Why YouTube Alone Isn’t Enough For Your Video Strategy

In 2025, 89% of businesses use video in their marketing strategy – after all, it’s engaging, easy to consume, and it catches people’s attention better than any other medium.

 

Video is so effective that 95% of businesses view it as an important tool (and 90% of marketers report it has great ROI!). But, with video marketing, it’s important not to place all of your eggs in one basket or, in other words, remain in one walled garden.

In this case, YouTube is that garden. While YouTube advertising is very effective, a multi-channel video marketing strategy often leads to better consumer engagement and higher ROI. Let’s discuss how.

The Limitations of One Platform (and One Platform Only)

When you limit your advertising to YouTube only, you’re at the mercy of their rules. There’s no getting around them – if you don’t comply, you run the risk of being banned from the platform or having your ads suppressed (and, therefore, not seen by the people who need to see them).

The reason for diversifying goes far beyond the platform rules. By only posting to YouTube, your content is confined to YouTube’s audience. While YouTube has a huge number of active users (122 million on a daily basis), those people don’t account for everyone watching videos on the internet. By only advertising to YouTube viewers, you’re cutting yourself off from a wider audience.

In fact, let’s talk about OTT channels and their viewership stats. Peacock has 36 million subscribers, PlutoTV has 78.5 million monthly active users (as of 2022), and Hulu has 53.6 paying subscribers. That’s a whole lot of audience you’re missing out on by sticking to one channel only. Beyond that, did you know that Instagram, not YouTube, is the most successful video marketing platform? 61% of businesses report success when using it.

Standing out from the crowd becomes increasingly difficult when you’re only working with one platform. By using more than one, you can deliver your message to your target audience in multiple places and have a higher frequency, which leads to a higher ROI.

Think of it like this: would you rather open one store in a crowded mall, or multiple stores across a populated city? You’d probably choose the latter option because your chances of reaching more people are higher — the increased number of locations automatically improves your odds.

Meet Your Customers Where They Are

When you concentrate on a single platform, there’s no doubt you’re reaching some people. And, while it’ll never be possible to reach every member of your potential audience, you can improve your odds by utilizing multiple channels.

Meeting your customers where they are starts by understanding their wants and needs. Across different platforms, people consume video content differently.

• YouTube: Focused on content searched for with intent, educational content
• Facebook: Focused on community and social discovery
• Instagram: Focused on lifestyle content and visual storytelling
• Peacock: Focused on creating profiles to deliver recommended content, including an emphasis on live TV
• Hulu: Focused on next-day delivered content (after a program airs live), personalized content, and live TV options
• PlutoTV: Focused on an on-demand library and live TV

Dive into your analytics and discover what your audience is looking for and the steps they take to find it. Once you analyze that information, customize your content for each platform with the platform’s audience behavior in mind, all the while ensuring your messaging remains consistent.

Remember: mobile users account for over half of the United States’ web traffic. One of the best ways to reach people where they are is to make sure you have a mix of mobile-friendly videos and horizontal videos.

Your Secret Weapon: OTT/CTV

OTT (over the top) is the method of streaming content on the internet over any device. CTV is, essentially, OTT content over the internet on a TV screen – this might mean through a smart TV, or through a TV connected to the internet via an Amazon Fire Stick, Roku TV, or a video game console.

OTT and CTV are the premium mediums of advertising because viewers are typically more engaged than they are when they’re watching YouTube. Two or more people are often watching OTT together, making the impact of your ad higher. Hyper-localization is possible with addressable geofencing targeting and video completion rates are high.

Imagine this: the revenue for CTV advertising worldwide is expected to double between 2022 and 2028!

This is how you reach cord-cutters, those who no longer pay for cable TV and only consume content through streaming services.

Making the Most of Your Budget

Extending your efforts beyond YouTube will take some restructuring of your budget, and that’s okay! Test out this framework and see how it performs for you:

• 40-50% towards YouTube (this is where your foundation still is)
• 25% towards Facebook and Instagram (discover the social landscape and how your video advertising performs on these platforms)
• 25-35% towards OTT and CTV (where your marketing dollars can stretch the furthest)

Save money by taking the videos you already have and editing them to fit different platforms. For example, on Instagram, the content should have a strong hook right in the beginning to catch a user’s attention and, after that, keep things short and sweet. Your video content can be easily reformatted to fit any model.

Remember to start small, keep track of your analytics, and do more of what works.

Let’s Make an Action Plan!

YouTube is an amazing tool, but it’s simply that: one tool inside a full toolbox. It’s time to audit your current video strategy to see how it can stretch beyond this single platform.

Our team at Federated Digital Solutions can help! We can create a custom multi-channel video streaming strategy for your business so your ads are delivered to your target audience and move them to take action, which drives your ROI. Reach out to us today to learn more.

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