Big News from YouTube/Google

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing

I was originally skeptical when my company started selling video for websites to our clients, but after the first year results I was a converted believer.  It wasn’t that our clients’ videos were bringing more people to their sites, but rather that the people who visited the websites were much more likely to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment.   And so, sites with videos didn’t increase their traffic (nor their Cost Per Click), but they were certainly getting a much better return on their Cost Per Conversion (CPC).

As great as increased conversion rates are, what would make video all the better would be if on-site videos showed up in the Universal Search results on Google.  Sure, YouTube hosted videos show up, but when you click on those you just taken to YouTube, not to the website of the law firm that produced the video.  And once someone finishes the video, they are just as likely to click on another person’s “related video” as they are to figure out the URL of the original video’s creators.

Thankfully, all this might be changing.   As of today, YouTube is allowing video producers to put clickable, call to actions RIGHT IN THE VIDEO.  As explained on the YouTube Biz Blog, video creators who have advertising accounts with YouTube will be able to have a text appear on the screen at a chosen time, inviting the viewer to click that text and be taken to the creators website.  (There is no charge for these call-to-actions, you just need to have an account setup that enables you advertise on YouTube.)  This, in turn, might be the boost that video has been waiting for. Conversions are great, but marry those higher conversion rates to more traffic, and it becomes harder to discount the importance of video on attorney websites.

Something to note is that the Call-To-Actions only appear when viewing the video on YouTube.  If you embed the video on a blog, the ad never appears.   For that reason, I am not embedding it here, but if you want to see it, go to this link:  CLEAN WATER CALL TO ACTION YOUTUBE VIDEO

By the way, when YouTube tested this out back in March, this charity made $10,000 in just ONE DAY from this video.  Yes, my people, video is for real.

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