Plenty of marketers think having a YouTube presence is enough to get Youtube traffic. They’re wrong.
YouTube’s new feature called YouTube End Screens sees to it that if you’re not using End Screens—and not using them well— you’re leaving all that highly engaged potential YouTube traffic you could be generating out in the cold.
YouTube has launched some huge companies. Take Six Pack Shortcuts, for example, an Austin company that started as a humble YouTube channel… and has grown into a thriving business with over 4.5 million subscribers.
Another, Dollar Shave Club, a brand-new company that grew into a $1 billion acquisition thanks largely to a few great YouTube ads.
As the world’s second-biggest search engine, YouTube has the power to drive a MASSIVE amount of traffic to your content.
Now, thanks to End Screens, you’ll be able to send even more of your highly engaged YouTube traffic to your website…
…resulting in more visitors, sales, and revenue!
Before we get into how you should be using YouTube End Screens to drive more visits and sales from YouTube traffic, first I want to explain why you should care about this nifty feature.
Why YouTube End Screens Are So Powerful
Until recently, the best way to include a clickable call-to-action (CTA) inside your video was to use YouTube Annotations. You’ve probably seen them show up as a little rectangle inside the video, like this one:
If you click anywhere inside the Annotation, it will take you to the Orabrush website.
These Annotations worked just fine, for a while. But over time they became less and less effective.
Why?
Because Annotations only work for desktop users. And with YouTube users going more mobile every day (currently more than half of YouTube views come from smartphones), this means that Annotations were quickly becoming out-of-date.
Another option was including a CTA overlay, which looks like this:
The good thing about these links is that they work on mobile. But unfortunately, they don’t really stand out much — it’s basically just a text link, with no option to add a large, eye-catching image.
Secondly, they’re a pain to set up. You have to create your video as an ad just to get access to CTA overlays.
The last option was to use Cards, which also work on mobile, and look like this:
But our data shows that not many people click on Cards.
Cards are very unobtrusive, with no image at all unless you click on that little “i” in the corner of the video. To make matters worse, the CTA only shows for a few seconds before it disappears.
Long story short, there really wasn’t a good way to insert a CTA button in your videos that would work for all devices.
But now with the introduction of End Screens, all that has changed.
End Screens are the new way to insert clickable CTA buttons right inside your videos. They’re easy to set up and use, they look great, and they work the same across all devices.
Bottom line: if you’re creating YouTube videos, and you want an easy way to send viewers right to your website, you need to start using End Screens.
What Are YouTube End Screens?
End Screens are big, clickable buttons that appear at the very end of your videos. Here’s what an End Screen looks like:
This End Screen has four elements (which are the maximum allowed). The two on the left include a Subscribe button and Link to Website button.
When you hover over the top-left icon, information about the channel appears, along with a button that allows you to subscribe in one click:
Anyone with an interest in growing their YouTube channel should probably be using this End Screen element.
When you hover over the lower-left icon, a description appears along with a link to a website:
The two buttons on the right are both links to relevant video playlists. When you click on them, it loads a new YouTube video or playlist.
Now that you understand the power of End Screen and what they are, let’s look at…
How to Use YouTube End Screens Masterclass
PRO TIP: Use 5 Seconds for Video & Playlist Links to get Youtube traffic
As I mentioned earlier, all End Screens must include at least one link to a video or playlist.
But in many cases, your preferred call-to-action will be a website click. You would rather have someone visit your “Buy Now” page than watch another video, right?
So in that case, here’s what you do:
Set your “Buy Now” website link to appear 20 seconds before the end of your video (the maximum time allowed)…and set your video link to appear just five seconds before the end of your video (the minimum time allowed).
This will give viewers 15 seconds to click on your “Buy Now” button before the video link button appears.
PRO TIP: Avoid the #1 Biggest End Screen Mistake
The biggest mistake we’ve seen with End Screens is having them appear during the content portion of your video.
If you do that, viewers will still be listening to you — and they don’t click on any of your links until you’re done talking. Your End Screen will be, basically, ignored.
Also, keep in mind that there are certain situations where your End Screen won’t show (such as when a video is playing in background mode).
And if your content overlaps with the End Screen, then your content will effectively get cut off for those viewers.
So what should you do instead?
Simply extend your video by 20 seconds or so to accommodate the End Screen. Take another look at the Saturday Night Live End Screen for a good example of how to do this:
Notice that the SNL clip is over; the End Screen isn’t playing over the content. Instead, they’ve created a special screen (it can even be a static image) specifically for the End Screen.
Start Using YouTube End Screens!
There’s no doubt that End Screens are the future of YouTube links.
You’ll find that they’re simple for marketers to set up and easy for viewers to understand.
And by following the tips you learned in this blog post, you can be sure your End Screen performance will be miles ahead of your competitors.
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