A Short Guide to Advertising on YouTube for Beginners.
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine with over two billion active users per month.40 billion videos are streamed through YouTube every month and over 500 hours of video content is uploaded per minute. Yes, the stats are mind-blowing!
Now, imagine the power of reaching out to this vast audience of active targeted users for your business. Isn’t it Incredible, right? Engaging the right people with simple video marketing has never been more effective. But here’s the thing — almost every marketer and brand out there is trying to capitalise on YouTube’s potential, yet only a handful manages to do it right.
Wondering what it takes to advertise effectively on YouTube? In this quick guide, we’ll offer a basic overview of ad formats on YouTube, followed by some simple tips for you to get started.
Different Ad Formats to Choose From
Before starting on how to utilise YouTube ads, let’s take a look at the different types of YouTube ads that you can work with:
- True View Ads: This is the most standard type of ads on YouTube that requires you to pay only if:
- The viewer interacts with the ad’s CTA
- The video is watched till minimum 30 seconds or until the end
There are two types of True View ads, namely:
- Video Discovery Ads (In-Display Ads) – that appears on the YouTube Home page or search page or as a banner on a related video content page.
- In-Stream Ads – that plays as skippable ads before the users’ selected video content plays on YouTube.
True View ads let you engage customers with maximum cost efficiency. Give them a compelling story or a viable case study to introduce your brand. Sharing relatable features for your target market helps your ads in making the necessary impact sooner. The best part is that you don’t pay in case of an ad skipped before the time limit restrictions.
- Pre-Roll Ads: Looking for something a bit more aggressive and direct? Pre-roll ads are non-skippable, preferably 15-20 seconds long video ads that you can choose to place before, mid-roll or at the end of any related video content selected by the user.
Make sure to utilise the time span to completely grab your viewers’ attention. Despite the forceful ad-roll, you can make it count with content that’s really engaging. Providing your viewers with a piece of well-structured information and/or call-to-action works well here.
- 3. Bumper Ads: These are the shortest ads on YouTube that play for about 4-6 seconds. These are great especially when it comes to recycling your older video content or making the users notice your business like a teaser video. Precision and innovative imaginations are the keys to success with these ads.
How to Setup Your YouTube Ad Campaign?
The basic requirements that you need to start with are:
- A YouTube Channel (obviously)
- Video ad content
- Google AdWords account
- Your website/landing page (for redirecting CTAs)
Once you link your YouTube and AdWords accounts, you can create your ad campaign from Google Ads dashboard. Next, upload the video with proper tags, thumbnails, and descriptions to enhance relevance and setup monitors for various performance metrics of your campaign.
Quick Tips to Create a Successful Ad Campaign
- Ensure the first 3-7 seconds are really interesting
- Tell a story that resonates with your customers
- Focus on simple and straightforward ad content
- Try not to include more than one CTA
- Research and analyse the trends before launching the campaign
What we’ve discussed in this short guide only scratches the surface of YouTube’s enormous world of possibilities and what you can do with this platform to grow your business. But if you’re just toying with the idea of leveraging YouTube ads to build your brand, these tips can be a good starting point.
