YouTube Marketing in Kenya: Ultimate Guide

Last updated on September 30th, 2022 at 12:56 pm

This is a detailed guide on YouTube Marketing for beginners. Youtube marketing in Kenya can be an affordable and effective way to increase your online presence!

What is YouTube marketing?

YouTube marketing in Kenya is the process of using YouTube to promote your business, make a sale or attract new customers. 

Unlike traditional forms of advertising such as television ads and billboards that require huge budgets.

YouTube marketing can be an affordable and effective way to increase your online presence!

What are some benefits of doing YouTube marketing in Kenya?

There’s no arguing with the fact that video content has quickly become one of the most popular types of posts on social media sites like Facebook. 

More than half (54%) say they watch more videos today than they did six months ago. 

And nearly two-thirds (65%) say watching these videos makes them want to buy products from brands featured in those videos—a figure only slightly lower for TV commercials at 67%.

Here are some benefits of doing YouTube marketing in Kenya: 

• It’s more cost-effective than TV commercials. 
• Branding is a lot easier to manage with video ads because the content can be customized and personalized for each viewer. 
• It’s also possible to do A/B testing on videos, so you’re able to see what works best for your audience without risking too much time or money. 
• Video advertising offers greater engagement rates than other types of online ads—at least 44% higher according to research from Cisco Systems Inc., which says that four out of every ten people who watch an ad will click through and visit the brand’s website if they are interested in it – making them almost twice as effective. 

YouTube in Kenya also offers better targeting than other platforms.

YouTube users are also more likely to click on video ads because of their familiarity with how the site works.

How does YouTube marketing work?

There are two ways you can market your business on YouTube in Kenya.

a). Organic YouTube marketing

This is where you spend time creating a video that is informative, helpful, and interesting that your audience will love.

And then use the videos to promote your business.

For example;

If you are selling smart TVs in Kenya, you can create videos reviewing various TVs in your stock and upload them to YouTube in Kenya.

To leverage organic YouTube marketing in Kenya, you first need to create a YouTube channel and we will look at how to do that in a bit.

b). YouTube ads in Kenya

This is another way to leverage YouTube marketing in Kenya.

YouTube ads is simply you paying YouTube to show your video to more people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

There are three types of ads on YouTube: 

• TrueView in-stream, which plays before or during another video
• Skippable in-stream ads that last six seconds and can be skipped after five seconds
• Pre-rolls, which play before the video.

What happens is that you choose one when creating YouTube ads in Kenya.

And can be customized by geolocation or targeting specific audiences like people who live in Nairobi and watch workout videos at least twice per week.

We will discuss more on a dedicated guide to YouTube ads in Kenya.

How to get started with YouTube marketing in Kenya

Step One: Understand your target audience

Ask yourself, who is your audience? What are their interests and passions? What are their needs and how can you solve them?

Understanding your target audience will help you figure out the issues they are struggling with.

Your audience is your customers.

Figure out how you can use video to help alleviate the pain they are going through.

For example;

If your target audience is those looking to buy headphones in Kenya, the main struggle could be picking the best headsets.

You can create a video comparing various headsets in the market. This should help them make a decision fast.

Step Two: Create a YouTube channel

The next step is to create a YouTube channel and upload videos with content that your target audience will be interested in. 

If you’re trying to sell dog toys, for example, then the video should show dogs lightheartedly playing with dog toys. 

Here are some types of videos you can create on youtube to promote your business in Kenya;

• Tutorial Videos – “How To” videos that show people how they can fix something, a DIY project, etc. These are usually great for businesses with products and services related to what’s being shown! Keep these short though (no more than 15 minutes) so viewers will keep watching through the end because they’re interested in learning more. 
• Vlogging – This is a type of video where people share their own private thoughts and feelings with the world. These can be really personal videos, so it’s important that you only do this if you feel comfortable! 
• Live Streaming – YouTubers who produce gaming channels or other live streams will often have these types of content on YouTube as well. For example, someone might broadcast from a game they’re playing online to viewers in real-time. 
• Interviews with experts in the field or people who are influencers on social media. 
• Conversations around your topic, answering questions from viewers
• Reviews – what items are good for certain purposes, what your best advice is
• Analysis – how do you think about the topic? What does it mean to you?

Step 3: Create the video, edit, and upload

Decide on the best type of video that will work well with whatever you’d wish to share and your end goal.

For example;

If your end goal is to make sales, you can create a review video.

Just record yourself going over the pros and cons of a product and then the final verdict (do you recommend it?).

And then include a call-to-action asking people to buy (provide a link where people can place an order or a number they can call).

Once done recording, edit the video to remove unnecessary parts, and then upload it to your channel.

Step 4: Promote Your Video

To make an impact, your video needs to attract views.

How to get more views on your videos in Kenya

Use these strategies to get more YouTube views in Kenya;

• Pick a topic of interest to your target audience.
• Upload at least one video per week. That’s all you need!
• Add captions in the language(s) spoken by your viewers, so they can understand what is being said and share with friends who speak that same language. If you want people from other areas to see it too, use subtitles instead. This way everyone will be able to enjoy your videos no matter where they live or their regional dialects are different than yours! 
• Use keywords or phrases from your target audience’s language(s) in titles and descriptions (YouTube SEO), which may help increase views by 25%. The more words related to the topic within one title or description tag, the better off you’ll be because Google searches automatically prioritize those entries higher than others.
• When writing your video title, keep the first two words as a verb (known in some marketing circles as the ‘action phrase’) that is relevant to what’s happening on screen.
• Keep your content fresh so that people don’t forget about you or get bored with what you’re uploading. 
• Ask for feedback from viewers and subscribers—you’ll find out if it’s the type of video they like to watch and will be able to tell in advance when something isn’t going over well. This can help avoid a lot of view whoring* which is an easy way to rack up views but never actually helps grow a channel because there are no real connections between the viewer and creator. *View Whoring: Posting clickbait titles on social media sites such as Facebook in order to drive traffic back onto YouTube where the user then links offsite (usually monetized)

Talking of SEO, let us discuss that a little further.

How to optimize your video for search engines

See, YouTube is the second-largest search engine, after Google, its parent company.

As such, if you need more YouTube views in Kenya, you better learn how to make your videos show up among the top results.

This starts with using keywords in the right place.

A keyword is the phrase users type into a YouTube search when looking for something specific.

For example;

‘Chest workout for beginners’ is a keyword that will bring up chest workout results.

Now, if you include this keyword in your title, description, tags, and even subtitles, there is a higher chance your video will rank higher for that query, bringing you more views in Kenya.

To get YouTube keywords, you need to perform keyword research.

What is YouTube keyword research?

This is the process of trying to identify what types of topics will be popular with viewers, measure the strength of competition in niche markets and more.

Luckily, you don’t have to do it manually, there are tools like KeywordTool.io.

Just head over to https://keywordtool.io/youtube 

Make sure it is set to ‘YouTube’ and Kenya English.

Then hit search.

You will then get results of various keywords related to what you searched.

The downside is that this tool does not show the estimated search volume of each keyword, unless you are a pro user.

Either way, you have something to get started with.

What I usually do is go to the question section and pick.

And then go do a quick search on YouTube to gauge the competition.

If there is minimal competition, I’d pick and create a video.

Now that you have the keyword, do the following;

a). Use the keyword in your title.

b). Use it in the description of the video.

The mistake people make when uploading videos to YouTube in Kenya is leaving the description box empty.

Do not do that.

c). Use within the tags

And that is how to optimize your videos for YouTube search in Kenya.

Other ways to get more views in Kenya include;

Here are more tips;

• Keep the video as short and concise as possible
• Consider using keywords in your subtitles 
• Engage with other YouTubers by commenting on their videos to potentially increase views of yours. These are called back links! 
• Add an appropriate thumbnail or banner image that is eye catching rather than a stock photo (unless you’re doing something instructional) because YouTube searches will rank these higher if they think it’s relevant content for viewers like yourself. Also consider adding captions so Google can understand what’s happening on screen.

It isn’t always rossy. There are some drawbacks of youtube marketing in Kenya.  

The downside of marketing on YouTube in Kenya

The process is not always instantaneous; although it usually takes less than 24 hours for your video to show up in search results, it might take as long as 48 hours before people actually see them if they aren’t being promoted elsewhere online.

If someone uploads a pirated version of one of your videos without permission (known in the industry as “freebooting”), there’s nothing you can do about that except hope that viewers will come across a legitimate copy instead.

YouTube also has strict copyright policies. If you use copyrighted music or footage in your videos, YouTube will automatically censor it and there’s a chance they could take down the video if they find out about it for infringing on their terms of service.

YouTube doesn’t have an official way to track how many views each individual video receives. 

So while you can set up goals with Google Analytics, you’ll need another third-party software like TubeBuddy to get accurate view counts.

But because of the power of YouTube marketing in Kenya, you can’t help but want to join in.

It is relatively easy to upload content; anyone with a smartphone can do so using the app or through the website without any extra expensive equipment necessary. 

There are also plenty of tutorials online available via Youtube’s Creator Academy or other sources. 

YouTube in Kenya also has a tremendous amount of traffic and its content is often picked up by other social media platforms, which can lead to more views as well.

Additionally, you can get insights on what is working best for other videos in your niche by checking out the “related” section of similar videos.

And then there are different types of video views, including a watch time which measures how long someone watches the video before they click off and another type that tracks if viewers clicked on an ad displayed during it.

How to get more YouTube subscribers in Kenya

Have clear goals

Have a clear idea of what type of video content you want to make. 

Video marketing is different than other types of marketing because it’s usually more personal, and the value can be in the presentation as opposed to saving people time or money with your product offerings.

An example might be an instructional cooking show that gives viewers tips on how to prepare their favorite dishes. 

Other videos might include tutorials for computer software, car repairs, hair styling techniques, etc. 

Quality over quantity

Focus on quality before quantity when putting together your YouTube channel so that subscribers will continue following you once they find out who you are and enjoy watching your videos. 

Quality doesn’t mean hiring professionals from all aspects (camera person, producers/writers) but simply taking enough time to shoot and edit your videos in a way that is clear to understand.

Hold contests

Contests are a great way to get your channel’s subscribers excited and engaged. 

It works like this: you upload a video asking people for their email addresses, telling them that if they subscribe to your YouTube channel then they’ll be entered into the contest.

Post updates about what’s going on in real life

Your followers want to know about how your day is going, where you’re headed next, or anything else interesting happening in your life. 

These posts will help foster more engagement with viewers who might not have seen one of your videos yet but find themselves reading through all of these other ones just because it feels personal and intimate.

Offer rewards (things like free downloads)

When creating a product as part of an online business, it’s important to offer some type of reward for signing up. 

It is extremely easy and affordable to create a free product that can be downloaded on your website or YouTube channel

Give tutorials

Just like any other video site with an emphasis on education such as Khan Academy, TED Talks, and Udacity lectures; you should also produce videos demonstrating skills you know well

Followers/subscribers goals

Your goal may not have been reached yet, but don’t lose hope! 

The numbers will go up if you’re consistent in uploading content. 

If the number isn’t going up fast enough though (meaning less than one new subscriber per day), try a different angle by posting something enticing about yourself each time so viewers are more likely to subscribe.