YouTube has been able to prove it a success and also offer success to many of the subscribers (marketers) who are using this channel for promotion of their business through placing their videos. The popularity of YouTube as a channel can easily understand with the statements like 1) YouTube has 1 billion unique visitors every month & 2) It is getting video uploads at the rate of 400 hours every minute. Given this high success, marketers are sticking to YouTube. Here it an Ultimate guide to YouTube Cards and Annotations.
YouTube, on its part, has been endeavoring to provide more and more innovative ways to enable the marketers to position their products on the net. Some of the latest additions offered by YouTube include YouTube Cards and YouTube Annotations.
Guide to YouTube Cards and Annotations
What is YouTube Cards:
It is a facility offered by YouTube (technological advancement) allowing the creator to add an extra layer of interactivity to their video content. This facility can be activated by the creator on a per video basis i.e., he can set his preferences for each of his videos. Most interestingly, this option is available on mobile as well as desktop.
For convenience purpose YouTube classified these cards into 6 options viz., video, playlist, associated website, merchandise, fundraising & fan funding. As per YouTube policy & statement, cards can be created in the following 5 easy steps
1) Sign into to your YouTube Video Manager, and go to ‘Edit’ for the video you want to add a Card too.
2) Click on the ‘Cards’ button in the navigation bar and then choose ‘Add Card’.
3) Tap on ‘Add Card’ again to open up the creation window for the Card type you want to add. Enter a valid URL
4) Upload an image. Edit and optimize the title and call-to-action text.
5) Go to ‘Create Card’ and adjust the start time for the teaser
YouTube Annotations:
Annotations will enable the user to layer text, links, and hotspots over his video. This process will enrich the video experience by adding information, interactivity and most importantly engagement. Creation of Annotations is once again as easy 5 steps as below:
1) Turn on external linking for your account.
2) Go to Video Manager in your channel.
3) For the video to be edited, click the down arrow and select Annotations.
4) Choose the Add Annotation button the right.
5) Click Apply Changes on completion of annotation creation.
As already explained above, annotations make videos interactive thereby enhancing the interest of the viewers.
YouTube Cards and Annotations Analytics:
Now that the creator has already added annotations and/or Cards, now it becomes his duty to do the required analysis of visits to his work. YouTube is extending help to the creator in this direction by offering its own APIs.
Annotations report provides information about the displays on the following aspects of annotations.
• Impressions (number of times).
• Clickable Impressions (with the option to click further).
• Closable Impressions (with the option to close).
• Click-through rate: Percentage of clickable annotations that received clicks.
• Close Rate (% of impressions closed by the viewer).
• Clicks: No. Of clicks.
YouTube Cards and Annotations report providing information on viewers’ behavior/interaction covering the following metrics (divided into categories of Total Cards Data & Individual Card Data).
Individual card data:
Card title
The Card type
Start time
Call to action
Teaser text
Video that contains the card
From the above narrations, it is sufficiently proved that YouTube is playing multiple roles. It is creating a platform for video sharing. This is an enabling promotion of businesses. It is also helping the marketers to analyze the visits for improvement of his business.
Best Practices for Creating YouTube End Card
Millions of videos are uploaded to the largest video sharing platform YouTube every day. This is not easy to capture the audience and keep them watching. However end cards can help in this. The YouTube end cards are now available for everyone. End cards help to attract leads to website and views to the YouTube videos. The YouTube Cards and Annotations are also helpful to increase number of subscriptions to the YouTube channel. These are the things that pop up at the end of the YouTube videos.
• Use the YouTube End cards as a powerful call to action tools for driving viewers to see the content you want them to watch next.
• Lead the audience to watch the behind the scenes footage, popular old videos and your other YouTube channels.
• Best practice is to use the end cards in the last ten seconds of the videos.
• End cards can include powerful videos, subscribe button etc.
• Use bright colors for your end cards and these should be associated with the branding of the YouTube channel.
• More videos section should have all the related videos
• The links provided in the end cards should work when the viewer clicks them.
• End cards increase watch time and keep the viewers engaged.
• Using end cards can increase the watch time.
• Ask the audience to subscriber to your channel in the end cards.
The YouTube end cards should display for at least five to six seconds at the end of the video. These can be created to be displayed within screen flow. Also add the end cards for all your future videos to increase the engagement and increases more subscribers. YouTube end cards are a valuable feature for the brands and publishers. If the end cards are compelling, they can see increased retention and increased watch time across channels.
