据最近的研究表明，高达75%的营销人员都致力于影响力营销，60%的品牌将增加2016年在该领域的投资。此外，最新的研究显示，在所有的社交媒体平台中，YouTube的ROI最高。
YouTube是第二大搜索引擎，拥有超过每月10亿人的用户基础，所以毫无意外YouTube赞助成为排名第一的用户获取工具。
YouTube营销带来巨大的回报，但在这个未知的领域，成功的道路也非常坎坷。本文将分享营销人员经常犯的6大错误，以及避免的策略。
错误1 – 没有行动的策略
在进行YouTube红人营销活动时，营销人员常犯的一个错误是目标不清晰。通常营销人员唯一的目标是让每个视频或多个渠道达到一定量的观看和互动（喜欢、评论、分享）。 管理者先分配营销预算和选择相应人员，然后清楚地定义哪些指标应该用来衡量一个营销活动的成功。
那么这是一个用客户转化率、收入和获得客户的终身价值来衡量的以销售额为导向的营销活动？是一个不断增加品牌认知度、接受度和欢迎度的品牌宣传活动？还是根据访客和订阅用户增加量来衡量的品牌推广渠道增加的活动？或许是上述所有目标的组合。
对提高ROI很有帮助的YouTube红人营销活动需要深思熟虑的战略。除了数字的活动目标，营销人员还应该定义KPI，即判定活动是否能实现这些目标的关键指标。这对产生更好的决策和战略以满足最终目标大有裨益。
以下是以销售额为导向的营销活动的目标与KPI的例子：
目标：3000 app*载下**量，CPA ≤ $10
KPI 1：3%网页用户/视频观看转化率
KPI 2：20% app*载下**量/网页访问转化率
KPI 3: 500,000 视频观看量
KPI 4：每次观看成本≤ $0.06
在这个例子中，最大的推广花费为30000美元（500000 * 0.06美元）。为保证活动成功，需要了解观看量及需要在哪个转化处加大投入。
错误2 – 挖掘红人与关键指标
挖掘红人是一个关键的阶段，并决定一个活动成功与否。在这个阶段上，营销人员往往陷入一个共同的误区：仅在渠道的订阅用户和最新视频中选择红人。
然而，YouTube的视频观看行为和习惯的数据很庞大。大数据分析的兴起提供了帮助营销人员深入挖掘、为自己的品牌找到最高质量红人的在线工具。在选择红人时，营销人员应该分析几个关键的数据：相关性，到达率，参与度，影响力和一致性。
相关性能确定一个频道的观众是否真正会对你的产品或服务感兴趣，由关键词和Audience Overlap决定。 到达率关注平均观看数，由一段时间内的平均观看数来计算。
参与度衡量观众与渠道内容的互动是否活跃，通常是观看数和互动数的总计。
影响力判别一个渠道是否能刺激观看行为和观众增长，并根据内容共享到其他渠道的情况和观众是否转化成订阅用户来计算。
一致性分析该渠道是否提供有意义的内容，并通过不同视频在多个渠道的平均表现来衡量。
未能成功分析这些关键参数则可能会导致营销活动吸引来的不是目标观众、转化率低和预算浪费的结果。
例子：
《AngryJoeShow》游戏频道的到达率明显比《TobyGames》少（到达率分别是230万和700万）；但参与度更高，平均每个视频拥有300K—400k观看量及7K喜欢，而《TobyGames》拥有30k–40k观看量和1K喜欢。我们也可以看到两个渠道在每日订阅增长上的巨大差异：
在不深入挖掘数据的情况下，我们可以从图表中看到，虽然《TobyGames》的整体到达率更高，但《AngryJoeShow》在参与度和一致性这两个指标上胜出，而这可以看出观众的真实反应。
错误3 - 只看到网红光环
每个行业都有其最受欢迎的YouTube红人，他们拥有数以百万计的订阅用户，这对品牌来说可能是最快和最简单的解决方案，但他们只代表1–5%的红人。
每天有数百个新的渠道产生，营销人员往往倾向于保险的方式，即忽略较小的渠道，激活最大的渠道来确保最好的结果。这种策略的结果可能会平庸到让人失望。原因如下： 缺乏目标。如果一个渠道有一个大量路人粉，就很难预测某部分用户会对哪些特定的主题或品牌感兴趣。结果，订阅用户会看到与自己兴趣无关的视频，这对红人和品牌都有不利影响，前者影响粉丝的信任，后者触发负面情绪。相反，中小量级的专业频道则吸引高度参与的订阅用户的同质观众。
缺乏真实的赞美。这些网红还有许多要做的事情。他们的视频涵盖了各种主题，有很多不同的想法，花了很长一段时间在营销上，但老实说他们往往把与品牌的合作伙伴关系仅仅当成另一个业务。因此，品牌没有得到任何特别的利益或引起用户对他们产品和服务的真正的兴趣。同时，小规模、细分的渠道对特定主题和产品感兴趣，从而获得更高质量的代言。
营销人员应该探索中小细分渠道，它可以成为最忠诚的品牌大使，向高契合度和真实参与的观众打开大门。另一个优势是，品牌可以用相同或更少的营销费用，触及更多类型的观众，产生多个内容。
例子：
《Rooster Teeth》是一个很受欢迎的游戏频道，覆盖了800多万用户，其视频游戏《World of Tanks》很受欢迎也很小众，被玩家观看了350k次。比它晚几个月发布的SideStrafe（一个拥有190,000名订阅者的小型频道）制作的视频，拥有150万的观看次数，并获得了更高的参与度。
SideStrafe高度专注于军事和战斗主题的游戏，因此吸引更高质量的流量。 SideStrafe的视频内容也更有效和更有吸引力，因为他非常了解游戏。
错误 4 – 害怕失去控制
营销人员仍然陷入将网红视为演员和可编辑内容的视频广告的误区。 品牌低估了他们的用户敏锐度，他们的信任非常脆弱，而虚假内容更是作死。
研究和案例表明，内容越真实，用户反应越好，从而带来更高的到达率，更好的参与度和最终更给力的营销结果。 在Proactive的案例研究中可以看到，该公司试图仿制用户生成的视频推荐并雇用演员，以期产生类似的认可度。与真实用户创建的推荐视频相比，他们的观看次数少了10-20次。 Proactive从中吸取了经验，目前正在吸引YouTube红人，让他们自由发挥创意，这对营销活动的成功至关重要：
除了较低的到达率以外，“过度控制”营销活动可能导致受众群负面情绪的积累。 一旦用户感觉到内容不相关、有虚假的反馈或任何其他不真实的迹象，他们会发表公开评论所有人知道。 在YouTube，这些评论对网红和品牌都是不利的。
让网红自己负责视频。这是他们赖以生存的法宝，他们知道该如何自然地让观众注意你的产品和品牌，营销活动也能达到相应效果。
错误5 - 只依靠第三方机构
随着YouTube红人不断增加，越来越多的机构开始帮助品牌做营销活动。营销人员可能会将工作完全外包，坐等结果。
但这种方法中也隐藏着陷阱：
有限的访问。一个机构能接触到的网红范围有限，而这些渠道可能并不总是最适合品牌的需求。营销人员应评估每一个渠道的价值，而不是要求他们找到仅仅一个“理想”的合作伙伴。
缺乏联系。营销人员经常低估品牌与红人之间所需联系的程度。红人寻求与品牌之间的强关系，让他们能够真正明白其价值并作为它的代表。而通过第三方机构则无法实现此效果，所以营销人员应尽可能多地参与。
缺乏细分理解。大多数的机构迎合的是多个行业的品牌，并没有完全了解特定领域的细微差别。这是一个品牌经理应该参与的地方，确保网红和视频内容的选择能考虑到行业的具体方面。
与机构合作，管理者需要仔细评估新兴成本与交付价值的比较。 内部启动营销活动的相关费用是多少，与代理费用相比如何？团队缺少哪些关键能力和资源？合作伙伴是否提供这些能力和资源？这是在雇佣代理机构之前要询问的关键问题。
错误6 - 定价模式与需求不匹配
YouTube营销人员面临的最大挑战之一是定价模式缺乏透明度和标准。最后拿到的是不合理的高报价并且超支，而没有意识到在这个发展中市场谈判的余地。
YouTube红人赞助在世界上没有透明、一致的定价模式，原因如下： 不同支付模式。不同的渠道和机构有不同的支付模式（按观看数支付，按每操作和每激活支付）。许多机构和红人只愿意按每激活支付，往往与营销活动所需结果不挂钩。
一个新的市场。YouTube网红营销还处于起步阶段，缺乏基准，市场没有确定的平均值。目前红人和机构收取的费用在每次观看0.02美元到20美元之间，所以有很大的谈判空间。
秘密交易。机构很少分享他们的定价结构，这导致了合作伙伴为同一个红人或营销报出不同的费用。
营销人员需要比较整个领域的价格，并积极进行谈判，以获得最佳的交易结果，这将确保营销活动获得更佳的ROI。
尝试通过不同的渠道接触同一个红人：直接通过像Famebit或Grapevine的配对平台，或通过多渠道网络如Fullscreen或Maker工作室，了解其差异。有时因为机构的谈判，会得到更好的交易结果；有时最好直接建立连接，避免第三方机构的削减。
我亲自见证过，同一个营销活动，两家竞对的花费相差3.6倍（90k比25k）。
结论：
YouTube红人的兴起为品牌创造了一个新的可盈利、可扩展的沟通渠道，但需要以正确的方式进入。了解YouTube红人营销的常见误区可以帮助品牌最大限度地提高ROI并确保长期回报。
原文：
According to recent studies, up to 75% of marketers are now investing in influencer marketing and 60% of brands will increase the amount they spend on it in 2016. Moreover, the latest research shows that YouTube has the best ROI above any other social media platform. Couple that with the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine and has a monthly user base of more than 1 billion people, it’s no surprise that YouTube sponsorships are one of today’s top-ranked customer acquisition tools. YouTube marketing offers big rewards, but the path to success in this uncharted territory can be bumpy. In this article I will share the top 6 mistakes marketers often make, as well as strategies for avoiding them.
Mistake #1 – Action Without Strategy
One common mistake marketers make when launching YouTube influencer campaigns is to only have vague goals and objectives in mind. Often marketers’ only goal is to reach a certain amount of views and interactions (likes, comments, shares) per video or across several channels. Managers start allocating marketing budgets and choosing talent before clearly defining which metrics should be used to measure a campaign’s success. Is it a sales play campaign measured by lead to customer conversion rates, revenues and acquired customers’ lifetime value? Is it a brand awareness campaign measured by increase in brand recognition, referral and direct traffic or lift in brand conversation? Is it brand channel growth activation campaign measured by an increase in new visitors and subscribers? Or maybe the objective is a combination of any of the above. An ROI positive YouTube influencer campaign requires a well thought out strategy. Along with numeric campaign goals, marketers should define KPIs – key metrics indicating whether a campaign’s performance can achieve these goals. This will allow for better decisions and strategies to meet the ultimate objectives.
Here is an example of a sales play campaign
goals and KPIs: Goal: 3000 app downloads, CPA ≤ $10
KPI 1: 3% website leads/video views conversion rate
KPI 2: 20% app downloads/website visits conversion rate
KPI 3: 500,000 video views
KPI 4: Cost per view ≤ $0.06
In this example the maximum campaign spend has been defined at $30,000 (500,000*$0.06). We know how many views and at which conversion rates we have to hit in order for the campaign to be successful.
Mistake #2 – The Blind Date
Discovery is a crucial stage and will define a campaign’s success. During the stage, marketers tend to fall into a common trap: choosing talent based solely on the channel’s number of subscribers and latest video views. However, YouTube hosts a much larger amount of data on video watching behavior and habits. The rise of Big Data analytics provides online tools to help marketers dig deep to find the highest-quality talent for their brand. There are several key data-driven aspects marketers should analyze when choosing talent: Relevance, Reach, Engagement, Influence and Consistency.
Relevance identifies whether a channel’s audience will be authentically interested in your product or service and is determined by keywords and audience overlap.
Reach looks at the average number of views per video and is calculated as the average number of views during a set period of time.
Engagement measures how actively the audience interacts with a channel’s content and is usually computed using total views and interactions.
Influence indicates whether a channel stimulates action and audience growth and is calculated based on how content is shared outside the channel and if viewers turn into subscribers.
Consistency analyzes how often the channel is delivering meaningful content and is measured by averaging various channel performance metrics from video to video.
Failure to analyze any of these crucial parameters may result in a poorly targeted audience, low conversion rates and washed budgets.
Example:
The AngryJoeShow gaming channel has significantly less reach than TobyGames (2.3 million versus 7 million, respectively), but more engagement — 300K – 400K views and 7K likes on average per video, versus 30K – 40K views and 1K likes for TobyGames. We can also see a striking difference in daily subscriptions growth between the two channels: Without digging deeper into the data, we can already see that although TobyGames has a better overall reach, AngryJoeShow performs better on the engagement and consistency scores, which determine true audience response.
Mistake #3 – Shiny Object Syndrome
Each industry has its most popular YouTube celebrities with millions of subscribers, which may seem like the fastest and easiest solution for a brand, but they only represent 1 – 5% of all influencers. With hundreds of new channels popping up every day, marketers tend to play it safe: activate the largest channels to secure the best results, ignoring smaller channels. This strategy may lead to disappointment, providing only mediocre outcomes. Here’s why:
Lack of targeting. If a channel has a large scattered audience, it is difficult to predict what portion of subscribers would actually be interested in the particular topic or brand. As a result, subscribers can see videos irrelevant to their interests, which hurts both the influencer (jeopardizing a follower’s trust) and the brand (triggering negative sentiment). On the contrary, small and mid-sized dedicated channels attract a homogenous audience of highly engaged followers.
Lack of authentic admiration. There is a lot going on for the most popular influencers. They cover a variety of topics, experiment with different video ideas, spend a good chunk of time on marketing and let’s be honest – often treat brand partnerships as just another business. As a result, brands do not get any special interest or authentic excitement about their product or service.
At the same time smaller, niche channels are sincerely interested in the particular topic and product, which leads to higher quality endorsements.
Marketers should explore the small and mid-sized niche channels, which can become the most loyal and dedicated brand ambassadors and open doors to a highly targeted and authentically engaged audience.
Another advantage is that for the same amount of marketing dollars (or less), brands can reach a greater variety of audiences and produce multiple pieces of content.
Example:
Rooster Teeth, a very popular gaming channel with more than 8M subscribers covered a popular, but rather niche video game (World of Tanks) to its widespread audience of gamers gaining 350K views. Compare it to the video produced by SideStrafe, a smaller channel with 190K subscribers, published several months later and resulting in 1.5M views and much higher engagement. SideStrafe is highly focused on the topic of military and combat games and as such attracts higher quality traffic. SideStrafe’s video content is also more effective and engaging, as he understands the game very well.
Mistake #4 – Fear of Losing Control
Marketers still fall into the trap of treating influencers as actors and editorial content as video ads. Brands underestimate how keen their users are, how fragile their trust is and how shortsighted it is to fake authenticity. Research and case studies prove that the more authentic the content is the better users react to it, which leads to higher reach, better engagement and ultimately stronger campaign results.
Think of the Proactive case study. The company tried to mirror user generated video testimonials and hired actors to produce similar endorsements. They saw 10-20 fewer video views in comparison to the testimonials created by real users. Proactive learned its lesson and today is tapping into YouTube influencers, providing talent with creative freedom, which is essential for campaign success: In addition to the lower reach, “over-controlled” campaigns may result into a wall of negative sentiment from the community. Once users sense content irrelevance, disingenuous feedback or any other signs of inauthenticity, they will let you and everyone else know. In the realm of YouTube, these comments hurt both the talent and brand. Let the talent run the show. They do it for living and know how to organically mention your product or brand, so the campaign gets a response.
Mistake #5 – Betting on an Agency
With the rise of YouTube influencers there has also been a rise of agencies to help brands with campaigns. The promise is that marketers can fully outsource the efforts and simply reap the rewards.
But there are pitfalls hidden in this approach:
Limited access. An agency only has access to talent in its network, and those channels may not always be the best fit for the brand’s needs. Marketers should assess each channel’s value and not limit their reach to only one “ideal” partner.
Lack of connection. Marketers often underestimate the level of personal connection required between brand and influencer. Influencers seek strong relationships with a brand, so that they can truly understand its values and speak on its behalf. It is impossible to achieve that level of connection via a third party, so marketers should be involved and engaged as much as possible.
Lack of niche understanding. The majority of agencies cater to brands within multiple industries and don’t fully understand the nuances of particular spaces. This is where a brand manager should step in and make sure that both talent and video content choices take into consideration industry specific aspects.
Working with agencies, managers need to carefully evaluate the emerging costs compared to the delivered value. What would be the overhead associated with launching campaign in-house and how does it compare to agency fees? What are the key competencies and resources your team is missing and are they provided for by the partner? These are key questions to ask before hiring an agency.
Mistake #6 – No Bang for Your Buck
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in YouTube influencer marketing is a lack of transparency and standardization in pricing models. They end up getting unreasonably high quotes and overspend, not realizing the room for negotiation in this developing market.
There is no transparent, consistent pricing model in the world of YouTube influencer sponsorships for several reasons: Different payment models. Different channels and agencies work on different payment models (pay per view, pay per action and pay per activation). Many agencies/talents work solely on pay per activation model and often do not tie their fees to guaranteed campaign results.
A new marketplace. YouTube influencer marketing is still in its infancy, and with a lack of benchmarks, the market hasn’t determined average rates. Currently influencers and agencies charge anywhere between $0.02 and $.20 per view, so there is a lot of room for negotiation. Secretive transactions. Agencies rarely share their pricing structure, which leads to partners offering different fees for the same talent or campaign.
Marketers need to compare prices across the space and negotiate aggressively to get the best deal, which will secure a ROI positive campaign. Try reaching out to the same talent via different channels: directly, through matchmaking platforms like Famebit or Grapevine, or via Multi-Channel Networks like Fullscreen or Maker Studios and learn the difference. Sometimes you will get a better deal with an agency due to their negotiated rates and sometimes you are better off with a direct connection without third party cuts.
Example: In my practice one agency quoted the same campaign at 3.6x higher than its competitor (90K vs. 25K).
Conclusion
The rise of YouTube influencers has created a new lucrative, scalable communication channel for brands, but only if approached in the right manner. Knowing the common pitfalls of YouTube influencer marketing can help brands maximize the return on investment and secure long-term rewards.
原文作者为My.com产品营销主管和 CloutBoost.com 联合创始人 Polina Haryacha
本文由牛牛社区编译，译者唐诗诗。转载请注明，并附上二维码或网址：www.newclan.io。
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