YouTube Ads- A Complete Guide | e-Cliqs Consulting

Do you ever wonder how many hours of video are viewed on YouTube every day? More than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos are streamed everyday, according to an article from Brandwatch. That’s almost 60 billion minutes. To put this in perspective, there are 1,440 minutes in a day. That’s insane! You should be interested, too, as a marketing professional. Learn how to start your own YouTube advertising campaign and compete in this visual marketing field by reading on.

What are Google YouTube Ads?

As a general rule, YouTube Ads should be short videos that appear at various points during a user’s YouTube experience. Depending on the ad type chosen during the campaign setup process, these adverts can show at the beginning, middle, or end of the video. Depending on the ad type, YouTube Ads can run anywhere from six seconds to over three minutes in length.

This blog post will walk you through the YouTube ad campaign setup procedure. After reading this blog, you should be able to start your own YouTube advertising campaign from scratch.

Different types of YouTube ads

In order to reach a certain demographic, marketers have three alternatives when it comes to using YouTube ads. Following is a list of each.

1. TrueView Ads

Advertisers only pay for TrueView advertisements if their ads are shown or if viewers interact with them. As a result, brands only pay when viewers watch an ad for at least 30 seconds or the whole thing or if a viewer takes action, such as clicking on the call-to-action button.

Skippable TrueView advertisements should be between 12 and 6 minutes long, while non-skippable advertising should be between 15 and 20 seconds long. Depending on the campaign, these videos may feature real people, recorded dialogue, and music that has been given their consent or is available for free use. Use TrueView ads sparingly because viewers can quickly skip traditional commercials that promote your product. Creating YouTube commercials that give viewers a reason to watch them would be beneficial.

There are two kinds of TrueView YouTube ads:

Video discovery ads – As a companion video, these commercials can be shown on the site’s home page and search results pages.
In-stream ads – These advertisements appear just before a user starts watching a video they’ve chosen. Viewers who have seen the ad for five seconds are offered the opportunity to skip it. Marketers can customise these ads with varied text and CTAs to achieve the desired outcome.

What TrueView Videos Can Include

When using TrueView videos, you can incorporate persons who have given their permission or are considered royalty-free in the speech and music you use. A conventional commercial, on the other hand, should not be shown. You must give your audience a reason to keep watching because these films can be skipped, and product plugs typically don’t receive the views you might expect.

Instead, utilise the available time to convey a tale through your film. People enjoy reading about people who have had to overcome hardships that they can identify with. As a source of amusement, it makes your brand recognisable and less likely to be skipped over.

Advertisers can get tons of data on their advertisements’ success with TrueView ads, which can be used for tweaking and testing.

If you’re running an ad campaign through Google Ads, you can see how many people have seen it in its entirety.

By following these steps, marketers may make more informed decisions about how and where to spend their video ad budgets.

2. Preroll Ads

Unskippable in-stream advertising on YouTube exist. Ads that appear before, during, or after your introductory video can be pre-or post-roll. They last between 15 and 20 seconds. Like TrueView advertising, you can design your ad to your heart’s content. People, audio, and other elements can be used to convey your message in the most effective way possible.

When marketing a new product or an upcoming event, Preroll adverts are an excellent way to attract the attention of potential customers. Try to get visitors to click on the ad in your ad. Preroll ads can’t be skipped, so include a call-to-action (CTA).

3. Bumpers

Brands can use a third type of YouTube ad in this format. They’re six-second commercials that appear before the video you’ve selected. In order to tell a good story in this short of a period it’s impossible to do so. If you’re promoting an event or a new product, these ads can be used to supplement a larger campaign.

To make the most of your time, please focus on the most important aspects of your business that you want your audience to take away with them.

4. Overlay Ads

A video’s bottom overlay is a banner ad for a product or service. This form of ad can be used in conjunction with other in-stream video campaigns. You don’t have to worry about your product being overtly advertised with a banner ad.

How to Set Up and Launch Your YouTube Ad Campaign

After deciding on the right ad type that fulfils all your requirements, it’s now time to set up the ad campaign. The first step is to log in to your Google AdWords account and perform the following steps:

Campaign Type

Select a video by tapping the +Campaign button on the homepage.

Campaign Name

Ensure that the video option is chosen after entering your campaign name.

Video Ad Format

Decide what kind of ad you want to run. In-stream or video-discovery advertising and bumper ads are available.

Budget

You can now specify a daily budget. In addition, you must choose between standard and accelerated delivery as a delivery model.

Network

It would be best to decide whether you want your ad to appear in YouTube Search or YouTube Videos. A separate campaign for YouTube videos and searches is needed to monitor performance indicators effectively.

Locations

Determine where you want your ad to appear.

Language, Device and Mobile Bidding

You can select the device, carrier, and operating system for advanced targeting here.

Advanced Settings

The campaign’s start and finish dates can be specified in this area.

Create the YouTube Ad

Insert the video link after you’ve given the ad group a name. Afterwards, choose if you want this ad to be displayed in display or in-stream.

Bidding

Here, you need to figure out the maximum amount you’d be willing to pay for each view.

Targeting

Define your target audience, taking into account factors such as age, gender, social status, and personal interests, to name a few.

Advanced Targeting

It is possible to target specific individuals through the use of subjects, keywords, and even entire websites!

Link Account

You must connect your AdWords account with the YouTube channel where your video is housed if you haven’t already. To begin running your YouTube Ads campaign, click the “Finish” button.

10 Tips for Optimising Your Video Ads

While launching a video ad campaign is an excellent first step, there are a few details to iron out before you begin paying for views. You’ll get the most bang for your buck and the most return on your investment this way.

1. Define your metrics and goals.

You may track four primary metrics for each video when analysing the results.

Views and Impressions

In the “views” section, you can see how much of the ad individuals saw and how the ad drove views. You may also observe how your brand’s other videos saw a spike in views.

Audience

Tracking engagement metrics by age, gender, household income, and parenting status is possible with this category.

View Rate

The ad’s view rate can indicate whether or not the creative and message are engaging enough to draw in viewers. Your cost per view will be reduced if you can raise your view-through rate (VTR).

Conversions

Conversions can tell you if your ad generates leads and provides a good investment return (ROI).

Establishing a few objectives based on these indicators can help you focus your efforts and create a strategy for improving your creativity and testing out various targeting options. While some metrics are better for branding, some are better for driving leads and conversions, and you should base your ad’s content on your aims.

2. Track low-performing placements.

Using your Google Advertisements dashboard, you can see where your in-display ads have appeared by going to Video Targeting > Placements > Where advertising was shown > Display network and looking at the locations where your ads have been shown. This list might help you identify which sites are causing your targeted metrics to perform poorly. To improve your CPV, remove these sites from your ad campaign.

3. Use a custom thumbnail image.

In order to get people to click on your video, design or use an attractive still image from the video. Keep in mind that this image must be readable on various devices, including mobile. A person in your photograph should be gazing directly into the camera’s lens if possible. If you’re showcasing a product, avoid using a distracting background.

4. Drive people to buy with cards.

A little I sign appears on a YouTube card, which the user can click to expand. Only those who have watched the video and content will see this notification.

You can use cards to promote products related to or featured in the video. It is possible to customise the card in any of the available formats. We’ve also included an example from our YouTube channel showing how to use cards to generate donations and traffic to a URL or other videos.

5. Create calls-to-action.

Call-to-action overlays that point to a URL can be used to drive traffic to a YouTube video’s promotion page. You can link to a product page, an information page, or even a career page to whatever you like. A link to a positive review or interview with the brand might also be shared.

6. Create a YouTube end slate.

Create an end screen. Create an end screen to drive subscribers to your channel, promote your social networks, or increase interest in your brand. If a viewer sticks around until the finish of your video, it’s a positive sign they’re interested in what you have to say in the future and may want to subscribe to your channel.

7. Use negative remarketing.

For long-term campaigns, you may want to create a list of people who will not see your ad so that you may only target those who are new to your business.

In order to save money, you can exclude those who have already seen the video, visited your YouTube channel, or commented on or shared any of your videos from your campaign’s target audience.

8. Closed captioning is a great way to meet the expectations of your audience.

Not many brands follow this general best practice, yet it applies to all YouTube videos. Make sure to include a high-quality video transcription you’ve prepared and authorised yourself. Because YouTube’s automatic captioning isn’t always accurate, Google only indexes transcriptions posted by users. Transcriptions in other languages may also be necessary, depending on your audience. Additionally, you can include a link to a transcript of the video in your video description.

9. Qualify viewers.

People with no interest in your product may view your ad. Don’t waste their time by showing them an ad when it’s irrelevant, and you won’t have to pay for the view either.

10. Consider making your ad longer.

If the ad is less than 30 seconds long, you only pay if the viewer watches to the conclusion. An advertisement longer than 30 seconds gets paid for if the viewer spends at least 30 seconds viewing it. In any situation, you’ll be charged if a viewer engages with your advertisement before it ends. When brainstorming for the ad’s content, keep this in mind. You may wish to place a message at a specified time in the video so that viewers who aren’t interested can skip it, or you may offer special deals at the end.

The Future of Video is Bright

You can’t have a content plan without including some form of video. With YouTube allowing marketers to target individuals based on their search history, this is even more true today. Due to video’s relative youth and relative obscurity on the internet, it has a smaller market share than blog postings regarding advertising on YouTube.

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