Using YouTube for business is a pretty standard practice for brands these days. The ability to shoot and edit video content on your phone means you can create a YouTube clip in minutes and get your brand out there.
It doesn't matter whether you're a global corporation or a small business just starting up, using YouTube has its benefits.
You can:
- Create your own media and attract new audiences based on the stories you tell.
- Carve out a niche in your market and create a channel that people love coming back to.
- Create YouTube ads and let the commercial space do the bulk of your brand activations.
- Use your brand account as the central hub to all your external media activity – making it easier to maintain consistency across various platforms.
There's a huge amount of scope for those who plan to use YouTube for their business.
In this guide, we'll show you the best ways to monetize your channel, whether it be from creating videos or developing great ads. We'll look at the basics to establishing a business profile on YouTube and the tools you need to track your ROI.
Setting up your YouTube channel
Creating a channel for your business on YouTube is a fairly straightforward process. However, it's important you follow the steps and do it right the first time. Brands often fail to take full advantage of YouTube's business options, which means accounts are left with areas unfilled.
If you're serious about doing business on YouTube properly then you need to ensure your profile is fully optimized.
You wouldn't neglect a corner of your store would you? So, why neglect a corner of your YouTube profile? Here's how to get set up.
Signing up for a business YouTube account
Google owns YouTube, so the best place to start here is to create a Google account specifically for your YouTube channel. Sign into Google and head to YouTube’s homepage to create a new channel.
You'll need to fill in as much information as possible. Don't hold back, because the more you add, the more YouTube will help you appear in search results.
Be sure to check the box that confirms it's a channel for your business.
Customizing your YouTube profile
Once your YouTube channel is active, it'll look a little bare. Now's the time to get creative. Customize your profile with your business’s information and don't scrimp on the details. Make sure everything is there – your brand name, your location, your industry, everything!
Then use sharp photos or graphics for your profile picture and channel art. It's important you carry over your branding from your website or products to this YouTube channel in order to maintain consistency.
Customizing your channel’s layout and branding
Finally, be sure to make this YouTube account your own by customizing it thoroughly. Head to the YouTube dashboard and click the "Customization" tab on the left of your screen.
From here you can change your banner, profile picture, name, channel description, channel URL, links, and contact info. You can also create a video watermark.
Click on the "Home tab" button to tweak your layout. Move playlists around, add a channel trailer, and even set links to past live streams.
Keep playing with the options and click "View channel" to see how it looks before clicking "Publish" to save the changes.
Creating engaging YouTube videos
Now you've set up a great business profile, it's time to look at the whole reason you've come to YouTube in the first place: videos.
Businesses use their videos for different purposes. Most try to generate engagement in order to boost brand awareness and turn viewers into customers. Some post videos to maintain a connection with their community. Others will simply upload videos to highlight their brand and not really worry about engagement.
No matter your intention, it's vital that every video reflects your brand. If you're trying to be ultra professional then you need really smart video content. If your brand appeals to a subculture then the "rough and ready" approach to videos might be more applicable.
Either way, here are some tips for creating videos for YouTube.
Be strategic and add value
Every new video you create needs to loop back to your overall strategy. When you create videos, it's crucial to have a clear purpose guiding the content and goals you aim to achieve. What’s the aim with your YouTube channel? Is it there to inform, drive sales, create a community, protect your brand? Once you know this, you’ll be able to create video content that aligns with the strategy.
So, let’s say you plan to launch products on YouTube and drive both interest and sales via the platform. To do this, you’ll need to make sure each product launch is stylized to your brand guidelines and angled towards sales.
You’ll also need to ensure people stay interested for the entirety of the video. If they get bored after 10 seconds then your video isn’t adding value.
Start your videos with you or your brand on camera
Brands need to be upfront and personal if they're to sell on YouTube. There's little room for subtlety here. You'll notice how successful influencers often put themselves at the center of their content. Well, brands should do the same.
Whether you're working with an influencer, a presenter, or anyone else, there is real benefit to having a person and the brand in shot at the start of your videos.
It builds a connection with your audience and alleviates the worry most viewers have that they're about to watch a boring sales video.
Having a person talk to camera keeps viewers engaged and can, when done well, improve a brand's overall reputation.
Give yourself time to develop your content
Of course, we're not suggesting you launch straight into all those videos without doing any analysis. Brands need time to develop the right messaging and "feel" of their YouTube videos. New viewers need to know exactly what they're getting when they come to your profile, while regular viewers will likely want the same content again and again.
So, in the early days, make sure you experiment a little with your content. Keep it professional but try a few different things: product profiles, "how to" guides, funny videos, clips from live events. Upload videos on your main feed and YouTube Shorts. See what works and what doesn't.
Eventually you'll find a successful content type that enables you to connect with your audience.
From here, you can delete anything that didn't work, or that doesn't fit into your new style. Suddenly you have a YouTube channel that is full of perfectly-aligned content.
Uploading and optimizing your YouTube videos
Optimization is a real issue for many brands dealing with YouTube. They spend money on creating amazing videos but forget to do the small bits behind the scenes. If you're in charge of your brand's content then below are three quick tips to help optimize each video.
1. Upload content regularly
Make sure you have a consistent stream of videos in the pipeline. Each video helps keep your audience captivated and draws more people back to your main YouTube channel.
2. Use relevant keywords in a video’s title, tags, and description
This is a trick taken from search engine optimization (SEO) practices, which is just as useful on social media channels. Ensure all the metadata in your videos is optimized for the right audience. Your title, video description, tags, and everything else needs to be focused on what your video is about. Don't be lazy here – make sure every field is filled.
3. Create eye-catching thumbnails
YouTube chooses a thumbnail for you, unless you pick one yourself. Thumbnails are actually really important because often people look at that, not your video title, first. You can get creative and make a thumbnail graphic that shows your brand, your product, or anything else you might be featuring in your video.
Just look at these thumbnails from Audi. They're stylized and bring the speaker into focus, while maintaining brand consistency.
Growing your YouTube channel
Once your profile is up and running, it's likely that you'll begin to look at how to grow your YouTube channel. There are various ways to do this, all of which depend on what your business goals are. If you need to drive sales on YouTube then that's very different to simply maintaining brand consistency.
Here are some ways to grow your channel organically over time.
Encourage viewers to subscribe
This is a really simple one but very, very effective. Viewers who subscribe to your channel come back to your content again and again.
You can add a call to action in your videos asking for people to subscribe. As you build subscribers you'll soon start to create a community, which helps your channel reach even more people.
Share videos on other social media platforms
It's possible to share your videos on other social media platforms and get even more exposure from each bit of content. The best way to do this is use a social media content tool like Brandwatch, where you can publish the same videos in different formats across the likes of Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Doing this not only means you target audiences on other platforms, but you can also bring them back to your YouTube profile too. Whether it's through call-to-actions within the videos, or direct hyperlinks to your channel, the art of successful cross-pollination is about engaging new audiences and bringing them back to where you want them to be.
For example, you could post videos of a 10-second clip on X and include a link that sends users back to YouTube to watch the whole thing.
YouTube analytics and performance tracking
Now let's take a quick look at the metrics you need to keep an eye on when operating a business account on YouTube.
Keep an eye on your analytics
Your analytics data shows you which videos are most successful and which are falling flat. Track the core metrics like average view duration, followers gained, comments, and shares. You'll begin to notice what your audience likes, which means you can replicate it again and again.
Use a tool like Brandwatch to get a customized look at your content’s performance. See what's spreading beyond YouTube and making an impact on other digital channels. Spot which links are leading to sales, and what content is sparking debate.
Overcoming common YouTube challenges
Brands can struggle with the demands of operating a slick, successful YouTube channel. After all, social media creates a never-ending cycle of content that you need to keep apace with if your channel is to remain relevant.
Of course, if your YouTube channel is simply there to act as a "placeholder" for your brand, then you might not worry about the below issues. Saying that, it's still important you keep an eye on your channel, even if it's not one of your prioritized social media channels.
Dealing with low engagement and subscriber growth
Brands often struggle with low engagement when starting afresh on YouTube. It's not easy to drive people to your profile or videos, especially when there is so much competition.
The solution is to be strategic. Have a clear plan for your YouTube channel and stick with it, even if there are short-term fluctuations in your engagement.
Being consistent is also key. If you notice a drop-off in engagement or subscriber rate then don't react straightaway. Do some analysis and keep to your plan, making minor changes to test what the problem might be.
You might realize that something in your videos isn't working correctly. Perhaps you're using the wrong keywords or your thumbnails aren't eye-catching.
Or you might see that audiences prefer a different type of video to what you're producing. If this is the case then you need to make wider changes to your content.
Losing sales on YouTube
If you depend on YouTube to drive sales – either through ads or direct – then a drop-off can be really concerning. The solution is to be a bit more proactive than what you do when engagement falls.
Start by assessing your monetization model. How is your business earning money from YouTube? Are you over-reliant on ad revenue, or is your model all about selling on the platform? If it's the latter, do you sell directly on the platform via the "Shopping" option or do you encourage viewers to click through to your website first?
You need a clear monetization strategy before you start making changes here. You might need to go back to the beginning and overhaul your entire page – from the channel banner to your metadata – and realign your videos to make them more "sales worthy".
Or you might need to create a YouTube playlist that promotes your most successful videos. Doing this should funnel viewers to revenue-earning viral videos and away from unsuccessful ones.
You need to be proactive in order to make money from YouTube, so make sure you're on the ball and check your analytics every week.
Two advanced YouTube features for business
Now let's look at two features within YouTube that businesses can use to really push their brand forward. These features might not be for everyone but they could make the difference to your YouTube content.
YouTube Live: Streaming live video content
YouTube has its own video live streaming feature, similar to Facebook Live. It's a great place for brands to showcase new products and host events from. You can interact with users via the comment feeds and do it all from mobile devices.
Your business could become adept at reaching new audiences this way. What's more, you can then save the video content and share it on other platforms, particularly LinkedIn.
YouTube Partner Program: Monetizing your channel
The YouTube Partner Program is a smarter way to monetize your profile. A brand can earn money from advertisements on its videos and when YouTube Premium subscribers watch.
What's really great here is it covers Shorts and long-form videos. There's also a benchmark that brands have to overcome in order to get onto the Program, which is good for ensuring a level of quality across the site.
You’re eligible for the program once your channel reaches 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers.
Leveraging Brandwatch tools for better YouTube performance
There are several Brandwatch tools available that integrate with YouTube to help you build and inform your presence.
- Listen: Within Listen, you are able to collect and study YouTube videos and comments over the past 12 months.
- Engage: Use Engage’s collaboration workflows; labels, notes, and assignments to engage faster and save precious time.
- Measure: Track your YouTube metrics, including views, watch time, demographics, and many more in Measure’s intuitive dashboards.
- Benchmark: Get access to the most recent Youtube metrics and insights to analyze your social performance against competition – from followers to average views and durations.
- Influence: Find the most popular YouTube creators to help you build your brand. Sort by the amount of YouTube channel followers, average views, followers growth over time, audience age and gender, and so much more.
Sign up for a demo to chat to an expert about how Brandwatch can help you succeed with YouTube.
