On YouTube, fashion and beauty video advertising is an underserved market, according to Pixability vice president of platform partnerships Theresa Moore.
Pixability helps companies manage video advertising on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Moore said that although social videos are important, a brand should not simply repurpose a made-for-TV advertisement.
According to Moore, Chanel, Victoria’s Secret and Dior led on YouTube for all-time video views among fashion brands, while Aveda performed particularly well on Facebook with comments, likes and shares.
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Moore said that one risk of repurposing a television ad was a video that was too short. She found that people primarily watch videos that are one to three minutes long, and longer content, particularly on YouTube, tends to perform well; viewers watch videos that are up to 10 minutes long.
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Google-owned YouTube, she pointed out, is the second-largest search engine. She also said that people primarily watch YouTube between midnight and 1 a.m., and YouTube and Instagram are most popular for the 18 to 24-year-old set.
Meanwhile, Facebook is the platform of choice for all age groups from 25 to 64, while Instagram was a key platform for the fashion and beauty audience, 30-second videos and for viewers outside of North America. Twitter, she said, was an appropriate “complimentary” digital buy for brands that already had T.V. advertising, as the platform acted as a second screen.
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Moore added that while brands should not just repost content that was made for television, they should use influencer content; Chanel was one brand who did that successfully, and Moore said that mentions, views, subscribers and engagements can all improve after a brand partners with an influencer.
Moore didn’t have much to offer on Snapchat, primarily because the platform does not currently offer public tools that measure how successful a video is.
Going forward, Moore said, Facebook’s forthcoming video formats for next year are promising for potentially inspiring a “thumb pause,” the phrase she used to describe the moment of pause when a user is scrolling through Facebook.
Still, she maintained that YouTube, overall, offered the best vehicle. It’s estimated that 81 percent of the views on beauty brand-owned YouTube channels were paid views generated using TrueView advertising, which is YouTube’s video ad format, in 2016.
“YouTube’s strength is in audience retention, and it provides the most bang for your buck in terms of a paid strategy,” Moore said.