Video Marketing

Building a Can't-Miss Video Advertising Campaign for 2016

VIP Contributor
CEO of The Media Captain
5 min read
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Have you been trying to brainstorm the "next big idea" for your 2016 marketing strategy?

What if I were to tell you that you could get several thousand views from your target demographic for pennies on the dollar with video remarketing?

With video remarketing, you can get 1,666 views on your video advertisement for just $50! ($50 ad spend  / $0.03 cost per view = 1,666 views).

You are all familiar with the concept of remarketing, right? Just to refresh your memory, a remarketing advertisement allows you to deliver your branded ads to people who have already visited your website. 

A hundred million Internet users watch online videos each day, so if you are not investing in video marketing, you are behind the eight ball. 

Combining your rich media with remarketing advertisements can yield a tremendous return on investment for your business this upcoming year. 

Example: Let’s Go Surfing

Let’s say you own Sam’s Surf Shop in Malibu. You have tourists from all over the country on your site seeking a place to rent surfboards for their trip to the Golden State. 

Tom from Michigan can’t wait to escape the cold weather up north and catch some waves in sunny California. He visits the website for Sam’s Surf Shop and is ready to make a purchase, but he realizes he has to pick his son up from hockey practice. So Tom drops off the Sam’s Surf Shop site. 


This is where video remarketing can be super effective. Tom the Michigander might rent from one of Sam’s competitors when he goes back online if he was not reminded of Sam’s Surf shop with a custom video ad.

With a video remarketing advertisement, you can serve a customized message to people that drop off of your site to lure them back in.

Hopefully now you understand the process and how video remarketing can be effective, but how do you set up a campaign? I’m going to walk you through this simple process. 

8-Step Process

1. Come up with the messaging for your remarketing video.


2. After you create your script, the next step is to actually film the video.

You want to make sure the video is high-quality so it properly reflects your brand image. Including a strong call to action at the end is crucial.

3. Make sure you upload your video to YouTube after the editing process is completed.

This will allow for you to easily integrate your video advertisement with Adwords. 

4. Within your Google Adwords account, you will click on the “shared library” tab and create a remarketing list from audience section.

This will provide you with an Adwords tag. You will want to add this tag to all of your web pages, right before the tag. If you are not familiar with coding, just shoot this over to your developer. It will not take them more than 10 minutes to implement and can be customized based on your goals.


5. After you have successfully placed the pixel on your website and start to see your audience size growing, you will want to create a new campaign within Adwords and then select “video.”

You can name this “video remarketing.” 

6. Set your desired budget, select your networks and choose your location.

Since this is a remarketing advertisement, we want to just select the YouTube network video, so this can be served as a pre-roll ad. Serve this to all countries and territories because someone from France can be visiting Sam’s Surf Shop site and eventually convert into a customer.

7. Paste your YouTube video link, insert your display URL along with your final URL and select your bid.

Now the important part to remember is in the targeting option at the bottom. You will want to narrow your audience by selecting “remarketing” which will allow for your advertisement to only be served to people who have visited your website. Remember, this connects the pixel that we placed on the site with the remarketing advertisement.

8. Don’t forget to create a video overlay, which can include an image and call to action within your video, which is often overlooked.

This can increase your conversion rate and clicks directly to your site from this remarketing campaign.

And, literally, that is it. The next time someone drops off of Sam’s Surf Shop website, they will see his video advertisement, which will raise awareness and should result in the viewer taking action. 

If you had trouble following the step-by-step process, I have included a video below that shows an example of Sam’s Surf Shop display remarketing ads along with more detailed instructions on setting up a YouTube remarketing campaign.

Related: Dominate Facebook With This $5 Marketing Strategy

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