While most people think of YouTube as a place to get goofy movies and music, some people think of it as something else: a goldmine of marketing. In fact, many branders and marketers consider YouTube to the very best social media platform out there-better than Facebook, better than Twitter.

If you want to get the most out of this unexpected marketing wonder, read on. These are tips from entrepreneurs who have successfully forged the path before you.

Your Video Will Probably Not Go Viral… Yet

YouTube receives a staggering 48 hours worth of video every minute of every day; the odds of your particular video going viral are miniscule. Instead of aiming to becoming the next Jeffrey Harmon (aProvo,UtahOral care brand owner whose videos went national), aim to use YouTube as a way to reach a wider base of great customers. You probably won’t get millions of views, but the idea is to get the right views, not zillions of the wrong ones.

And who knows? Maybe a video will go viral, but if it does, it probably won’t be the one you expected to anyway, so why stress out about it?

Advertise Yourself on YouTube

You can purchase ad space on YouTube. Rates are decent; search ads on YouTube are 50 cents a click; about a third of the cost of AdWords. This means that you don’t have to spend a fortune on decent ad spreads. You can purchase promoted videos as well which are a great way to reach an audience at a lower cost.

Keep in mind that Google owns YouTube and will be checking to ensure that your ads are relevant to your content or else you could find yourself booted down the list of relevance which is no good to you.

Use What YouTube Offers to Test Your Videos

Unfortunately, you probably don’t have the resources for things like focus groups and surveys, but you don’t need them. There are several tools right on YouTube you can use:

-Viewer comments. You may have to sort the wheat from the chaff, but the wheat can be helpful to you.

-Hot Spots, a technology which allows you to see when people are viewing your video

-A/B testing. Run two different versions of your clip as an unlisted video with search ads and see which one does best.

-Google Analytics. Analytics will tell you how much traffic you’re getting from YouTube. Surprisingly, people who come in from YouTube tend to spend more time on your site than those who come from elsewhere.

Watch YouTube

Just like the artist who studies his form and the writer who reads, if you’re going to use YouTube, you may want to, well, USE it! Research what’s hot on YouTube and why and then use that as inspiration for your own advertisements.

Estimating ROI

It’s actually kind of hard to get hard data on your conversions and click rates. This is because the best you can manage is to count views and track the traffic from the videos, but you have no way of knowing if the people who bought stuff bought it cause they saw you on YouTube or if they saw you somewhere else. The best you can do is estimate what your ROI is based on customer service calls, comments and messages you get. You can tighten things a little by asking how a customer found you during the customer feedback, but otherwise, you’ll have to estimate the best you can.

That’s ok though; it’s par for the course when you are in marketing.

Finding a Niche for Yourself

Finding a niche for yourself is important because most people will ignore a general advertisement. There are a couple of ways to do this: you can either promote yourself as an expert in your field or you can attach yourself to some aspect of a lifestyle. Remember: someone out there (hopefully many, many someones) want what you have, so even if you think it’s boring, someone else thinks you have the answers. Figure out what you’re selling, why you’re selling it and why someone would want it. From there, you can build advertisements which will help people, connect them and let them explore your products and services. It isn’t enough to just advertise; you have to build a community.

YouTube is a great way to do marketing so long as you treat it like you would treat any of your advertising campaigns-an eye towards helping others, building communities and of course, driving traffic to you. Underestimate the power of this medium at your peril!