Are you here to discover the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube for marketers?
I asked YouTube experts, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube?”
This post is an expert roundup offering the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube along with actionable strategies for succeeding on YouTube in the areas of traffic generation and monetization.
I used HARO to find the experts. The advantages and disadvantages of YouTube you read in this thorough guide are only half of the fantastic responses I received.
It is up to you to decide whether you want to build your business using YouTube after reading the experts’ advice about the pros of YouTube and the cons.
Let’s dive in and discover the advantages and disadvantages of using YouTube.
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free, popular video streaming site.
You can easily upload your own videos or watch videos other YouTubers upload. According to data, six billion hours of video are watched on YouTube each month.
UPDATE October 2021
This table reveals the daunting magnitude of the size of the YouTube audience:
This table reflects 2021 data.
YouTube became available as a video streaming service in 2005.
Let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube for businesses.
Advantages of YouTube
Since the release of YouTube Shorts, YouTube has been pushing out this new feature. Therefore, marketing is easy with YouTube Shorts since you don’t need followers to be seen.
Update: July 2023
Benefits of YouTube
As an expert in the digital realm, I can confidently assert that YouTube has revolutionized the way we consume and share content.
The benefits of YouTube are manifold, shaping our lives in numerous positive ways.
First and foremost, YouTube serves as an unparalleled platform for learning and education. With a vast repository of tutorials, documentaries, and skill-building videos, anyone can expand their knowledge on virtually any subject.
Additionally, YouTube has become a hub for creativity and self-expression, empowering content creators worldwide to showcase their talents, ideas, and perspectives. This democratization of media has given rise to diverse voices and communities, fostering a more inclusive and interconnected global culture.
Moreover, YouTube’s entertainment value is undeniable, providing endless hours of laughter, inspiration, and escapism through its vast array of entertaining content, from humorous skits to heartwarming vlogs.
Let us not forget the practical benefits either, as YouTube has also become a source of income for many, enabling individuals to monetize their channels and turn their passions into a profession.
Overall, YouTube’s far-reaching impact on education, creativity, entertainment, and even entrepreneurship makes it an indispensable tool for personal growth and enrichment in today’s digital age.
Embrace the boundless opportunities it offers, and you’ll unlock a world of knowledge, creativity, and entertainment right at your fingertips!
Related: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube
Pros and Cons of YouTube
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
1. “My biggest advantage of using YouTube is that it lives forever. This is why I prefer YouTube over other social media platforms. While Instagram and other platforms have a huge reach, the content lives for a very short period of time.
Nobody goes back and looks at an Instagram post that’s a year old but I do find myself regularly watching YouTube videos that are a year old, 2 years old, 5 years old. I really like that my content can continue to stack and compound, and even years from now that content will be driving my traffic and possibly conversions.
2. The disadvantage of YouTube I would say is that people find video content to be more challenging or intimidating for a variety of reasons. Video editing is a bit more complex than writing a blog post, some people seem to think they need expensive and fancy equipment which is not true, and some people aren’t familiar with going on camera.”
Source
John Frigo, Youtube.Com/BestPriceNutrition
YouTube Can Be Great or Terrible for Your Business
Advantages:
3. “YouTube is television for generations. Alphabet said YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than all linear TV networks combined. This potentially lets you move beyond just direct-response digital advertising, as you can position your business alongside an entertainment brand and get a halo effect for your own brand.
4. Solid monetization tools exist once you’re at scale. If your YouTube channel is racking up views, it’s easy to click a button and really start earning money. You don’t have to futz with selling anything, you can focus on creating content and the ads will be inserted automatically for you.
5. A potentially large audience exists to get to know you, your brand, and your products. People watch more than a billion hours of YouTube video every day! Along with the ads, it’s a useful way to get people to check out your website, potentially sign up for your email list, and more.
Disadvantages:
6. You’re building on rented land with YouTube. That’s mostly fine, but you’re always an algorithm change away from having a successful channel turn into an unsuccessful one. If you can, try to get your YouTube audience over to your owned channels like your website or your email marketing list.
7. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a large audience. YouTube has a lot of people watching and a lot of people creating.
Breaking through the noise is harder than you think. You can’t just create a few videos and expect to be successful. You have to consistently create amazing content that’s optimized for the algorithms to stand a chance. There’s a reason why the most successful YouTubers do YouTube as their full-time job.
8. YouTube can lead to burnout. High-profile creators consistently say that YouTube can be demanding. You’re constantly creating more videos and often longer ones, to satisfy an ever-changing algorithm. Creators often have little say in how YouTube changes its algorithm and monetization tools, too.
Recommendation: Use YouTube as an acquisition channel and brand-awareness play but aim to get your audience to your home-court properties like your website and email marketing lists as soon as possible. Don’t be afraid to throw some minor dollars behind your videos to promote them, too.
This balanced approach will let you take advantage of the YouTube platform for your online business.”
Source
Marin Perez, https://kajabi.com/
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
YouTube Is a Search System
9. “YouTube is more search system than social media. The main reason is that Google required YouTube to provide its experience. You might know that Googlers fail to create social media; Google Plus folded. Today, YouTube is the second search system with over 2 billion users.
10. YouTube is not overpriced like SEO.
11. YouTube Is less competitive.
Let’s compare data:
| YouTube | |
|---|---|
| 4 billion users | 2.3 billion users |
| 7% of all new pages get to the Top 10 Positions within a year. | Content ranked within 24 hours. |
There are 1.8 billion websites that want to rank and get traffic from nearly 4 billion Google users, according to Statista. A lot! Yet, 91% of all websites have no organic reach, according to Ahrefs.
YouTube has 37 million channels and 2.3 billion people. You can see that YouTube is less competitive than SEO 20-30 times. Most content creators are too lazy to film videos.
A long-playing strategy: 7% of all new pages get the top-10 positions in the first year on Google. YouTube ranks content in the first 24 hours.
12. Gen Z and Millenniums prefer consuming video content. That means video content has a shiny future. Big companies always have short and long strategies. It’s essential to consider what trends customers will prefer in the long run.
Retaining Watchers
13. People watch YouTube videos for over 40 minutes a day. The average time spending on a website is 3 minutes and 10 seconds. It takes time to convince customers to buy your products. Video content keeps users much longer than text-based information.
There are three disadvantages of using YouTube:
14. TikTok, Instagram IGTV, Facebook, Netflix, and many others create strong competition for YouTube. Who knows which platform will get a higher position in the future with video content?
15. Editing video content demands special skills. You can do it yourself but lose attention with developing and innovating your products. It also takes resources to find and lead video editors.
16. It’s hard to sell on YouTube. There are not selling features. YouTube has a goal to develop these features but we don’t know how it works.”
Source: Anatolii Ulitovskyi, SEOtools.TV
Three Reasons Why YouTube Marketing Is the Go-To Solution For Your Brand (And Three Reasons Why Not)
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube:
Advantages
Large and Ready Audience
17. “On average, YouTube receives 4 billion visits daily. In fact, YouTube is often considered as a search engine on its own, trounced only by Google itself and Facebook.
This means that every video has the capacity to attract an audience. Although the possibility of your marketing video getting to a billion views is highly unlikely, the likelihood of getting high-value traffic and high conversion rates is quite high with YouTube.
18. Also, a YouTube video can easily gain traction by riding on trending strategies and YouTube recommendations.
The Attachment to SEO
Essentially, YouTube works as an extension of the Google search engine. In fact, Google considers video as an important part of search answers. This is the reason why a YouTube video often appears high on search results.
19. Sometimes, making YouTube videos is not about the selling, it’s about brand reach and getting noticed. More often than not, Google search intent will push traffic towards your YouTube videos, if they’re optimized for the specific question. Besides, the fact that YouTube videos can be embedded on your site means that it will only work to increase your site rankings.
20. The current trend in search engine marketing is to optimize for search intent and voice searches. Using YouTube videos is one of the best and easiest ways to capture traffic from the two sources. More often than not, a “how-to” question from users lands in a YouTube explainer video. Therefore, a simple “how-to” explainer video on YouTube can easily gain traffic to your site.
High ROI
21. YouTube-based video marketing has a relatively high ROI. This ROI is not measured in terms of conversion metrics alone. If you think about it, shareability is a huge part of calculating your YouTube ROI. Unlike other marketing channels, YouTube videos are shared more widely, and more often.
Disadvantages
The cost of creating videos
22. Video-creation is not cheap. It takes a lot of time, and investment into a good studio system to come up with great videos for your YouTube channel.
Poor targeting
23. Although YouTube offers really nice ad and tracking systems, the targeting is sometimes haywire. It makes little sense if you have good viewerships but low conversions because YouTube pointed you to the wrong audience.
Follow-on content
24. If YouTube’s targeting system messes you up, you can also bet that it will mess up the follow-on content. Users love to follow an information value chain. On most occasions, the YouTube follow-on content does this flawlessly. On others, however, it will take to irrelevant content, which takes away from your channel.”
Source
Alina Clark, http://www.cocodoc.com/
Increase Your Google Ranking with YouTube
Advantages of YouTube
25. “Google indexes all YouTube videos for their search results pages, so you’re more likely to increase your ranking and end up in multiple spots on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
26. You can personalize your brand with a literal face to the name – this is especially helpful for businesses like mine that are highly product-oriented.
27. The user base is huge. Ignoring the platform altogether means losing exposure to millions of potential new customers.
Disadvantages of YouTube
28. Production of videos can be costly, and small businesses don’t always have marketing teams and financial resources to create content across multiple channels.
29. Even with the financial resources, video production takes far more time than simpler marketing forms like Instagram posts.
30. Your videos might hit, or they might miss. You can’t guarantee a ton of eyes will see your videos without spending money to market them further.
If you have the time and financial resources to dedicate at least six months to regular video creation, give it a try – for many businesses, it pays off big.”
Source
Devin Johnson, https://kennected.org/
To Tube Or Not To Tube
“As a content marketer for a B2B eCommerce company that does payment processing, YouTube is one of the platforms we use to do our marketing.
Like using any platform for marketing, YouTube has its pros and cons.
Here are a few of each:
Pros:
31. It’s free.
32. It’s easy for people to share your videos.
33. You can reach people not following you on other sites.
Cons:
34. Creating content takes more time than other platforms.
35. It’s easier to get likes on other sites than to get views on YouTube.
36. Growth is slower than on other platforms.
Overall, I’d say that YouTube can be effective but I don’t think I’d make it a top priority unless you can create especially compelling content that may go viral. It takes a lot of time and effort to create video content that likely won’t be seen by very many people.”
Source
Francesca Nicasio https://paymentdepot.com/
Should Your Business Use YouTube?
37. “The biggest disadvantage for YouTube is that it is difficult to gain exposure. Without a lot of research, or the assistance of professionals, few people will see your content.
38. Second, it is much easier and cost effective to create video content through your social media channels. It just doesn’t make sense for smaller businesses to invest in making high quality content on Youtube.
39. Third, it is costly to create YouTube videos that are up to standard. You must either purchase or rent AV equipment along with paying professionals who know how to use it correctly. Of course, you may trade the cost of paying professionals for the time of learning it yourself, but that could prove even more costly.”
Source
Keesjan (Case) Engelen Website: https://titoma.com/
CEO on Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
40. “YouTube is becoming one of the most used search engines – it gets 82% of total internet consumer traffic according to a study by Cisco. Since the platform is so highly trafficked, it can be a great opportunity to get eyes on your content and drive more traffic to your website.
41. Although setting up an account is free, buying the proper equipment to shoot and edit attractive videos can be a risky investment.
42. Since there’s so much traffic going to YouTube, it’s also increasingly hard to appear in searches. To get your content seen, you’ll have to invest in a marketing strategy on other sites like Facebook and Google. Still, there’s no guarantee that you’ll attract an engaged audience.
As with any form of marketing, the best way to approach YouTube for a business is to start small and see if it helps drive traffic and leads to your site.”
Source
Grant Aldrich, OnlineDegree.com
“There are Many Benefits to Using YouTube to Market Your Business
43. It’s free to set up.
44. Videos can be embedded into your website.
45. Videos have the potential to go viral, growing your brand.
46. One clear downside is the sheer amount of competition: Your competitors will be using the same tags as you in their videos. That means their videos will show up as ‘Suggested’ in the sidebar, which could take some of your viewers. Unless your video production is more visually appealing, entertaining, and has a better value proposition, it can be difficult to gain views.”
Source
Cierra Loflin, https://www.zodiacguides.com/
YouTube is Exhausting
Here are the reasons why:
“YouTube just like other platforms have some pros and cons, and it just depends on what you use it for.
47. In our case, YouTube has been a great tool in bringing awareness, in addition to educating our viewers on what’s going on in the world, and what we are currently doing to help people in need.
48. Wide reach within the US and other developed countries in Europe, Australia, etc.
49. Another positive is the possibility to post our videos there that were first recorded as a workshop or online class, in what we like to call virtual workshare. We are able to answer questions that people post in the chat, and then you post those videos on YouTube for anyone who missed them or would like to rewatch them.
Those workshare videos cover all humanitarian issues we work on, from the education of displaced people to sanitation, to eliminating malaria.
This brings me to the last positive side of using YouTube:
50. We can post pretty lengthy videos there so there isn’t really a restriction to where we need to record a series because of a time limit.
51. The disadvantages for us would include reaching people in developing countries in order to join us in our mission to help people in need. Those people we help don’t have access to YouTube as a lot of those places have blocked the platform for different reasons, often political.
They also don’t have access to computers either, let alone social media, so our reach would be mainly to local people that are able to help, so YouTube is not our preferred platform for that. The blocked access of YouTube for people who could actually be a huge helping hand on location makes it difficult for us to connect with them that way, so we have to be creative.
52. Second: In a more business/marketing angle, the ads that appear on the videos can be distracting, and sometimes from sources who are not in the same industry or topic, and sometimes just very random.
53. Third: Our reach is restricted to the US/Canada, Europe, and Australia, or where YouTube is allowed, so our efforts have to go beyond the platform which can be a little exhausting. With that said, we are reaching a lot fewer people on YouTube alone which forces us to invest extra time on other video tools in order to make up for it.”
Source
Chris Kindler, https://wearealight.org/
Free Marketing is the Best Kind
Advantages:
“54. Videos cost some money to produce, but YouTube won’t charge you a dime for posting your content. In fact, if you get enough of a following, YouTube will start to pay you if you enable monetization on your account.
55. YouTube boasts a massive regular user base, so if you tag your videos right, you’ll constantly reach new target demographics and consumers.
56. You can embed your YouTube videos easily on your website, which keeps users around longer and improves your SEO rankings.
Disadvantages:
57. One upside is also the downside – the size of YouTube’s customer base gives plenty of potential to reach more people, but the competition is fierce. It’s difficult to stand out without losing targets through distraction.
58. The growth on YouTube can be quite slow, taking months to build a channel and a decent subscriber following.
59. You may need to pay for YouTube marketing to spread the reach of your videos more quickly.“
Source
Brian Dechesare, https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/homepage/
Bio: As the founder and CEO of the investment career platform Breaking Into Wall Street, I post brand content to YouTube regularly to over 100K followers.
Should a Small, Local Business Invest in YouTube?
60. “The biggest advantage for utilizing YouTube for promoting your business is that Google prioritizes YouTube videos in search rankings. It’s a quick way for your business to move to the top of targeted search results.
61. If you want to invest some money into hiring professionals to help you create engaging content, YouTube will gain your business a lot of exposure.
62. With so many popular categories of videos on YouTube, any business can find a niche that will gain them exposure. However, this will not make sense for a small local business.
63. A huge disadvantage of YouTube is it can be very slow going in the beginning. With millions of videos to search through, it is tough to stand out especially without a lot of research or hiring experts.
64. It is much simpler and easier to create promotional video content through social media using your phone. You can still simply use a smartphone to create YouTube videos, but then you’ll need to promote them through social media anyway.
65. Creating a successful YouTube campaign can get expensive. For any small business, it’s best to stick with a phone and social media. However, a few well-planned videos on YouTube that target certain search terms can be very beneficial. If you are trying to gain an audience through education that pertains to your industry, investing in YouTube is the way to go.”
Source
Charles Leduc, https://www.bustmold.com/
Summary: Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
“YouTube can be a great marketing channel, but it does have its pros and cons.
As far as the pros of using YouTube:
66. You can get found in search results if you optimize for the right keywords.
67. Potential to monetize your videos
68. Advanced editor with lots of great features
As far as the disadvantages of YouTube:
69. You’re driving traffic away from your site to YouTube.
70. Fewer insights into viewer demographics
71. Fewer insights into viewer behavior
Overall, I would recommend YouTube if you want to monetize your video traffic. If your main aim is for your videos to convert and get insights about viewer behavior, I would host my videos elsewhere, such as Wistia.”
Source
Petra Odak, https://betterproposals.io/
Let’s discover more advantages and disadvantages of YouTube:
Summary: Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
“YouTube can be a wonderful marketing channel for you, but only if you know what you are doing.
72. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and users spend billions of hours watching videos on pretty much all topics imaginable. That’s a huge market to tap into, regardless of your niche.
73. Second, YouTube is significantly more competitive than before, but still significantly less competitive than Google. It’s easier to get found.
74. Third, YouTube marketing is a way for you to diversify your traffic sources. Don’t put all your traffic sources in one basket.
YouTube disadvantages:
75. First, you’re building your brand on a rented property. You will never be completely safe from a change on their end which could end your channel without you being able to do anything.
76. Second, getting traffic from YouTube is very hard because it’s built in a way to keep people on their platform. Yes, you can link to your site from video descriptions and video cards, but only a small percentage of people will click.
77. Third, when YouTube was brand new, you could make a name for yourself just by publishing videos. Now, your videos have to be really good and also stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed. Yes, it can still be done, but it’s much harder.
Source
Nikola Roza, https://nikolaroza.com/
“Why is YouTube Promotion More Difficult, But More Effective in the Long Run?
78. First, a huge advantage of using YouTube to promote your business is that Google ranks YouTube very high. Small professional services businesses like mine can use this to rank at the top of the page right along with pay-per-click and index sites. Improving your SEO this way will gain you great sales leads you wouldn’t get from SMM (social media marketing).
79. Second, you can hire some help to create a viral video with your YouTube channel to get exposed to thousands or even millions of potential customers.
80. Third, you can educate your customers while promoting your business at the same time. For instance, in the remodeling business, there is nothing better than a customer who knows exactly what they need so that I may save the time of informing them of their options, and waiting for decisions to be made. Educating and entertaining your customers through YouTube can save you time and money.
Disadvantages
81. First, a big disadvantage of using YouTube is that there is a good chance your videos will get lost in the mix with very few views. Consult the experts to avoid this.
82. Second, you need to invest in a quality camera and microphone to make videos that are up to snuff.
83. Third, it is much easier to live stream and create videos through your social media channels using your phone. They give you instant exposure and notify active followers. This is much more directly effective than promoting your YouTube channel through social media. However, your SMM is limiting versus SEO. Social media video content will garner you attention for little investment, but as your business grows, there will come a time to focus on SEO as well.”
Source
Ralph Severson, http://www.flooringmasters.com
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
84. “YouTube is one of the evergreen platforms especially when it comes to advertising your business brand. It is a powerful channel to effectively demonstrate your products, business, interests, etc.
Let’s talk about the advantages of YouTube for business:
85. The biggest advantage is marketing by which your brand would get recognized on Google.
86. You can efficiently earn money for your YouTube video through AdSense.
87. YouTube helps to build an email list to target your customers.
88. YouTube helps to grow your audience globally.
89. Your content always remains.
Talking about the disadvantages of YouTube, some of them are:
90. It is completely public.
91. It provides certain restrictions for your channel.
92. Various kinds of branding can confuse your target customers.
93. You cannot stop anyone from putting ads on your video.
94. You could not have complete control over your actual presentation.
95. Anytime your account can get disabled (without reason).”
Source
Upsides and Downsides of YouTube
96. “If my 7-year-old niece can make and upload YouTube videos, you know it’s easy.
97. Plus, YouTube marketing is cost-effective! Of course, it’s best to invest in decent lamps and a professional video editor. But, you can create a great video and upload it for a fraction of the cost of professional advertising.
98. One survey found that nearly three quarters of all YouTube audiences make purchase decisions based on what they watch.
99. Being able to invite guests to speak about your business is also a huge perk with YouTube. Experts who can give testimonials will add authenticity and credibility to your brand.
100. Creating a channel that current and potential customers can subscribe to means that they’ll see your content pop up whenever you add a new video. Then, when you go live, they’ll be spontaneously surprised and delighted to see the presenter they’ve come to know and trust talk about something of value.
101. On the downside, your competitors are probably using the same tags as you. This means prospects might wind up seeing their content and get won over.”
Source
Bart Turczynski, https://resumelab.com/
Bio: My advice and commentary have been published by the Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard, Chicago Tribune, Thrive Global, and Glassdoor, among others.
“How YouTube Can Save Your Business!
YouTube can be a strong marketing tool for many, but it certainly comes with a number of challenges any business leader should consider before posting any videos.
Here are the 3 advantages and disadvantages of YouTube:
Advantages of YouTube:
102. You decide the content of your videos.
103. Your videos can be watched by anyone from almost anywhere.
104. Not only is posting videos free, but inserting mid-roll ads (ads in the middle of your video) will help you profit from your content.
Disadvantages of YouTube:
105. Unless your channel is well known, you may have a hard time attracting new viewers.
106. Your audience may not want to sit through an entire promotional piece on YouTube.
107. It can be hard to make money from YouTube when your numbers are still low.
I recommend YouTube for any business leader looking to broaden their marketing strategies, especially if they have long-form content to share.”
Source
Laura Fuentes, https://www.infinitydish.com/
“YouTube Offers an Amalgamation of Pros and Cons
Advantages of YouTube:
108. It’s free to use. This is a huge boost for creators that are planning to get started with a limited budget. It packs an attractive set of features for absolutely no price. I think that’s great because it gives you a launching pad to kickstart your career in style.
109. YouTube blesses you with an opportunity to earn money. The fact that you can monetize your videos means that you can earn money through them. You’ll just have to link your Google Adsense account and create compelling videos to drive more viewers, leading to more income.
110. The interface is fluid and easy. YouTube comes with a flat learning curve, which makes things a lot easier for users. This facilitates enhanced user experience and reduced hassle.
Disadvantages of YouTube:
111. Everything is public. This means your privacy is always at stake and people can keep track of your activity. You have limited control over who can see your videos and this tends to keep your information at risk.
112. Rules can be a barrier to your creativity. Like any social media platform, YouTube comes with its own set of rules and regulations. For instance, there are certain niches that are restricted in some countries. So, if your interest falls in the bracket of that topic, you’ll definitely be at loss.
113. Advertisers can place ads on your videos regardless of your choice. This means a possible competitor can run an ad on your video and harm your brand. Surely, you wouldn’t want that.
I definitely recommend YouTube for marketing. Static content no longer works and videos are set to account for up to 22%-24% of the whole internet traffic by 2022. So, if you invest in YouTube marketing, it can do wonders for the growth of your business.”
Source
Dave Nilsson, https://convertedclick.co.uk/
“YouTube: Huge Grind with Potentially Huge Payoff
Three disadvantages of YouTube:
114. Producing content is a grind.
115. Growing your channel is a grind.
116. Keeping up with current trends (pacing, thumbnail styles, etc.) is a grind.
Three advantages of YouTube
117. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the planet.
118. Online video is still expanding. The work you do to build your YouTube channel is transferable to video ads and new video platforms.
119. If your product is visual, video is often the best way to showcase that.
I try to push new users into following on one of three channels: Twitter, YouTube, or my newsletter. I post monthly content to all three, but YouTube is the only one of these three that I see compounding over time. It’s worth it.”
Source
Will Hankinson, https://introcave.com/
“YouTube For Marketing: Is it Worth Your Time and Efforts?
Advantages: Below are 3 advantages of using YouTube for Marketing
120. Broader Reach: YouTube is the second largest and most popular search engine after Google. It has approximately 2 billion monthly active users and about 1 billion watch hours per day. These stats mean that people love YouTube and use it often to get ideas and inspiration around making a purchase decision regarding products or services.
121. Easy Organic Ranking: YouTube SEO is easy. Choosing and ranking videos for a targeted keyword is relatively easy compared to SEO on Google’s search engine which is difficult and time-consuming.
122. Cheap Media Buying Cost: Media Buying cost on the YouTube platform is cheaper. The average CPCs and CPMs on YouTube is approximately 55% lower than the Google Ads platform.
Disadvantages:
Below are 3 advantages of using YouTube for Marketing:
123. Creating Content is Time Consuming: YouTube is a platform for videos. Creating videos is time-consuming and involves an upfront investment of time.
124. Content Development Cost is High: In order to shoot YouTube videos, one needs proper equipment, lighting, props, cast, video editing tools, etc. All of this demands an upfront investment of money.
125. Frequent Platform Changes: YouTube Ad Platform is ever-evolving and undergoes frequent changes. New features, functionalities, and nuances are added to the platform at least once every 2 to 3 months. This requires the advertiser to be constantly on his/her toes to stay updated with the changes and incorporate those in the marketing strategy.
There are many other features in YouTube which according to me are simply awesome but the above points that I have mentioned, stand out to me the most.”
Source
Rohan Kadam, https://vitalfeedz.com/
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube for Promoting Businesses
Advantages of YouTube:
126. Provide cost-free exposure to billions of customers
Being the second most popular search engine globally, YouTube provides a highly personalized platform for its users. Promoting a business using YouTube can get you a massive hoard of potential prospects and customers. As many videos are watched daily and shared easily over other social media with simple links.
127. No Video Length Rules
Unlike other video marketing options, YouTube has no constraint on the length of video you are uploading for your business. You can upload a video of any size or length on YouTube. It’s helpful for companies who want to post long tutorial videos, seminars, or speeches to directly address their customer concerns, even if they are one hour long.
128. Get Qualified Traffic
YouTube helps you get the right audience for your brand. When people go on YouTube, they don’t just slip up on your page. They type something into the search engine, and then you pop up in the results. It means you can assume that someone is interested in your product or service. Thus it allows you to capture their attention and turn them into loyal fans.
Disadvantages of YouTube:
129. Everything is public
Since it’s a public social media platform, people don’t need to create an account to see any of your videos you publish on your channels. Also, anyone can post a video. It may cause copyright issues, and there could be issues with privacy invasion.
130. Takes more time
Promoting using YouTube may take more time than any other platform. It can take months or even years to build up your channel to have an impressive and substantial amount of followers, views, and videos.
131. Too many rules and regulations
There are many rules and regulations on YouTube that need to be adhered to which can sometimes limit the creative expression of a creator.”
Source
Susan Thompson, https://toppcasinobonus.com/
Final Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
UPDATED INFORMATION October 1
In an era of misinformation about Covid, YouTube announced it is blocking all anti-vaccine accounts. The site previously announced the accounts were blocked but now YouTube is removing them altogether even the popular ones.
The reason for the move: The accounts post videos claiming the vaccine causes diseases it was never proven to cause. More information on this situation can be found here.
Advantages of YouTube:
132. Networking. Thanks to the comments section, you can network with YouTubers in your niche.
133. Promote a cause. Cause marketing is trendy.
134. Branding. Your brand perception gets a boost when people see you promoting a brand. For example, YouTuber Sunny Lenarduzzi used her popular YouTube channel to promote the Black Lives Matter movement. In an era of Fake News, people believe what they see with their own eyes which is the content in a video. Since consumer trust increases when they see you in the video, your brand perception gets a boost.
135. Extend your reach. YouTube is one of the world’s biggest search engines. By using tags in your video descriptions, people can find your video content.
136. YouTube videos get indexed by Google. Therefore, you get visibility from Google and extend your reach through SEO.
According to Reddit’s Kevinsmak,
“YouTube quickly puts your content towards the top of that search term and tries to drive more traffic to that video. If that video does well compared to other videos (watch time/click-through rate) with the same keywords, the video will stay high or move up, if not, it will slip down little by little untill you can’t find it…
If you are looking for instant ranking, YouTube is more of a place for you.”
137. Videos are part of our lifestyle. Thanks to quarantining in place, people are now used to watching videos. Other marketers are using the power of video, so video creation is no longer an option.
138. Video creation is quick. There are so many cost-effective video tools, that make videos quickly, there are no excuses not to be making videos.
139. SEO tools help you. Tools help you search for keywords that will generate traffic on YouTube.
Look:
This screenshot shows Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool. As you can see, you can find keywords and their metrics to help you on YouTube.
Pros of YouTube Bonus Tip: #140
There are ways to use the YouTube algorithm to grow your account organically. For instance, heavily promote your video within the first 24 hours of going live. The interest you generate tells YouTube you have a quality video. This, in turn, tells the YouTube algorithms to send the video out as a recommended video.
Pros of YouTube Bonus Tip: #141
UPDATED INFORMATION October 2021
An easy way to get views on your YouTube videos is to make YouTube Shorts. For instance, my newest video already has almost 600 views inside of a week.
Here is the video about Reddit Best Crypto Exchange. If you want to see an example of a YouTube Short, press play.
Since Shorts is a relatively new feature, YouTube pushes out short videos. To qualify, your video needs to be in vertical format and 60 seconds or less.
Source
Janice Wald, https://mostlyblogging.com
Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube: FAQ
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube?
According to the experts I interviewed, since Google owns YouTube, Google gives priority visibility to YouTube videos in the Search Engine Results Pages. However, the experts indicated the competition on YouTube makes trying to generate an audience a full-time job.
What Are the Disadvantages of Being a YouTuber?
Trying to generate an audience is time consuming since the competition is great. Also, you are not in control of the ads that may appear on your video.
Wrapping Up: Advantages and Disadvantages of YouTube
Did you notice any overlap between the experts’ responses about the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube? Did you notice any differences?
I did. the experts focused on the cost and the time involved in trying to generate an audience. However, they seemed split over whether you can use SEO to help you. Some of the experts explained there is too much competition to be successful.
Others shared that due to the connection between Google and YouTube, you have an easier time generating an audience on the site. The SEO potential is definitely one of the pros of YouTube.
Readers, please share. As you see from this comprehensive guide, YouTube has a mixed reputation for marketing effectiveness. Therefore, this was an important study.
I look forward to your views in the comments section. Will you use YouTube now that you heard the experts’ opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of YouTube? Can you suggest additional advantages and disadvantages of YouTube not shared by the experts?
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
