How To Put A Real Clickable Link In Your YouTube Video To An Outside Site Without Paying Too Much

Being able to put a clickable link in your YouTube video with a clear call to action to visit your website is of course highly desirable for those who are using YouTube to market their products. The problem has been with YouTube annotations that you are only allowed to put a clickable link to a url directly on the YouTube network like a channel or another YouTube video. You cannot use YouTube annotations to put a link to a website outside of the YouTube network. So how can a marketer get a real call to action link right in the YouTube video and have it go to his website?

The answer is YouTube Paid Promotions. When you register your video with YouTube Paid Promotions you are allowed what they call a "Call To Action Overlay." This is a very nice blurb you can put at the bottom of your video with a description, display url and destination url. If the viewer clicks on the link they go directly to the website of your choice even if it is not on the YouTube network.

I know what you are thinking. "Now I am going to be paying all kinds of high pay per click charges." Not necessarily. You can choose to promote your video through YouTube Paid Promotions and just choose a few unpopular keywords and make a low cost per click bid. This way you get the option of having a nice "Call To Action Overlay" without having to pay the pay per click charges. Of course if you want to optimize your video with lots of keywords and you are willing to pay for it this is fine too.

If you guys have a better way of doing this let me know. I still put my title clip at the end and my own call to actions in the video but it is nice to have that clickable link going right to my websites. This is working for me.