A Beginner's Guide to Advertising on YouTube

Advertising on YouTube

Creating YouTube ads might involve an upfront investment if you can't produce them in-house. Once you've built up a library of digital assets, they can be less costly to produce, should you chose to recycle and update elements from previous campaigns. 

We're not going to cover the video production aspect, but you'll need to have your video ready to go before you can configure most campaigns. You'll also need to upload it to YouTube and fill out the title and description as you would for a regular video upload. If you don't have a video ad ready yet, there is a simple way to get started with advertising on YouTube.

You can do this is by using image or text ads, as seen in traditional digital advertising campaigns. Display ads are a banner format that appears on the right side of the featured video, above the video suggestions. They may also appear below the video player, and they run in a 300x60 format.

Overlay ads display over the lower fifth of a video and are semi-transparent. The ad format is 468x60 or 728x90.

Sponsored cards are another option, and these appear as a small letter 'i' in the top-right of a video. When clicked, these expand, and these can be used for products as well as to suggest other videos.

When you have a video ready, discovery ads can be set to appear in YouTube search results, alongside related videos, and on the YouTube mobile homepage. TrueView means that you only pay for a real view, in this case meaning when someone clicks the thumbnail next to the text of your ad.

Skippable Ads

As their name suggests, these video advertisements give viewers the option to skip after 5 seconds of the ad has played. They can play before, during, or after the main video.

It's estimated that 65-75% of viewers skip video ads if they have the option, so why would you want to opt for a skippable in-stream ad in the first place? The cost-per-view (CPV) option makes this format very popular because you only pay after 30 seconds or more is viewed, or if there is a viewer interaction.

Because you aren't paying for most of the skips from uninterested viewers, this format offers superior value to a non-skippable ad. There are two other bidding options where you pay based on impressions rather than views.

Target cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) means that you pay an average amount when your ads are seen 1000 times. Target cost-per-action (CPA) bids with the goal of most conversions.

TrueView is the main type of YouTube skippable ads, and they are recommended as being no shorter than 12 seconds and no longer than 3 minutes. Because viewers have the power to skip, they are less annoying to viewers, which makes them a great choice for advertisers too.

A countdown timer displays and a companion banner ad appears top-right, above the suggested videos.

Non-Skippable Ads

This YouTube ad format is similar to the above, but the ability to skip is disabled, so this can be frustrating to viewers who want to watch the video they initially selected. The in-stream ads are 15 seconds or less and only use Target CPM because all impressions are views as well.

There's another type of non-skippable ad available to video marketing teams, known as a bumper ad.

Because they can only be 6 seconds (or less), they are suitable for situations where you need to build brand awareness with a quick but catchy message. Again, only Target CPM bidding can be used.

Google Ads

Your marketing campaign for YouTube is created within Google Ads, so if you don't have an account yet, you'll need to sign up. When you start a campaign, Google offers a few different types that will offer goal suggestions in the future. If this isn't useful to you, you can ignore this feature.

After choosing the name and setting a budget for your campaign, you have the option of standard or accelerated delivery. The latter is useful to test out a small budget when you are getting started, as opposed to spreading the ads out more evenly throughout the day.

Set the start and end dates and choose which networks you want the ad to appear on. For a video ad, selecting YouTube search results will make it a discovery ad, and the YouTube videos option will make the ad show on other YouTube videos, channel pages, or even the YouTube homepage. The video partners offer an alternative display network, approved by Google for showing ads.

We've covered the main bidding strategies already. If preceded by "target" it's an action-based strategy, "maximum" means the cost is based on the number of views and interactions, whereas "viewable" means that you only pay when the ad is seen.

You'll want to put a lot of thought into the audience targeting options, using what you already know about your customers, but be careful not to over-target to the determent of your ad's exposure.

Optimize Your Campaign

We've shown that advertising on YouTube isn't just for the big brands. You can nurture a niche audience on any budget and use campaign targeting to get to understand your customer base even better. Don't waste ad dollars on undefined goals - engage your audience with video ads.  

If you're looking to get started with a YouTube advertising campaign, we can help you achieve your goals. We are the world's first comprehensive digital marketing placement company, and our platform puts you behind the steering wheel of your campaigns.

Contact us today to schedule a demo.

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