Over the last decade the speed by which people access and download data from the World Wide Web has greatly increased by leaps and bounds. It is no wonder then that online video advertising has also become increasingly popular. What with access to broadband connection becoming more affordable while being more efficient, different types of online video like video instant messages, streaming videocasts, vlogs or video blogs, and even video emails have proliferated.

Google was very much optimistic of this trend that in 2006, they bought the San Bruno video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion. The decade that ensued has shown them to be right on the dot on the effectiveness of video marketing. Other video-sharing sites have followed and likewise become popular in the aftermath.

Video sharing sites now gets millions of hits a day so the challenge for effective advertising is to get these people who view these videos to get them into their business sites to make their marketing pitch.

Video marketing is admittedly getting to be the more preferred way for businesses to get their messages about their products and services out to their targeted audiences. In this article, I tackle three top reasons to consider video advertising as part of your online marketing strategies.

1. Video marketing is relatively inexpensive.

Compared to other advertising media, internet video marketing comes out very cost-effective. Alternative video ads like TV or billboard video advertising cost a lot but running something similar on a video sharing site will not cost you an arm and a leg. This greatly levels the playing field and gives small businesses like home-based business owners an inexpensive yet effective way to compete.

Any business nowadays can create their own online videos and upload these on video sharing sites like YouTube or Vimeo. Without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of advertising, you can have millions of viewers worldwide see and appreciate your marketing message. By embedding YouTube or Vimeo videos on your own website, you leverage on the storage and bandwidth of these video sharing sites while your viewers enjoy watching your streaming video on your own website.

2. Videos are effective advertising media.

Most people generally respond better to both audio and visual presentations and that is the reason why video advertising is a more effective marketing medium compared to just a written ad copy. The message is conveyed more powerfully and with additional creativity can elicit more positive responsed from your viewers.

If your video is matched properly and efficiently with a call to action item on your website like a button to click, a form to fill up or a link to click to view another page on your site, you can expect people to be motivated to do these things better if accompanied with a message that appeals to both sight and hearing.

Video marketing is also versatile. There are many ways by which advertisers can use video to convey their message. Explore the many different forms like video instant messages, videos in your email, or simply embedded videos in your blog or website and find out which ones work effectively for you and your business.

3. Video sharing sites get wide coverage and reach.

According to YouTube/Google's own reports, as of 2014 there are 1 billion people who use the video sharing site. 4 billion videos are viewed each day and these are being watched by a wide range of people, young and old, male and female. This means that your advertising video shared on a video sharing site has the potential of reaching literally millions of audiences of different age, sex, and race.

Even if you narrow down your reach to specific niches or targeted demographics, the potential reach is still very advantageous even for small businesses.

According to some top sites tracking digital advertising, in 2014 around $49.5 billion was spent in digital advertising in the US alone and is expected to reach almost $60 billion in 2015. Of this amount, $7.7 billion is expected to be spent on video advertising. (source: http://www.emarketer.com).

With online ecommerce also taking off in unprecedented ways, expect video marketing reach to grow more in the coming years.