1. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
28 | 10 | 2011
© Jellyfish Online Marketing Ltd 2011

2. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
For years Google has been promoting the use of online video
content to add to the user experience, perhaps unsurprisingly
after their investment in YouTube.
However, with evidence as to the tangible benefits of aligning your
video content with the user journey and subsequently achieving
your business goals, it is fast becoming the area of focus for online
marketers.
Jellyfish is a strong advocate of utilising video content and
recognises the need for optimising video content and consequently
the user journey.
Google provide the basic recommendations on best practice for
your online video:
• Ensuring that the video is well produced and adds to the
customer journey
• The information in the video should be concise and to the
point
• Video should not auto-play and the information provided
should not be solely provided in the video in case people don't
play it
• Make sure the controls for the video are also easy to find,
i.e. play, stop and pause
Google refine the integration of PPC & Video
It‟s pretty undeniable that a presence on YouTube and having
strong video content is becoming a more and more important part
of a company‟s online presence. Video is engaging and informative
and is still an ever-growing vehicle to reach customers.
Google has always been aware of the growth of video and the role it
will play in the future of internet marketing; after all YouTube has
become the 3rd largest site on the web, and the 2nd most popular
search engine.
Google‟s next focus, integrating YouTube advertising even further
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3. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
into its AdWords platform, comes as a surprise to very few. This will
also be a welcome change for anyone who has struggled to make
sense of the numerous options currently available.
YouTube Video Ads: TrueView
YouTube is a Google Display Network placement as well as a search
engine within its own right, so the targeting for ads has been seen
as a bit confusing for many amateur advertisers.
Google have subsequently made setting up ads easier, as well as
rolling out some interesting new ad types. You can now link a
YouTube account with an AdWords account, similarly to how
Analytics is linked.
Previously, any advertiser could create an ad for any YouTube video,
this new link with adwords opens up a world of possibilities for
greater control over video ads.
The Promoted Videos ad type has been replaced, in name if nothing
else, by TrueView In-Search ads. These are displayed alongside
YouTube search results and can be triggered by keywords just like
the search network and also from certain Google Display Targeting
options such as interest targeting.
TrueView in-stream ads appear at the beginning or the middle of
existing videos; and TrueView in-slate appear along with other
promoted videos before longer videos. TrueView in-display are
video ads which appear on Google‟s Display Network, similar to the
older click-to-play format.
The TrueView branding reflects the fact that advertisers only pay
once the video begins to play, so as not to pay for clicks that never
result in a video view. Generous it may seem, but a necessity in
reality if advertisers are to embrace paying for traffic going to
slower-loading pages, especially when they have little or no control
over loading times.
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4. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
Jellyfish are always keen review the benefits of Google‟s various
Beta roll-outs, and as an agency we have a wealth of experience of
being early adopters of these initiatives – and seen how they often
contribute to increased ROI for those campaigns.
Anything that makes such a growing area of online advertising
easier is welcomed, especially when powerful targeting options
such as demographics can be brought into the mix. The challenge
that remains is how to turn a video view into profit. Video is
undoubtedly engaging and in demand by users, but video content
may still be seen as an enigma for some advertisers who are
nervous to move away from the traditional last-click wins
conversion model and embrace the concept of a path to
conversion.
At Jellyfish we understand that a full online presence is the key to
success for any online marketer and that video forms an integral
part of this.
Recent innovations from Google such as the multi-channel funnels
functionality in Google Analytics help with tracking the path to
conversion and we can now analyse the effect video has in the
customer buying process.
An advertiser who believes that only the last click offers a
worthwhile contribution to the creation of a sale will miss out; both
in the short term and longer term as the growth of their brand is
inhibited.
Video increasing your natural search results
When Google first appeared on the scene, its ability to index more
data, combined with its relatively unique focus on user experience
differentiated it from the competition. Google could 'see' more
information and balanced this raw keyword-related data with
information about how 'popular' it was.
At that time, internet bandwidth was still at a premium, YouTube
and their competitors did not exist, and the only thing search
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5. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
engines could 'see' in terms of a video's relevance were the words
used on-site and off-site to describe it.
As indexing technology improved, indexing robots were able to
'read' all of the words, and we are now seeing a similar phase of
development with the indexing of videos in the recent past.
Google's ability to 'see' the inherent relevance of any given video
can only have been helped by their ongoing copyright struggles in
YouTube. It is not the only imperative behind improvements to
video indexing but it's a strong one, backed by moneyed interests,
and it is easy to see how this challenge in particular has been driving
improvements.
If for example, you use copyright-protected music on your video,
then YouTube can 'hear' it and will issue and automated warning. If
you use copyright-protected footage, YouTube can 'see' it, but
does not at this stage recognise it when you flip the image
horizontally as many malefactors do.
Rather than look at the current limitations of search engines, we
can see the ideals that they are aspiring to, and a window into the
potential future rewards of following them on the journey.
As mentioned in a previous „Panda' POV document there are two
important aspects; one obvious and one only a theory at this stage:
1. Google has been penalising websites that use text that
*approximates* relevance; if the content is just a wash of keywords
and/or does not visibly excite users, then the relevant page/site is
robbed of visibility.
2. Recent statistics published by Search Engine Watch suggest that
the Panda update favours video content:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2113724/Latest-Google-
Panda-Update-Favors-Video-Big-Brands-Google-Properties
These are only indicative, but in keeping with the notion that
Google is increasingly confident in its ability to determine the
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6. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
relevance of video content, and therefore more likely to reward it
accordingly.
That said these rewards are designed for material that is visibly
relevant. Throwing a video together in an effort to appear relevant
is as likely to be effective as throwing text together to appear
relevant.
“Google video relevance Panda SEO word word word (surfing
bird!)” for example, is a meaningless string of words and Google is
increasingly able to detect this kind of nonsense in text, and is most
likely able to take a more sophisticated view of video than many of
us suspect.
Google seeks to determine the actual relevance of material, and it
always has. This being the case, you should seek to use video as a
communications device, and approach the problem by first asking
how video can be used to enrich the customer experience.
Improved conversion through onsite video
Econsultancy, a client and educational partner of Jellyfish, has
studied the impact on conversion of implementing onsite video.
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/6834-why-etailers-need-
product-videos
This article looks at the use of 360 product images and videos,
across seven online stores and their effectiveness.
It offers interesting insight into how video and product
photography has improved conversion rates, examples include:
• Using video demos of items on product pages increased sales
by between 6% and 30%
• The conversion rate for shoppers viewing video on product
pages increased by 400%, while return rates dropped from
12% to 9%
• Shoeline.com improved the conversion rate by 44% for
Product pages containing videos
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7. Jellyfish POV
Video in focus
In this article technical ski clothing was demonstrated in-video
using advisors to highlight product features, akin to the type of
expert advice you might expect „in store‟. Adapting the style of
video content to suit the product is as important as adapting it to
suit the site.
High street metrics such as return rates are as applicable to the
online arena, and for these online stores they are now closer to that
of a normal high street retailer than of other e-commerce sites.
Whilst impressive, these results require investment in staff and
technology, and can represent a large up-front financial
commitment for any business. When in-house resources are not
available, specialist agencies such as Jellyfish offer an alternative,
cost effective route to adding high performing video content to
sites.
Jellyfish Creative Director, Mark Deeprose comments: “Quality
video content not only helps the consumer engage with products
and services but can also communicate complex offerings. Jellyfish
help our clients to develop effective video content, which aids
conversion at the various points in the digital use
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