YouTube and Twitch as leaders in global marketing

In the 21st century, in the era of unquestionable domination of the gaming industry over all other representatives of entertainment content (eSports revenues already exceed the NBA, we told you about it here, and about the fact that the total gaming industry revenues have overtaken movies and music combined, we told here), the struggle for the attention of gamers is becoming more and more difficult.

According to the analytical company “Yazoo”, each average player has about 10 games installed on the PC, from 5 to 10 – on a mobile device, and about the bottomless library of Steam, PS+ or Xbox Game Pass is not even worth mentioning.

So how does a publisher then attract an audience to the new/old projects?

Traditional methods of old advertising don't work, because players don't read newspapers and certainly don't watch TV.

However, players watch YouTube and Twitch for hours, watching their favorite blogger/streamer's Let’s Play. Therefore, information about the new product would be correct to deliver to the players only through their channels of communication - through YouTube and Twitch!

We all know that YouTube and Twitch are the main channels for promoting new game products (you can read about it here), but which channel is more demanded and successful for promoting games and which advertising tools the two main flagships have to offer?

Let's find out!

To begin with, we need to understand what specific ways of advertising are typical for YouTube and Twitch.

- The most common way of all is advertising in commercials. It can be its own ad, or advertisement in a clip of a popular singer, artist or gamer.
From recent precedents, we can highlight the coolest promo Call of Duty MWII, which shone a whole bunch of famous personalities, from hip-hop singers Lil Baby and Nicki Minaj to standup comedian Pete Davidson. Though many fans found the choice of artists for the video strange, and the video itself caused a rather negative reaction among the fan base, it has not cancelled the 7 million views and the buzz around the video (and hence the game).

Promotion of the game live. Opportunity to influence your target audience. To promote your game, you can choose a blogger whose subscribers fit your age, interests and hobbies. Building lasting relationships. You can shoot a whole series of videos on the same topic. For example, gamer Sima shot a whole series of reviews on Standoff 2 game, and everyone's favorite PewDiePie repeatedly arranged full-fledged passage of new (and not very) games! I personally spent hours watching PewDiePie go headfirst into Minecraft once again. Banners right on the broadcast screen, or underneath it. This is the least popular option of all.
As you can see, the advertising tools of YouTube and Twitch are about the same, so I suggest exploring them in more detail in order to understand more specifically the difference between the two platforms!

Why is advertising on YouTube cool?

Ten or fifteen years ago, YouTube was a small video hosting site with a minimal amount of content. The only interesting game content was made by PewDiePie, which allowed him to remain the sole king of YouTube for many years (T-Series, return the crown to PewDiePie!), but now YouTube is a full-fledged industry, which has long left TV behind, and now seriously intends to seriously compete with all streaming giants (otherwise what is the paid subscription and production of original content for?).

This is largely due to the fact that advertisers are given several ways of advertising, and everyone can choose the most profitable, based on budget and overall goals!

Don't forget that, thanks to the recommendation system, your video can end up in the top views. After all, YouTube provides a large coverage from the audience, so the probability that your video will be seen is high, which means the cost of advertising on YouTube is extremely high.

According to the latest figures, YouTube video hosting has one billion daily loyal visitors (one billion, Carl!), which makes advertising on YouTube quick and very effective way to spread information about your new game to multimillion audience!

What does affect the cost of YouTube ads?

1) Naturally, the first criterion is the number of views of the video.

It's no secret that the higher the number of views, the more expensive will be the price of advertising.

For example, bloggers whose average number of views on video crosses the mark of 50.000, get four times more for advertising than bloggers whose average number of views doesn't reach that figure (~$350 vs. ~$80).

2) The amount of views.

Bloggers whose cumulative number of views crosses the 1,000,000 per month mark are expected to get more money for advertising than others.

Many bloggers can release 1 video in a month and collect 10-20 million views at once, some achieve figure 1.000.000 million views per month, focusing on the number of videos, and some, as more than once mentioned above PewDiePie takes both the quantity and quality of content!

3) Comments.

Comments continue to be one of the main criteria for choosing a blogger for advertising.

The more live comments you see below a video, the higher the price of ad integration will be.

4) Number of subscribers!

It is the number of subscribers that many advertisers look at first, and only then the views, growth rates, comments, etc.

Only the number of subscribers is not always a guarantee of a successful advertising campaign (and you can read about it here).

However, still, the number of subscribers is the main trump card of all bloggers, and the more your audience, the higher the cost of advertising.

For example, the cost of advertising for a blogger with an audience of 7 million subscribers on YouTube starts at $300,000 and up. For bloggers with an audience of 3 to 7 million, it's ~$190,000, with an audience of 1 to 3 million - $125,000, and bloggers with an audience of 500,000 to 1,000,000 subscribers and 100,000 to 500,000 subscribers - $250,00 and $12,500 respectively.

What about Twitch advertising?

As popular as YouTube is, Twitch is recognized as the largest platform for game promotion!

As with advertising on YouTube, advertising on Twitch has its own peculiarities, which we are now going to introduce you to.

Again, there are several ways to advertise!

First, advertising on Twitch itself, but this is the least effective way of advertising, because all users who have AdBlock (which is about 95% of users) won't even see your ads, so before you throw money away for native, pop-up ads, it’s worth making sure it’s worth it.

Media advertising. This type of advertising includes banners, overlays and chatbots. The purpose of an overlay is to “lure” as many users as possible to your product's website!

Product Placement. It is the most common method of native advertising. It consists in the fact that a gamer uses an advertised product in online broadcasts, telling about its benefits in turn. The streamer salam4ee talks about the Wireless mouse he uses himself, and PewDiePie drinks G-Fuel energy drink every now and then.

This is effective for increasing recognition and credibility of your product. Viewers have a high percentage of trust in streamers, because they’ve been watching and trusting many of them for years.

What are some ways to advertise with a streamer?

In order to promote your products on the Twitch platform, there are several options at once. To begin with, of course, you should make an agreement with the streamer.

If you managed to discuss the terms of cooperation, you can already move on to the selection of the method of advertising integration placement.

Insert a banner below the video broadcast screen. The cost of such advertising in the description of the channel in Twitch is estimated at $3.5 per 1,000 impressions. Add a brand logo during the live broadcast! The cost, of course, depends on the channel popularity, the price can vary from the conditional $ 15 (from the constant online of 100-500 people) and may not have a certain ceiling! Periodic mentioning of the name of your product brand in the chat is from 10$ and higher. Make multiple mentions of your product in a reportage. The cost is from $30 and up! Run a separate online broadcast dedicated to the product. The price is from $80 and up. Put the brand of the company in the title of the online broadcast. The price is from $10 and up! (It's important to understand that the amount of 10$ is billed by microinfluencers with an online number of 100-500 people. The greater the amount of online, the higher the price tag) Organize a raffle, where the company will be the sponsor. The winner will receive a gift. The prices here are different; if you order from popular channels with a multimillion audience, the cost will be $3000 and higher. Brand Ambassador. During broadcasting, place the product logo in the background or use an item during the entire video. Usually the price for such advertising can be from $ 150-200 and above (and again, do not forget that the amount of $ 150-200 you can find only at microinfluencers)
Naturally, you do not need to be tied to these numbers.

Each case is different and unique in its own way!

However, if you need even more information on game promotion and cooperation with influencers, you're here!