I was at a launch party for a brand that will go un named tonight and I met a couple well-know YouTube content creators that have built a somewhat sustainable business model on creating content specifically for the YouTube audience and then monetizing it through both CPM banner placements through Google and video pre and post roll ads. They have already raised the first round capital and seem to be building for the future quite well.
I got in a debate with the studio owner whose model is based upon the representation, management, and building of these YouTube stars. Our debate was about YouTube’s role as the main and only monetization and branding tool for the talent. He seemed kind of annoyed that I was thinking a bit more different than him. I didn’t mean for him to take offense.
I understood his argument. “YouTube has the biggest reach out of all the video sites””Youtube pays us a high CPM” (compared to what). “More people watching your video equals more money”.
My argument is a bit different, I believe in the world of content creation YouTube has its place as the buffer to build steam around videos but once you have a name its serves very little purpose to stream your tier 1 content without full control over any parts of the process that drive actual real revenue.
Once branding has been established now you have to sustain that branding and monetize that branding to a “T”.
Here is my rationale
1. CRM and Fan Club Building
Youtube has never provided any useful tools to actively manage continuous fan club correspondence.
The goal of a content producer in my opinion is to not only generate short-term revenue but also to stay relevant and in the public eye and develop continuous social chatter amongst a large segment of evangelists. As long as you stay in continuous correspondence with these evangelists or people who are fans of you and who have KLOUT the easier it will be generate long standing buzz to your content on a daily basis. The power users or should I say the one per centers and not the 99 per centers no pun intended are the people driving the buzz to your video.
YouTube could offer more tools to help these content creators better connect with their fans.
I understand that they want to centralize all communication within YouTube obviously because of ad revenues so maybe its a conflict of interest if they provide more detailed analytics of a content creator’s fan base.
2. Advertisers/Ads
If your a content creator ever wonder who exactly is buying up your ad space from banners within your YouTube page? I understand that you probably have ad sales control over Pre and Post roll ads which generates revenue but having the insight to see which advertisers are advertising on your page to your fans I think is very important?
I think the casual fan correlates you in a way with the advertiser you represent on your YouTube page just like on TV when you see an NFL player represent a deodorant. YouTube does not allow any sort of advertiser control to my knowledge, I think this is a necessary tool to give content creators more control over their message to their fans.
3. Monetization
I know most people hate this word “monetization” unless you are an investor.
This goes back though to knowing your advertisers. Advertisers who advertise on your page through YouTube don’t in most cases do so willingly.
In some cases they are buying space within Google Content Network or maybe Retargetting a user who might have bounced off their site. As a content creator you have no clue what metrics the advertiser is using to judge their ad campaign.
Is it for branding for a new product? Is it straight direct response? Youtube provides zero channel insight from the advertiser perspective. In their defense, maybe they don’t know the advertisers goals but never the less it is important because thats where your revenue is coming from.
If you were to know who your advertisers were and the audience that they were trying to reach you could then segment their ads within your network of viewers to only target viewers that fit their demographic. Think TNT do they the same ads to everybody? I don’t think so.
If you were to segment your ads this would lead to astronomically higher CPM’s that you could charge and you won’t be leaving extra cash on the table.
As a content creator currently all you see is a paycheck at the end of the tunnel. I understand that in most cases if you host your own videos and have a large following that you won’t be able to pre sell all your ad inventory.
That might be the case, I could though almost guarantee you with the amount of remnant advertising buyers out there through a partnership with a major video ad network paired up with the prices you will get from leveraging an ad server that is capable to do behavioral targeting you will in turn generate lots more in revenue in comparison to just putting up a video on YouTube and letting the monetize with their eyes closed.
I think there should be more a bit more transparency that will allow the content producer greater insight into their advertisers and be able to increase their value of their brand exponentially.
4. Optimization
This all goes back to understanding your advertisers. Most content producers aren’t marketers, have never in their lives marketed a product online in most cases. In essence, they don’t understand the expectations of what the advertiser is looking to reap by connecting themselves with your content.
I think fundamentally there needs to be a tighter connection and YouTube has to allow a deeper sense of transparency. If your a content creator and you know who your advertisers are that are spending the big cash dollars with through various ad placements then you in turn could offer them previously unmonetized advertising placements such as product placements within a video or a post roll paired up with another advertiser (just being creative) .
Once you are working with this advertiser and you understand their expectations you could then optimize their campaigns within your video to reach their goals which in essence will drive more marketing dollars to you the content creator specifically and not some other content creator. This unique transparency isn’t available through YouTube and most likely never will be.
5. Audience Segmentation
Ever wonder what exact demographic of people is watching your video i.e. age, gender,race etc? I know YouTube provides some of that. Even better wouldn’t it be cool to make content specifically for different segments of your audience and then sell ad space based around those various audience segments.
For those who aren’t familiar with ad spending, when there is deep ad targeting the advertiser will in turn pay a lot more for that ad inventory. If you are using YouTube as your main marketing and monetization partner you are not leveraging audience segmenting to generate revenue which is just leaving cash on the table in my opinion.
*I know the counter argument to all of this which I will always hear is how extremely difficult it is to pull an audience off of YouTube and on to your site to watch your content. Yes that is difficult but with an organized Social CRM strategy in place this in my opinion could be conquered. The fans who do come to your site will be 10x times more valuable than the people who watch your video on YouTube and now you are building a long-term branding strategy that will keep duplicating itself.
Think outside that stupid box and maybe even kick the box, rip that stupid box in half. Much success to everybody.
