YouTube seems to be always changing and tinkering with their features. Sometimes it’s a hit, like when they rolled out with customize-able thumbnails for your videos and sometimes they fail, like when they came out with 13 sec long pre-video ads. One tool that I’m growing to love is their ‘cards’ feature. Check out this video and learn how I use them:
What is a YouTube Card?
It’s a way to interact with your viewers and direct them to other videos, projects and offers. This little tool lets you place up to five ‘calls to actions’ at the top right corner of your video. You can drop them in at any part of your video.
If the viewer clicks on the ‘call to action’ then a side window will appear with your thumbnail. The viewer can then click on your thumbnail taking them to all sorts of niche related content that can keep your viewer engaged or potentially lead to a sell.
Lets say for example that you just made a video about the best exercise to work your lower back muscles for your niche specific weightlifting channel. You also happen to have a playlist of upper back exercises, an offer for cheap kettle bells on your website and a video about back injuries.
It makes sense to place cards in your lower back exercise video to all three pieces of content because people who are interested in working out their lower back might also be interested in avoiding back injuries, kettle bells and upper back exercises.
Is it better than video annotations?
Well no, lets not compare apples and oranges here. This is just ANOTHER way to engage your visitors that you can track, which is always a good thing. Annotating your videos the old way still has its place but I prefer ‘cards’ because:
- The ‘intrusion factor’ is minimal and well balanced.
- It feeds different ‘Calls To Actions’ throughout the video.
- It’s quick and easy to make a new card.
- You can customize the thumbnails for outbound links.
There are many more reasons why YouTube cards rock but those four are the main ones.
How To Set Up YouTube Cards?
Setting up cards is a cinch! If you didn’t watch the video on this post then I urge you to do so now for a real life example.
First, go to the video you want to put cards in and click on the ‘i’ icon to access the cards section.
Then click the ‘Add Card’ button and select the type of card you’d like to make. You can choose from associated website, fundraising, merchandise, video or playlist. For outbound links to your site, click on ‘associated website’ and add the specific URL that you want your viewers to go to.
Type in the title and call to action. Don’t forget to upload an eye-catching thumbnail for your outbound link.
After you create it, move the card to any part of the video that you want it to appear on. That’s it, simple as cake!
Little Things To Remember…
There are some things you should remember when installing YouTube cards into your videos. These little tips are important:
- Space out your cards, don’t have them on top of each other.
- Place your cards towards the beginning of your video.
- Make sure it ‘makes sense’ when your cards appear.
- Outbound links can only go to your associated website. Associating your site with your YouTube channel is simple. Just follow the steps Google provides.
- I wouldn’t link to a squeeze page because it might adversely effect your video’s rankings.
- Don’t only create outbound links! You should link to your other videos and playlists within your channel.
That’s about it! You are ready to kick start your marketing efforts to a whole new level with YouTube cards. If you found the video guide and tutorial useful then please share it on Facebook or any other social networking site you use. Your support is always appreciated. Remember that you can contact me at any time.