In this article, Sebastian Bergendorf, Senior Digital Strategist at Bluebird, gives you his take on YouTube as a digital marketing platform.
YouTube’s Flexibility vs. TikTok
YouTube offers a broader range of ad formats and flexibility compared to platforms like TikTok, especially when considering long-form content, interactive features, and non-skippable ad options. With YouTube, you can choose from various ad types to fit the message, duration, and objective of your campaign. This makes it a chameleon, and a great addition to your existing media mix when you need flexibility. This also means that you can support TikTok campaigns more easily than the other way around, for best practice example, take a look at our case together with Lumene: Read here.
The CTV Advantage: Less Talk, More Reach
In markets like Sweden, where there is growing buzz around buying connected TV (CTV) ads, YouTube has already been a solid CTV player for years. The major benefit of YouTube as a CTV platform is that it merges the power of traditional TV reach with advanced targeting and real-time measurement. While others are discussing CTV strategies, YouTube is within your reach (pun intended) to buy actual reach. Specifically targeting CTV devices on YouTube is an impactful way to run your video campaigns.
3rd Party Solutions & Contextual Targeting Misconceptions
YouTube does have contextual environments—you can place ads based on video topics, categories, and keywords—but that’s not its primary value proposition. The platform shines when you combine those contextual insights with Google’s robust audience data and reach-driving capabilities, allowing for better precision in reaching users based on behavior, search history, and interests. There’s a key difference between contextual targeting and contextual relevance: YouTube offers the latter, providing the right message in the right video environment, but enhanced with audience intelligence.
Third-party solutions sometimes try to pigeonhole YouTube into something it's not, framing it as a contextual platform or a premium channel. In some aspects, it may be, but when you’ve paid that price premium for that third-party solution, you may as well have put your money into more traditional broadcasters. YouTube drives massive online reach, period.
Driving Action on YouTube Has Changed
Six years ago, driving direct conversions or immediate action on YouTube was a challenge. I ran the campaigns, I wasn’t sure myself of what to make of it.
Today, though, things have progressed. YouTube has certainly come closer to driving conversions - depending on how you define them. There are forces within Google pushing to
close this gap and bridge the intent-to-action divide, but there’s still work to be done. Advertisers must adjust expectations: YouTube might not always drive instant action, but it excels in the upper-funnel influence that leads to conversions later in the customer journey. This indirect path to action can be just as powerful when measured correctly.