A recently added YouTube feature will benefit businesses that are marketing videos. The new “Associated Website” video annotation link allows you to connect videos to website landing pages.
In the past, this was a feature that was only available to folks paying big bucks on YouTube advertising. For everyone else, you were limited to linking only to other videos or to your YouTube channel.
Now, this feature is available to partners in good standing (any anyone can be a partner).
For businesses marketing on YouTube, this allows you to add a call to action at the end of the video and have that link go to landing page on your website. This could be to a registration form for an appointment, or to download a white paper, or to schedule an appointment or call back, or even to the product sales page. This link to your website and call to action landing page takes advantage of viewer engagement while still top of mind.
For example, an outdoor clothing company that creates cool videos featuring seasonal outerwear can now have free annotation links to the company’s website. Or a profile video about an attorney can have a link back to the law firm’s website.
There are some catches to this program that YouTube outlines in what it is calling its Associated Website Annotations. Check out the link for instructions on how to get started, or email me for more information. It takes a few minutes to get set up and have the website link approved by YouTube.
I have uploaded a short testimonial video that includes the Associated Website annotation. Notice that I have placed the link at the end of the video. That is because YouTube measures “time watched” on your videos and scores your SEO juice accordingly. You don’t want viewers jumping out of your videos too early.