Like it or not, the scrappy startup that began in 1996 as a Stanford University research project has become an Internet juggernaut. Not only does Google stand as the most popular search engine on the web, but it has also transformed itself into a vertically integrated company that’s cornered the market on everything from online document sharing to calendaring to keyword advertising.
Google also generates the highest volume of referral traffic to online video content, according to a new “Online Video & The Media Industry” report from Brightcove and TubeMogul. Whether companies are using online video to increase engagement (76 percent of respondents), strengthen their brands (60 percent) or increase site visitors (55 percent), the bulk of them rely on Google to let the world know about the moving clips that they’ve uploaded to YouTube channels, their own websites and other online destinations.
“Ever since Google introduced blended search results (which includes videos and thumbnail photos in addition to text),” says Kris Drey, vice president of marketing at Emeryville, Calif.-based video solutions provider Fliqz, Inc., “the search engine has been favoring those sites that include video, and ranking those sites high in terms of search results.”
Get Their Attention
With savvy marketing teams vying for Google’s attention, what does it take to stand out from the crowd and ensure that your online videos are noticed and tracked by the Internet’s 300-pound search engine gorilla? Here are five solid answers that you can put to work at your firm today:
1. Go direct. A lot of marketers are still standing on the sidelines, waiting to see how this whole Internet video thing plays out. Big mistake, says Drey, who tells clients to submit all of their videos to Google, just like they would upload them to YouTube or to their corporate websites. “Sure there’s tons of video online, but very few companies submit their clips to Google,” says Drey. “There’s a smaller pool of video for Google to pull from, which means you’ll stand a better chance of appearing. You can conceivably be on Google’s top page within a few weeks.”
2. Create a cohesive package. To get Google’s attention quickly, Drey says companies should submit not only the video itself, but also the page where the clip resides. Make sure the video’s title matches the title on the page, he adds, and that all descriptions include the same selection of relevant keywords. (A video entitled “How to Make Butter Cookies,” for example, shouldn’t be housed on a page entitled “Our Corporate History.”) “This ensures that your videos show up when someone searches on the keywords you’ve assigned,” says Drey, “and ties the whole campaign together.”
3. Know your limits. “There’s a 10-minute limit on video length on YouTube, so this is not the platform to product a motion picture on,” says Thomas Harpointer, CEO at Atlanta-based website development firm AIS Media. In fact, Harpointer says 10 minutes is too long for today’s online audience, which quickly moves on when boredom sets in (or sooner!). Keep your videos to two or three minutes in length, he says, and the odds that Google will view it as relevant and useful will be higher.
4. Factor in the “Relevancy” equation. Ever since its beginnings in a Stanford dormitory room, Google has been all about relevancy. Keep this in mind when producing video, says Harpointer, who adds that marketers tend to score points when their clips actually present information displayed in their titles and descriptions. “If you’re going to give someone five tips on how to improve customer service,” says Harpointer, “then do what you say you’re going to do, and don’t go off on a tangent about something else.” If you still want to cover multiple points, he says, “try producing a number of videos on several different topics, and then label them accordingly.”
5. Don’t stop at just one. Producing multiple videos and uploading them to Google, YouTube and a corporate website not only allows you to par broad topics into multiple clips, but it can also boost your video’s Google ranking. “Having four or five (or more) videos online is an effective way to raise your site’s status with the search engine,” says Harpointer, “and can also help you reach a more targeted online audience.”
The pool of marketers who are uploading their videos to Google may be shallow right now, but that scenario will probably change in the near future. “We’re at an interesting inflection point with online video,” says Drey. “Everyone knows it’s important but many companies still think it’s a time-consuming, daunting task. There’s still room for the early movers to jump in, test the waters and use online video to get up there in the Google rankings.”
Author of over 175 published articles, Tim Hawthorne is Founder, Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Hawthorne Direct, a full service DRTV and New Media ad agency founded in 1986. Since then Hawthorne has produced or managed over 800 Direct Response TV campaigns for clients such as Apple, Braun, Discover Card, Time-Life, Nissan, Lawn Boy, Nikon, Oreck, Bose, and Heifer International. Tim is a co-founder of the Electronic Retailing Association, has delivered over 100 speeches worldwide and is the author of the definitive DRTV book, The Complete Guide to Infomercial Marketing. A cum laude graduate of Harvard, Tim was honored with the prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) in 2006.
