponsored Video Campaign Adwords Beta Dashboard

YouTube Sponsored Video Campaign Adwords Beta Dashboard

The data field is there, yet the data isn’t.

When the page loads a quick “loading” message appears followed by the no ads text seen above.

Its a minor issue but an issue I suspect will eventually need attention.

Google Adwords YouTube Sponsored Video Ads Diagnostic Tool?

January 24, 2009

I have been testing YouTube sponsored video advertising since December 6th and have started to notice both differences and  similarities between the YouTube advertising program and its cousin Google Adwords.

Back in December I established my Sponsored Video campaign in the Tim Cohn YouTube account.

However to write and launch a sponsored video ad on YouTube, advertisers must have a Google Adwords account. Once my ads were up and running the sponsored video campaign data became available in both my YouTube and my Google Adwords account.

In the beginning I would login to my YouTube account to check my ads performance. However, after several days I realized it was taking twice the effort necessary.

For years I have logged in and viewed advertising account performance data for my self and clients several times a day from within “My Client Center” in Google Adwords.

I now also prefer viewing my YouTube sponsored video performance data from within My Client Center as well.

Its just a lot easier to do.

However, viewing YouTube sponsored video data with an Adwords account causes an entire list of new compatibility issues to arise.

For instance: Checking a Sponsored video ads distribution with the Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool – doesn’t work.

The Google Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool doesn’t even recognize YouTube as a Google property.

YouTube Adwords

YouTube Adwords

If YouTube ad data is made available within an Adwords account shouldn’t the corresponding Adwords tools work for sponsored video ads data as well?

If they were intended to -they don’t.

I think if the tools were intended to work – no one  has checked on their functionality but me.

If they weren’t intended to work – why then is YouTube Sponsored Video Ads data made available within Google Adwords advertisers accounts?

I realize the Sponsored Video Ad program is less than two months old.

Surely other YouTube advertisers are encountering some of the same post launch issues and have questions like I do.

Where is the YouTube Sponsored Video Ad forum?

Has it been created yet?

Will it be created?

Until then or informed otherwise, consider this blog post the inaugural YouTube sponsored video ad users group forum.

Feel free to leave any questions you have about YouTube Sponsored Video ads in the comments section below and between us we can work to establish the YouTube Sponsored Video ad knowledge base.

TweetTube.com: Share YouTube Videos on Twitter

January 20, 2009

Share your YouTube videos via Twitter on TweetTube.com

Twitter & TweetTube.com

Twitter & TweetTube.com

Coming Soon to YouTube: Fade To Black Option?

January 14, 2009

YouTube has announced a clever work around for video mixed with copyrighted music and uploaded to their site.

From the YouTube blog:

Previously, when a music label or other rights owner issued a copyright claim to block audio, the video was automatically taken down. Uploaders had two choices: dispute the claim or use our Audio Swap tool to replace the track with one from our library of pre-cleared music. Now we’ve added an additional choice. Instead of automatically removing the video from YouTube, users can choose to leave the video muted and live on the site, and many of them are taking that option.

Will YouTube videos with copyrighted content soon have a similar choice called the “fade to black”option?

YouTube Audio Muted

YouTube Audio Muted

Regardless of whether YouTube implements a fade to black option muting copyrighted audio ie., songs is a brilliant solution.

No harm, no foul.

However, I wonder how muting songs will affect YouTube’s “Download This Song” song sales links they place below videos mixed with copyrighted music?

Download This Song

Download This Song

Laptop TVs

January 7, 2009

According to the Wall Street Journal in their recent interview with Geneieve Bell anthropoligist and director of the user experience group in Intel’s digital home group, “The number of people who watch an entire TV show on their laptops has tripled.”

My 11 year old son uses his MacBook to watch sports clips on YouTube daily.

Will his generation be the first to consume more video through laptop computers than through traditional television sets?

Google Analytics Videos on YouTube

December 14, 2008

The Google Analytics blog has announced the launch of the Google Analytics Channel on YouTube.

At this time, the Google Analytics channel consists of 13 videos for how to best use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics Videos

Google Analytics Videos

Analytics video topics range from Tracking Ecommerce to Custom Reporting.

Subscribe to the Google Analytics Channel on YouTube to learn more about how Google Analytics can help you make more informed business and marketing decisions.

YouTube Sponsored Videos

December 8, 2008

My first YouTube Sponsored Video advertising campaign is up and running.

YouTube Sponsored Videos

YouTube Sponsored Videos

YouTube sponsored video ads work similar to Google Adwords campaigns.

Conversion tracking isn’t available and most likely won’t be for some time.

The highest bids appear to get the sponsored video ads position in yellow atop the search results much like they do in Adwords although I don’t believe relevance or Quality Score are factors used to rank ad placements within YouTube at this time.

As YouTube gains more advertisers, I would imagine ad quality and keyword relevance will be taken into consideration when calculating a sponsored video’s position within YouTube video search results.

I will continue testing this new form of video advertising – YouTube.com Sponsored Videos.

The following are promotion statistics from my video advertising campaign’s first day of activity:

YouTube Promotion Statistics

YouTube Promotion Statistics