Baby boomers and today’s seniors came of age well before the era of on-demand media, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t embraced the technology. Baby boomers and seniors have flocked to video streaming platforms like YouTube for a number of reasons. Seniors turn to YouTube to get help, to learn something new, and to be entertained. Rather than asking their adult children for help setting up a new piece of technology, seniors search YouTube to get information in an accessible format. According to Google, 1 in 3 boomers say they use YouTube to learn about a product or service.

Video ads offer a unique opportunity for senior living marketers to reach prospects where they spend their time. With three in four online video watchers taking action as a result of an online video, it’s important to take advantage of this format in order to drive brand awareness. Online video advertising proves to have huge potential in captivating seniors and baby boomers throughout the buyer’s journey.

Baby Boomers Turning to YouTube

Google research finds that boomers and seniors turn to the Internet as their top source for gathering information, outpacing television and print media. With baby boomers spending more time on YouTube, it’s essential for senior living marketers to be present at each digital touchpoint in order to engage this audience. This is a huge opportunity for brands to connect with people over the age of 50, who account for 51% of consumer spending.

Google reports that 54% of boomers/seniors watch online videos versus 65% of the general population. Senior video watching behavior centers on entertainment and utility, with 15% of them spending more time watching online videos than TV. According to the Ipsos MediaCT Boomers/Seniors Research Study, 82% of seniors choose YouTube as their preferred online video website. Seniors gather information and then take action, with 3 in 10 actions taken by boomers after a search involving an online video.

Increase Brand Recall with Bumper Ads

Google recently released the Bumper Machine tool in order to help online advertisers create six-second bumper ads from existing video ads that run 90-seconds or less. The Bumper Machine is powered by machine learning and identifies well-structured moments in longer videos and converts those into multiple six-second video ads. The process takes a matter of minutes and can be adjusted before saving the new bumper ads. This technology identifies the brand logo, human faces, and motion to automatically produce the short ads.

Bumper ads were first introduced by YouTube in 2016, offering them as part of the AdWords (Google Ads) platform. These unskippable bumper ads have proven successful in terms of brand awareness and ad recall. YouTube reported that 70% of the 122 bumper campaigns it analyzed drove a significant jump in brand awareness and ad recall. The Bumper Machine allows brands to create captivating new video from existing creative and leverage them as part of their ongoing campaigns.

Drive Brand Awareness with Video Ads

Senior living marketers who take into account how tech savvy the baby boomer generation really is will have the greatest success in creating brand awareness with video ads. Seniors have warmly embraced YouTube and on-demand media formats, emphasizing the importance of marketing to them at every digital touchpoint. Taking advantage of six-second bumper ads allows you to not only get more mileage out of your existing content and extend your campaigns, but it increases brand awareness and compliments your broader messaging.

Interested in learning more about marketing to seniors? Schedule a digital strategy session with G5 and find out how your brand can resonate with the right prospects at the right time.