How YouTube and Metacafe Site Targeted Options Limit Advertisers’ Targeting
More and more advertisers are recognizing that using search marketing is more than using search ads in the search network (e.g. Google, AOL, Froogle, Google Groups, Ask - formerly Ask Jeeves, ) for direct marketing. It can contribute to your brand campaigns through the millions of web pages featuring Google sponsored links. It is especially true of site targeted campaigns where one is manually picking sites for the ads to run (like a “Hot to play the guitar” or a “Johnny Cash lyrics” site chosen for a campaign selling acoustic guitars).
Now, if you are a video site, and I am an advertiser, or an agency acting on behalf of an advertiser, we can have a better relationship if I know the topics of your video site and can pick those specific pages for my campaigns (rather than choosing the whole video crowd).
Let’s see how YouTube and Metacafe come up to these enhanced topic specific expectations.
YouTube site targeted and content specific options are as follows: music, games & gadgets, pets & animals (in two different formats), entertainment, sports, autovehicles, news & politics, travel & places. Here’s a recent screenshot (Sept 22, 2007):
As you can see, the topics are not identical with the latest Categories list on YouTube. For instance, How To & DIY is missing. YouTube is currently heavily recruiting so called GBAs: “he primary objective of the Google Brand Accelerator (GBA) is to become the indispensable partner to advertisers and agencies for building brands online. GBA will allow Google to consistently deliver the most efficient and effective digital platform upon which the world’s leading brands are built. We will connect advertisers’ brand message to the target audience at the highest moment of relevance through innovative and accountable online marketing solutions that offer unmatched precision and scale.”
So the obvious question arises: besides gettting new employees on the board for improving targeted ads on YouTube, why not streamline the YouTube categories for site targeted campaigns? Why not set up further sections and subsections (see below a long list of hot areas sorely missing from the YouTube portfolio for text banner ads)?
And now Metacafe.
Metacafe site targeted and content specific options are as follows: music & dance, pets & animals, entertainment, cool commercials, sports, comedy, how-to, art & animation, news & events, wheels & wings.
I have highlighted those sections that both YouTube and Metacafe offer, which are essential magazine sections. However, both major well known video social networking sites are missing out on such big themes as
- Health/ Fitness/ Lifestyle,
- Science,
- Real Estate/ Properties,
- IT / Hardware/ Software (games & gadgets in YouTube suggests a narrower reach),
- Books & Reviews,
- Culinary & Recipes,
- Business & Enterprises,
- Education, etc.