Mastering YouTube ads – Ultimate Guide

Advertising is digital nowadays, so using YouTube ads is necessary for businesses. If you don’t know the first thing about them, this article will show all you need to know. After all, it can be difficult to switch to digital marketing, especially if you’ve been used to the old methods. That’s because promoting a brand on the internet works differently than in public.

YouTube advertising is a great example, as it’s one of the strategies that will enable you to reach billions of people with far less spending. This downside is that you have much more competitors than before, so your YouTube ads should stand out. Fortunately, I will show you the steps to making the best YouTube advertising campaign.

I’ll start by sharing more reasons why your company needs YouTube advertising. After that, I’ll discuss the various types of YouTube ads, so you can see just how much they can do for your brand. More importantly, I’ll get into the nitty-gritty of starting a YouTube campaign, from making the best ads to releasing them in the most appropriate format.

Here’s all that I will cover in this guide:

• Why you should use YouTube ads
• The different kinds of YouTube ads
• Steps to launching a YouTube ad campaign

Why use YouTube ads?

Video advertising, in general, can help your company in many ways. However, it’s best to focus on YouTube since it’s the biggest video platform in the world!

For example, did you know that 54% of consumers like watching video content from brands? More than 2 billion of them are logged on every month! Here are some more YouTube stats:

• It’s behind Facebook as the world’s second-most used online social platform.
• People on the internet are four times more likely to use YouTube than other websites when looking into a product, service, or brand.
• More than 70% of internet viewers say YouTube lets them know more about new brands.
• Around 80% of US parents of kids aged 11 and under said their children watch YouTube.
• Viewers 18 years old and above spend around 41.9 minutes on YouTube every day.
• The typical viewer checks 8.89 pages daily.
• About half or 50.9% of B2B decision makers research purchases using YouTube.
• Around 70% of YouTube viewers bought from a brand after seeing its products and services on the video platform.

In other words, data proves that YouTube ads allow you to reach billions around the world. Even better, the website can help you increase sales.

Yet, it’s not even the biggest reason you should use YouTube advertising. You need marketing strategies like this because your customers expect it.

People are getting used to buying everything they want online. That’s why companies want to increase their presence on the internet. As a result, more companies adopt digital marketing.

Read More: How Your Company Adapt To Digital Trends

What are the types of YouTube ads?

If you’re not used to promoting online, you might think YouTube ads are all the same. Yet, you can launch various types on the platform. Read the following to learn more:

• Bumper ads are the non-skippable ones that play for six seconds before a YouTube video. This ad placement option is turned on when skippable or non-skippable ads are switched on first.
• Skippable video ads also play in the video player, and the viewer may skip the ad after five seconds.
• Non-skippable video ads play during or after a video. Also known as non-skippable in-stream ads, they last for 15 to 20 seconds, depending on the region.
• Overlay ads show up on the lower part of the video content as a small image or block of text. However, they only appear when you watch YouTube on PC.

What’s more, you could launch TrueView YouTube ads, so you only pay for TrueView views. It’s the number of times a skippable video ad is watched for 30 seconds or until it is done.

Types of TrueView ads

If a user didn’t watch the video for that long, YouTube wouldn’t charge you for that time. As a result, TrueView ads lets you spend less on an ad campaign:

• In-stream ads are among the most popular types because they let brands pay only when viewers interact. Like bumper ads, a viewer may skip them after five seconds, but you’ll only pay if they watch at least 30 seconds.
• Reach ads lets you use the in-stream format while using a cost-per-impression (CPM) buying basis. In other words, they are an efficient way of reaching a target audience.
• Action ads are also known as TrueView for Performance, and they allow you to invite viewers to perform certain actions. They have calls-to-action for viewers to invite viewers to look at your brand offerings, subscribe to your newsletter, or do other things.
• Video Discovery lets you display ads on the YouTube search results and the Watch page. This lets you recommend an ad as if it’s a video that a user may want to watch.

People could subscribe to the YouTube Premium program so that the video platform won’t display ads. However, only 23.6 million people are registered, so most viewers will still see ads.

How can I start advertising on YouTube?

As with any marketing campaign, you need to plan first. Determine the reasons why your brand needs YouTube ads by looking back at the parts of your sales funnel.

It usually has four parts: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action, and you must guide customers through them. You do this by making sure they perform certain actions.

You may call these actions that correspond to a certain sales funnel stage as leads. Certain YouTube ad formats help you gain the right leads.

Once you’ve decided, it’s time to create your video content. You will need people with the right skills to plan and create it, such as writers, photographers, and video editors.

Upload the finished content on YouTube, then make a new Google Ads account to create a new campaign. Pick one of the goals it presents, or choose to create a Custom video campaign.

Next, set other details such as its name, budget, networks, and more. YouTube shows ads based on an auction system that checks the content quality and the bid amount.

You have two options: Maximize Clicks and Manual CPC bidding. Pick the bidding option that suits your budget and goals. Read further to find which one’s right for you:

• Maximize Clicks is the simplest option because you have to set an average daily budget. The Google Ads system will manage bids on your behalf to bring the most clicks it can within your budget.
• Manual CPC bidding lets you handle maximum cost-per-click bids yourself. You could place bids for each ad group or separate keywords.

Then, you must pick your target audience, keywords, topics, and ad placement. Finally, choose the video you want as an ad. Adjust the format and banner image, click Create campaign, and you’re done!

Final thoughts

Individual creators could also profit from YouTube ads. They could join the YouTube Partners program to make money from their content.

On the other hand, they could join a company’s affiliate program. They could promote their products and services on social media and YouTube to earn money.

If you’re a business owner, you might have difficulty running YouTube ads. After all, you will need to have the right people and tools to work.

Fortunately, LeadAdvisors can take care of your video marketing needs. That way, you can keep your eyes on other parts of the business. Click here to learn more about its services.

If you are interested in content marketing, please email [email protected]