YouTube is one of the most powerful advertising platforms in recent years. With over 2 billion monthly active users, it presents an incredible opportunity for affiliate marketers to reach a massive audience and drive sales.
In this article, we'll look into the strategies and techniques used by Chris Reader, an affiliate marketer who has generated over 8-figures in revenue primarily through YouTube ads. By following his proven formula and insights, you too can create highly profitable YouTube ad campaigns for your affiliate offers.
Understanding the YouTube algorithm
One of the key differences between Facebook and YouTube ads is how the algorithm works. As Chris explains, "The YouTube algorithm is so powerful that they even track everyone who skips an ad within 5 seconds and who watches the rest of the video."
This means that by targeting a broad audience and allowing the algorithm to optimize based on user behavior, you can expect to receive very clear performance data and focus on optimizing the campaign to match what resonates with your ideal customer.
Chris's approach is to run ads without any specific targeting beyond age and location. He emphasizes, "If you call out your target audience to a broad audience, everyone who skips isn't going to be optimized for, and everyone who watches it will be.
So this allows you to really focus on finding a script that converts and a creative that converts." By leveraging the YouTube algorithm in this way, Chris has been able to scale campaigns from a couple hundred dollars per day to tens of thousands of dollars per day within a matter of weeks.
The 9 foundational pillars of high-converting scripts
At the core of Chris's success on YouTube is his script formula, which he breaks down into 9 foundational pillars:
- Pattern interrupt and qualify the audience
- What's in it for them
- Agitate the pain points and problems
- Provide solutions and results
- Establish authority
- New opportunity
- Value perception
- Social proof
- Urgency and Call to Action
While not every script needs to include all 9 pillars or follow this exact order, incorporating most of these elements and adapting them to your specific offer can help you create highly persuasive and psychologically impactful videos that convert viewers into customers.
Pillar 1: Pattern interrupt and qualify the audience
Chris emphasizes that the first 5 seconds of your video are the most critical, as this is when viewers decide whether to keep watching or skip the ad. He explains, "On YouTube, we have five seconds to stop someone from clicking, and as I mentioned with the way I run my ads, I target broad. So these five seconds are basically 95% of the most important part in the video."
To create a strong pattern interrupt, your opening needs to be visually and audibly compelling. Chris recommends using videos that are "weird, gross, or very thought-provoking." Coupling this with ad copy that calls out your target audience will ensure that the right people keep watching while those who aren't interested will skip the ad, allowing the algorithm to optimize for your ideal customer.
Examples:
- Weight loss: "You've never seen anything like this for weight loss before. There is a new powerful solution men and women are using to drop weight like crazy."
- Car insurance: "How much do you pay for car insurance? If you're paying over XYZ a month, you must stop what you're doing and watch this now."
Pillar 2: What's in it for them
After hooking your audience, you need to clearly communicate what benefit they'll receive by watching your video. This helps build anticipation and keeps them engaged. As Chris notes, "It's really important that obviously your actual videos, and if you're using stock footage or real footage, it really needs to target the demographic that you're talking about because if it doesn't align, it's gonna be a mismatch and there's gonna be an incongruence in your customers head."
Examples:
- Weight loss: "This breakthrough discovery explains the real reason why you can't lose weight and targets the root cause of your stubborn belly fat."
- Car insurance: "If you're a good driver and don't have any DUI's in the last six months, you could literally cut your current expenses by more than half."
Pillar 3: Agitate the pain points and problems
Humans are emotional creatures, and effective advertising needs to tap into those emotions. By poking at your audience's pain points and agitating the problems that your product solves, you create a stronger desire for the solution you're about to present.
Chris elaborates, "This point allows us to really capture our customer avatar and let them understand that we know what their problems are."
Examples:
- Weight loss: "If you're over 40, most diets simply don't work - keto, paleo, vegan, juicing... It's all the same, and you can easily spend 20 years going from diet to diet without seeing the results that you're looking for."
- Car insurance: "If you're tired of paying expensive bills for your car insurance and you're dreading the day your bills come in the mail, it's time for all that to change. Imagine in the next few moments knowing you're going to have an extra $300 a month."
Pillar 4: Provide solutions and results
After agitating the pain points, it's time to offer the solution in the form of your product or service. This is where you paint the picture of the results your audience can expect by taking action.
Examples:
- Weight loss: "After testing this on over 2,328 people, scientists have concluded that this is more powerful than any weight loss solution before it."
- Car insurance: "By just answering these simple questions on the next page and providing your area code, you could join the thousands of other Americans who are slashing their insurance bill in half."
Pillar 5: Establish authority
Establishing authority is important because people want to know why they should listen to you and trust your solution. Chris notes that this pillar is "often infused with other points such as mentioning individuals of credibility such as doctors, scientists, or researchers."
He also suggests writing your ad copy in the third person, not first person, and using language that demonstrates your authority on the subject matter.
Examples:
- Weight loss: "A famous Japanese doctor recently leaked a secret formula - an ancient Japanese tonic that targets the root cause of deep belly fat and activates a powerful, little-known fat-burning hormone inside you that melts away all your stubborn belly fat."
- Car insurance: "With already thousands of happy customers in America, our company has been leading the industry in providing the best car insurance prices guaranteed."
Pillar 6: New opportunity
Highlighting how your product is different from everything else your audience has tried helps spark curiosity and maintains interest. As Chris explains, "This is also where you can use a unique hook from the offer."
Examples:
- Weight loss: "This ancient tonic targets the root cause of a slow metabolism and is unlike any diet or exercise plan."
- Car insurance: "In order to take advantage of this new rule and get this amazing opportunity and start saving today, you must click the link down below."
Pillar 7: Value perception
With YouTube ads, it's important to be direct and clearly articulate the value of your offer. Let your audience know that without your product, they'll likely waste more time and money than if they had simply taken action and gotten the results you're promising.
Examples:
- Weight loss: "Start now because without this, you could waste 10 more years and countless dollars on fad diets and pointless exercise equipment."
- Car insurance: "Don't throw away another dollar to car insurance companies that have been overcharging you while you could have been saving as soon as today."
Pillar 8: Social proof
Social proof, in the form of testimonials or case studies, helps build trust and credibility. You can either dedicate a whole section of your script to social proof or weave it throughout your video. Chris recommends having "an image or video of your ideal demographic on the screen with their testimonial or quote."
Examples:
- Weight loss: "147,000 people are already using this amazing tonic to crush hunger cravings and achieve the body of their dreams without counting calories or even exercise."
- Car insurance: "Join the thousands of Americans who are already saving thousands by switching their car insurance."
Pillar 9: Urgency and Call to Action
Wrapping up your script with a sense of urgency and a clear call to action is paramount for driving conversions. Chris stresses, "If you don't have a call to action, your click-through rates will be a lot lower, and your CPCs will be a lot higher. So just by having a call to action at the end, you're gonna drastically increase your click-through rate and decrease your CPC."
Examples:
- Weight loss: "Stop everything you're doing because this secret method is so amazing, it's set the entire weight loss industry back to the drawing board, and it's currently losing them millions of dollars."
- Car insurance: "This policy is costing the big insurance companies millions, and they're doing everything in their power to keep you from knowing about this new way to save hundreds. Click the link below to secure your new rate."
Scaling your YouTube ads
One of the most appealing aspects of YouTube advertising is the ability to scale winning campaigns quickly and aggressively. As Chris notes, "Google actually wants you to spend heaps of money. So once you have a winner and it's doing 100% ROI plus, you can actually start bumping the budget on day one."
He shares examples of campaigns that have gone from $200 per day to $50,000 per day in spend within a matter of days. The key is to focus on finding that one winning video and then pouring fuel on the fire. "All you need to do on YouTube is just start scaling it," Chris advises.
This scaling process is made easier by the fact that you don't need to rely on a complicated split-testing structure as you might on Facebook. "I have to sort of like get that out of my head and just focus on finding the one winner and start really scaling that up," Chris explains.
Creating the perfect video ad
When it comes to creating the actual video ad, Chris relies heavily on stock footage from sites like Shutterstock and iStock. The key is to select footage that aligns with your target demographic and enhances the story you're telling through your script.
He emphasizes the importance of having your footage "align and blend" to create a cohesive and persuasive video. You can also incorporate any user-generated content or testimonial videos you might have from other platforms.
While the exact structure of your video may vary depending on the offer, Chris generally recommends having an "intro hook" within the first 5 seconds, followed by introducing the problem, agitating the pain points, presenting the solution, and closing with a strong call to action. The video should be around 2-3 minutes in length.
More Insights from Chris Reader
Q: Can you tell us about your journey and how you got started in affiliate marketing?
My journey started when I entered college for a marketing and management degree. I quickly realized it wasn't for me and that I needed to find a way to make money outside the traditional system. I dropped out and since then, I've generated over 8 figures in affiliate marketing. I started with Facebook ads originally after learning from a mentor. My first online success was doing over $15,000 a day, which really opened my eyes to what was possible as a college kid at the time. I mainly run health and wellness verticals on networks like ClickBank and MaxWeb.
Q: What are the key differences between running Facebook ads vs YouTube ads for affiliate marketing?
Facebook is a very social platform and ad copy is typically written in first person, like "this is my problem, this is how I solved it." Facebook ads are usually 10-15 seconds long. With YouTube, the ads are around 2-3 minutes long and the ad copy is more authoritative. On YouTube you need to really leverage authority in the script by mentioning credible sources like doctors and scientists. Male voiceovers tend to perform better. The ad copy should be written in third person as if you're an authority on the subject.
Q: How do you understand and leverage the YouTube algorithm to rapidly scale campaigns?
My approach on YouTube is simple but highly profitable. I run broad offers, meaning I don't do granular targeting, just age and location. The YouTube algorithm is so powerful that it optimizes based on who skips within 5 seconds vs who watches. So by calling out your target audience to a broad audience upfront, the algorithm will optimize out people uninterested and deliver to those who are. This allows you to just focus on finding a script and creative that converts. Once you find a video that hits, you just scale the budget and it can go from a few hundred to tens of thousands per day very quickly.
Q: How many video ad variations do you typically test before finding a winner and what budget do you allocate per ad?
I like to launch 3 ads at a time to start, but you could launch more offers and ads to spread the testing. I always base it on comparison so I'm launching multiple to compare the stats and see where to focus. I never just launch a single ad.
In terms of budget, I always start at $200 per ad. Within the first $100 spent, if one ad is making sales and another isn't, then it's clear which is going to be the performer. So I can tell pretty quickly with that initial test budget.
Q: For the first 5 seconds of the YouTube ad, which are the most important, how do you structure that to grab attention using stock video?
The first 5 seconds are critical because if you don't capture their attention immediately, they'll skip the ad. The script needs a strong hook that is very direct, curiosity-provoking, thought-provoking, and interesting for your specific offer. It should be a pattern interrupt.
In terms of the video, you can use stock footage that aligns with that script. For example, in a dental ad, I used an aggressive, close-up clip of a dentist drill going into someone's mouth. It was a bit gross and confronting which created that pattern interrupt and snap them out of their usual consumer trance.
So the key is having an attention-grabbing hook in the script combined with a matching visual that shakes them out of auto-pilot so they keep watching to see what the interesting thing is that you're about to reveal to them. The script and video need to work together to achieve that.
Real-world results
Throughout his social media and blog site, Chris shares several examples of the incredible results he has achieved by following this YouTube ad formula. From scaling a campaign from $0 to $30,000 per day within 3 days to generating $500,000 per week in affiliate commissions, these case studies demonstrate the immense power of YouTube advertising when done correctly.
One of the key takeaways is that you don't need to overcomplicate the process. By focusing on creating a compelling script, selecting engaging visuals, and letting the algorithm optimize for you, it's possible to achieve massive success with a single winning campaign.
Conclusion
YouTube advertising presents a massive opportunity for affiliate marketers to reach engaged audiences and drive significant revenue. By following the proven script formula and insights shared by 8-figure earner Chris Reader, you can create highly profitable YouTube ad campaigns for your affiliate offers.
Remember to focus on crafting a compelling hook, agitating pain points, providing a unique solution, and closing with a strong call to action. Leverage the power of the YouTube algorithm by targeting broadly and letting user behavior guide the optimization process.
When you find a winning campaign, don't be afraid to scale aggressively and ride the wave of success. With the right approach and a commitment to testing and iteration, you too can achieve incredible results with YouTube ads.
