The retail industry has some catching up to do if it wants to engage its audience via YouTube advertisements. Retailers finished with a 15.7% average view rate — dead last among 25 industries and more than 8% behind the next-closest industry — according to the 2017 YouTube Advertising Benchmark Report.
View rates on YouTube advertisements average 27.7% across all industries, meaning retail falls 76% below the average.
Strike Social used its data science tools to measure view rates, cost-per-views (CPV) and click-through rates (CTR), and compare how these factors vary across variables such as gender, age and season. The study concluded that most YouTube advertisers miss the mark, despite the fact that Internet users watch more than one billion hours of video on YouTube every day.
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With so many advertisers on YouTube, there is stiff competition to capture view rates. Education has the highest average view rate (35%) across the 25 different verticals. Fashion does a much better job attracting eyeballs than its retail counterpart, generating a 32% view rate, tying for second-highest percentage.
Retail’s cost-per-view ($0.045) performs slightly above average compared to the all-industry average of $0.044, while its average view click-through rate (0.84%) stands well above the average of 0.532%.
Seasonality Plays Big Role In View Rates, CPV
Retail advertisers should keep in mind that seasonality strongly influences YouTube view rates and CPV. December has one of the lowest view rates, at 25.4%, while demanding a CPV that is 36.4% higher. This can be attributed to the crowded market associated with the holiday season, leading to higher costs and decreased engagement. The report discovered the following data about other months:
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January is the best month to advertise. View rates are 28% higher than average at a 23% lower cost;
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June mirrors December in its lower-than-average VR and higher CPV; and
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July and August maintain near-average VR and a significantly lower CPV (15.9%).
The report, conducted by social advertising software and management company Strike Social, examined a year’s worth of YouTube campaigns across 25 industries ranging from education to entertainment to electronics.
