You know those ads on YouTube? The ones you have to endure just to get to the stuff you really want to watch? Nobody likes them. But they do serve a purpose…at least for marketing folks. Did you know that in an average month, 18+ year-olds in the United States spend more time watching YouTube than any television network? And on mobile devices, 18–49-year-olds watch YouTube during primetime more than the top 10 primetime shows combined. That’s huge.
What is YouTube Advertising? And Why Should You Care?
YouTube ads are videos that appear on the channel’s website and app, as well as on partner sites such as the Google Display Network. However, advertising on YouTube is very different from running a search, display, or paid social media campaign. That’s because there are creative constraints you have to follow as well as a ton of options for targeting and placements within the platform that you need to understand before you fully launch a campaign.
Types of YouTube Ads
When determining what kind of video ad to run for your campaign, there are three key types of video ads you can invest in:
- TrueView Ads: TrueView ads are standard video ads on YouTube. When utilizing this type of ad, advertisers only pay for TrueView ads when viewers watch or interact with their ad. These ads can be customized to share a variety of content for maximum reach.
- Video Discovery Ads: Video Discovery Ads show up on the YouTube homepage, search results pages, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages.
- In-Stream Ads: In-stream ads are played before someone watches a video they’ve selected. Once the ad starts to play, viewers may have the option to skip the ad after watching it for five seconds. These ads also let marketers customize video ads with different CTAs and overlay text.
How to Create A YouTube Ad
So, your marketing plan was approved and YouTube is one of your tactics but you’ve never advertised on YouTube? Here’s what you need to do to get your campaign running:
- Upload your ad to your YouTube page
- Go to Google AdWords and click “+Campaign” then select “Video” and “Campaign Objective”
- Enter a name for your campaign
- Enter budget type, amount, launch date and end date
- Decide what networks you want to use
- Select locations to target
- Pick the appropriate languages
- Define where your ads will be shown based on content exclusions
- Create your ad group
- Layer in your targeting: Choose the people you want to reach and the content in which you want your ads to appear
- Determine your maximum price for each view or CPM
- Create your video ad by linking the video from your Youtube page
- Add in your final URL and create a custom CTA if needed
- Once all looks good, click “Create Campaign”
How To Measure Results
Need to report some performance results to your client? Here is what you should measure:
- Views: The number of times people watched or engaged with your ad
- View Rate: The number of views or engagements your video ad received, divided by the number of times your ad was shown. The standard benchmark for view rates is roughly 15%.
- Average CPV: The average amount you pay when a viewer watched 30 seconds of your video
- Watch Time: The total amount of time people watched your video ads
The Takeaway
YouTube Advertising is a great way to reach potential customers where they’re watching relevant content, and a powerful way to grow your business. Now that you know how to properly set up a campaign, start utilizing it to create more awareness and product consideration for your brand!
Sources:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/youtube-video-advertising-guide
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2375431?hl=en
