YouTube Video Ads!
The fastest and easiest way of getting qualified traffic is the traffic that will actually convert into leads customers. What will you do? Paid Advertising!
No doubt YouTube video Ads are the cheapest paid advertising available nowadays.
Does it mean other paid advertising means like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. are substandard? Certainly not! They’re good in their own ways, but they are expensive and more competitive.
Do you know YouTube video ads can bring you the same results as that of other platforms? Yes, it is, typically at a much lower cost and with fewer competitors.
It’s not hype…..it’s actually on the ground.
The key points on the effectiveness and best practices for YouTube advertising
YouTube advertising is effective:
- YouTube viewers are 2x more likely to buy products they see advertised on the platform.
- YouTube has over 2.6 billion monthly active users, allowing businesses to reach a massive and diverse audience.
YouTube ad formats:
- Skippable in-stream ads (pay after 30 seconds viewed or interaction)
- Non-skippable in-stream ads (pay per 1000 views)
- Bumper ads (6 sec non-skippable)
- Discovery ads (text/image in search results)
- Sponsored cards (pop-up info cards)
- Overlay ads (banner ads on the bottom 20% of video)
Best Practices for YouTube Advertising
- Upload the video ad content first before launching the campaign
- Create a new Google Ads campaign and choose the appropriate ad format and targeting
- Hook viewers in the first 5 seconds for skippable ads
- Use non-skippable ads to ensure brand exposure
- Leverage discovery ads to promote video content
- Combine ad formats for maximum impact
Overall, YouTube advertising can be highly effective when executed properly, allowing businesses to leverage the platform’s massive user base and engage with their target audience in various ways. The key is understanding the different ad formats and using them strategically to meet campaign goals.
The key steps for creating a successful YouTube advertising campaign
Define the campaign details
- Choose a campaign name, budget, and daily spending amount
- Identify the dates the ads will run
- Select the language and location of the target audience
- Decide where to show the ads and how to pay for them
- Exclude any “sensitive” content if needed
Select the target audience
- Use YouTube’s audience targeting options to define your buyer personas
- Give a name to the chosen audience segment for future use
Finish setting up the campaign
- Define relevant keywords and topics for your ads
- Add all necessary details like links, headlines, etc.
- Click “Create Campaign” to launch the promotion
Develop an effective strategy
- Maintain an active YouTube channel with consistent branding
- Create engaging video content like demos, testimonials, and FAQs
- Grab attention with catchy slogans, formats, or celebrity endorsements
- Continuously optimize ad settings through A/B testing
Leverage remarketing and user reviews
- Use remarketing to target users familiar with your brand
- Promote positive customer reviews in your ads
- Consider YouTube’s Brand Lift Study to measure ad effectiveness
The key is to combine smart targeting, compelling video content, and continuous optimization to make your YouTube advertising campaign a success. Stay flexible and test different approaches to find what works best for your business.
How cheap are YouTube video Ads?
YouTube is more than just a video platform; it is the world’s second-largest search engine (after Google). This fundamentally changes how people use it and how you should advertise.
Cost & Competition
Lower Cost
In many markets, YouTube video ads can cost significantly less than Facebook Ads. While Facebook focuses on Cost-Per-Click (CPC), YouTube’s main cost metric is Cost-Per-View (CPV), often ranging from about $0.10 to $0.30 per view.
Less Crowded
You face a lot less competition on YouTube compared to Facebook. This means you have more open opportunities and it’s easier to get your ad seen by your target audience.
High User Intent (Targeting Power)
The biggest difference is user intent.
Users are scrolling to see what friends are doing. Your ad is an interruption, trying to divert their attention from posts about food, family, or news.
YouTube
Users are actively searching for something specific: a tutorial, a product review, a workout routine. Your ad appears when they are already engaged with a related topic.
The Benefit – You catch visitors at the exact moment they are looking for information about your product or service, leading to much higher quality leads.
“Free” Brand Awareness Feature
This is one of the most powerful features of YouTube’s ad model, especially for skippable ads-
You Only Pay for Real Engagement
With a common ad format (Skippable In-Stream Ads), YouTube only charges you if a user watches the ad for 30 seconds or more, OR if they click on the ad.
The Free Benefit
If someone watches your 30-second ad for 25 seconds and then skips, you pay nothing. However, they have still just received a powerful message about your brand, product, or service. Just like an expensive TV commercial, your brand awareness is built for free!
How Does Free Advertising Work on YouTube- The 2nd Largest Search Engine?
Many people see YouTube as just another social media site—a place to scroll and waste time. They are missing the bigger picture. In reality, YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google.
Search Engine Intent vs. Social Media Distraction
Social Media (Distraction)
Users are casually scrolling through posts about what friends are eating or doing. Your ad is an interruption that tries to divert their attention.
YouTube (Intent)
Users actively type specific keywords into the search bar. They are looking for a solution, a tutorial, a review, or a specific product. Your ad meets them when their intent is high.
“Free” Benefit
Think of it like TV advertising. When a TV commercial plays, you are made aware of the product, even if you don’t buy it right away. TV advertisers spend millions on this “awareness.”
On YouTube, if a viewer watches your 30-second ad for 25 seconds and then skips, you have delivered a compelling message to a targeted user, and you are charged absolutely nothing!
YouTube lets you build the same powerful brand awareness as a multi-million-dollar TV campaign, but with the ability to reach a precise, interested audience, and with a significant portion of your exposure coming at zero cost.
Building a Huge Audience through “Influencers” and Affiliate Marketing
The old-school approach to influencer marketing is becoming obsolete. The days of chasing individual creators, begging them to promote your product, and negotiating tedious sponsorship deals are over.
YouTube advertising offers a far more powerful, scalable, and direct path to the exact audience you want.
Influencer Audience, Without the Middleman
We owe a debt of gratitude to the biggest YouTube creators, the “super-affiliates” and influencers who have spent years building loyal, massive, and highly-engaged audiences of millions. They have done the hard work of gathering your ideal customers into one place
The genius of YouTube Video Ads is that you don’t have to work with the influencer; you can simply work around them to reach their audience directly.
This is achieved through Placement Targeting in Google Ads-
You don’t beg
You don’t have to contact the influencer, negotiate rates, or worry about them delivering a low-quality shout-out.
You target their viewers
YouTube allows you to explicitly instruct the platform to run your video ad directly in front of, during, or after the videos of specific, high-authority YouTube channels.
Earning a Hefty Sum from a Built-in Audience
Imagine a competitor or an industry expert in your niche has a channel with 500,000 subscribers who watch videos daily about the very problem your product solves.
By using YouTube Placements, you are essentially-
“Borrowing” their audience’s attention at the moment they are deeply engaged with a topic relevant to your business.
Bypassing the costly sponsorship fee and instead paying only for views/clicks that indicate genuine interest (and often getting the awareness benefit for free, as discussed before).
You are instantly positioning your product or service in front of a pre-qualified, highly-targeted audience that someone else spent years and millions of hours building. This is an unprecedented.
