Mythbusting: Engineering a Viral Video

FutureM 2013October 18, 2013#futureM #viralvid

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What is a viral video?

Wikipedia:

"A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.”

Why should marketers care?

FREE Awareness?

FREE Views?

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The Whole Hog of A Viral Video

UnderbellyHeart

Brain Ribs

Tail

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Agenda

The whole hog of a viral video• Heart: creating good content• Ribs: social outreach and sharing• Underbelly: robots and incentivized

views• Brain: engineering it with data• Right Feed: paid YouTube ads• Tail: luck

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Brilliant commercial that went viral?

84% of views from paid views

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Brilliant commercial that went viral?

59% of views from advertising

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The Heart: Good Content

UnderbellyHeart

Brain Ribs

Tail

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Sometimes things just come together

3,243,299 times shared on Facebook

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Good content is often a steady view earner

• Know your targets intimately• Example: Build Direct from Canada

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Steady view earners deliver better ROI

• Know your targets intimately• Example: Build Direct from Canada

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The Ribs: Social Outreach and Sharing

Underbelly

Heart

Brain RibsTail

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Real virality is often smaller

541,296 times shared on Facebook

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The ribs: social outreach and sharing

Connecting to your real target audienceMake relevant contentLobby tastemakers and find passionate enthusiastsBuild subscribershipEncourage participationUse cross-pollination of email, FB, Twitter, Pinterest,

G+

Relevance Passionate Enthusiasts Subscribers Participation Cross-

pollination

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Seeding promises

“Get your video seen by the right people.”

“We generate millions of monthly opt-in views on social networks, mobile devices and YouTube.”

“We use proprietary technology to turn target audiences into engaged viewers and engaged viewers into customers.”

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Caveat emptor: Seeding can be seedy

A supposedly “organic” blog post generated by a seeding campaign.

“…XYZ — the viral video house behind this clip. XYZ knows. Shop at XYZ.”

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What are you getting when you seed?

Click-through rates for a seeded campaign:

Views: 284,894Click-throughs: 17CTR: 0.006%

Compare to average YouTube adCTR: 3.5%

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The Underbelly: Bots and ‘Incentivized’

UnderbellyHeart

Brain Ribs

Tail

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Buying robot views: 1M views for $800

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Why this is a bad idea: Google will catch you

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Slightly better cuts: incentivized views

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The Brain: How to Engineer It

Underbelly

Heart

Brain Ribs

Tail

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How many people are watching? What?

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What is your target audience watching?

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Understand the audience and competition

Look at metrics on:• Audience size• Most popular

content types and sub topics

• Social media reactions

• Viewer sentiment• Traffic Sources

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Metadata: what matters and why

• Titles• Tags• Descriptions• Target links• Annotations

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Track YouTube search and social rankings

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The Right Feed: Paid Ads

Underbelly

Heart

Brain Ribs

Tail

Feed

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Paid, owned and earned media work together

Promoted Video Ad

Social SharingBuild a community around your video

content

YouTube AdsMuch more cost-

effective than TV and online display ads

YouTube ChannelA video channel

that you own and control fully

WebsiteDriving conversions

through highly qualified website traffic

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YouTube ad placements: Choose carefully

Best practices:1. Use varying formats (search,

in-display, pre-roll)2. No need to stick to 30-

second spots3. Use time of day according to

target4. Geographic focus if

necessary5. Don’t always optimize for

direct website clicks

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The Tail

Underbelly

Heart

Brain Ribs

Tail

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LUCK

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Serendipity can happen

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Engineering results: It all works together

Channel subscriber growth

Organic YouTube Traffic

Pre-campaign Campaign

Pre-campaign Campaign

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Summary

• Heart: Know your audience before you create

• Ribs: Share the passion and seed carefully

• Underbelly: Don’t do it• Brain: Track and clone yourself to

success• Right Feed: YouTube ads done right are

worth it• Tail: Be ready when luck happens

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Get this presentation?

• Bettina Hein, Founder and CEO Email: hein@pixability.com Phone: (617) 710 5772 @bettinahein

• Rob Ciampa, EVP Marketing Email: rob@pixability.com Phone: (617) 774-9600 @robciampa

Go to pixability.com/futureM2013

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YouTube Advertising: How It Works

1. Select:Choose one or several of your YouTube videos as ads.

2. Place: Put ads where your target audience already is.

3. Call to Action: Users can click through to your website for more information.

Value for money: Charged per engaged video view, not per click or impression

Extremely flexible: Various cost per view (CPV) ranges available depending on format and targeting

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Does it have to be Gangnam Style?

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When should you buy incentivized views?• Never to

inflate views• Awareness

only – do not expect any action

• When there is a good match of demographic

• Example: promotion of video game launch on gaming site