Advertising campaigns on YouTube for gaming channels are unique, just like the gaming industry itself. As a gaming YouTuber, you cannot rely solely on the demographics because it can vary from game to game. To maximize your impact and revenue it's essential to understand the specific strategies and nuances involved, which we'll explore in detail here.
How Profitable Are Gaming Channels?
You might think to yourself: how profitable can these channels even be? Surely, there’s not a lot of demand for such content. And you’d be wrong to think that. Very wrong, in fact. Gaming channels on YouTube can be highly profitable, both for creators and advertisers. The actual profits depend on the audience size, engagement levels, and the type of content produced. Gaming channels have another extraordinary thing to them – they often retain high engagement rates, because the audience might be very invested in the gameplay of a specific game, or the commentary provided by those creators.
Ad Revenue
As with all channels, ad revenue, to no one’s surprise, is a significant income source for gaming channels. YouTube’s ad revenue model allows creators to earn money from ads displayed before, during, and after their videos: the more views, the more money earned.
Sponsorships and Brand Deals
You probably already know all the ins and outs of how to get a brand deal, yes? It’s similar to gaming channels, but the brands collaborating with gamers are usually big gaming or tech companies, eager for you to promote their products or services. I mean, look at PewDiePie, he’s the most popular gaming channel out there and gets unique brand deals including Gfuel, Rhinoshield, Origin PC, etc. Brands not only send him the promotion material but also gift him these items.
How to bump up your gaming advertisement campaign?
Okay, now that you know the benefits of gaming, you can start setting up your advertisement campaign. But what do you begin with? Well, it might be simpler than you might think:
Titles and Thumbnails
Emotion-charged thumbnails. You know it, you might like it or hate it, but it does its job of grabbing attention. Adding only a few words to the title of your video can make a world of difference. ‘Markiplier & Lixian MEGA COMPILATION’, ‘ULTIMATE horror game’, and ‘WoW HARDCORE goes wrong’ does grab attention, doesn’t it?
The same goes for thumbnails. It has to look interesting, it has to capture the essence of the video but not mislead people. If you made a thumbnail with Alice: Madness Returns but ended up reviewing one of Fallout's games, you can imagine the viewer’s disappointment and the opposite effect of what you initially wanted. Be honest, be catchy, and have fun with what you do.
Set up your ad campaign
First, you should log into your Google account and link the channel you’re actively uploading. Add a ‘new campaign’ by clicking on the corresponding button. Pick ‘video’ under the campaign type and don’t forget to choose a subtype too! It’s important to fill in all the necessary details and pick an ad group that corresponds to your channel’s videos. Add the video you want, set the bid, and review what you ended up with! Click here for more information!
Your audience is the priority
Sure, once you are big enough, you can make the content that might be less interesting to your audience, but is extremely interesting for you. But when you are still growing? Put your audience first, look at what resonates with your demographic, and do more of similar content. Do as PewDiePie did, for example. He grew significantly doing something nobody else did, which was – playing horror games. You can see that almost all popular channels grew the same and only after they grew enough, they started uploading more diverse content.
Beta Invite Games
This is a surprisingly effective strategy for gaming channels to grow, generate more content, and advertise themselves all in one. How does it work? Well, why don’t we begin with an example? Hades II is a rather anticipated, trendy game. Every gamer that played the first part wants to consume more content about it. If you were one of the lucky ones to get the beta invites, you could potentially show some gameplay on your page and, that way, grow your audience, grow their anticipation for the game, and maybe introduce new players to it.
It’s exclusive content that not everyone can do. Moreover, beta gameplay videos encourage community engagement. This means that viewers are very likely to share their opinions in the comments, which leads to higher engagement rates. You can respond to those, which boosts the channel’s popularity even further. The only thing to look out for here is to not review the games under a non-disclosure agreement. How can you know whether or not you can review the beta on your channel? Ask the developer first!
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Make your content easy to find
Make your content visible. Create the content people most search for. Make game tutorials, walkthroughs, etc. Maybe you have found a new hack? Post it! You might think this is insignificant, but a person who is stuck searching for the NPC hidden somewhere in the cave will thank you later. Maybe you figured out a puzzle in Baldur’s Gate III or found a wall hack that helps finish the dungeon in WoW: Remix in 13 seconds, or perhaps found the best max damage build in the Elder Scrolls online – post it, don’t be shy.
Don’t forget that some niches get more views and engagement than the other ones. You might be wondering what those are, but let me explain!
What are the Top YouTube Gaming Niches?
To maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaign for your gaming channel, you must understand what niches exist and which ones you want to fill with your content. Some of the most popular ones:
- Let’s Play Videos: They are popular, they are engaging. But be careful here, there are a lot of people here, your videos might get lost in the sea of similar content.
- Game Reviews: Simple enough, you can review the gameplay, mechanics, graphics, and overall experience.
- Lore Videos: Also as simple as it sounds, upload structured videos fully dedicated to a popular game’s lore and its analysis.
- Walkthroughs and Tutorials: Offer your audience a step-by-step on how to complete specific game puzzles, and levels or achieve certain objectives.
- Live Streaming: Stream what you play! Make a 24/7 stream of your content and attract more viewers!
- Esports/Competitive Gaming: Being competitive and good at the game attracts viewers.
Leveraging Tools for Success
To maximize the impact of advertising campaigns on YouTube gaming channels, creators and brands try to use tools that ease their lives. Such a tool is AIR Media-Tech! Grow Faster Package is designed to help YouTube and TikTok creators reach ultimate performance metrics. While you as a content creator will be focused on, well, building your content, AIR Media-Tech will work to boost the channel through cross-platform distribution, scaling the creator’s influence to new markets and audiences. For more information, visit the AIR Media-Tech landing page.
