The power of youtube marketing is ubiquitous, and brands of all sizes want to tap into the power and reach their target audience through this platform. Nearly all brands want to use the platform’s popularity and want to swab the wide viewer base that youtube enjoys. In contrast, Youtube ads are the most underutilized formats in digital marketing due to various reasons.
Youtube ads can be tough in the beginning, but once you get over the initial hurdle,you can use it to benefit your business. Today’s article is a guide to Youtube ads and how you can use Youtube ads to grow your business.
The Types of YouTube Video Ads
In this section, we have detailed different types of youtube ads in which your business can invest. Here is a list of basic formats which is listed by Google.
Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
Non-skippable ads are ads which can be played before, in between, or after the entire video is played. These videos can be about 15 to 20 seconds in duration.
Non-skippable mid-roll video ads are the ones which are displayed in between the youtube video. These ads are 10 minutes or longer, with a five-second countdown for desktop viewers and a 5-second countdown for the ones on the app. In addition, there are yellow markers where the ads are placed.
What Do Non-Skippable Videos Include
Non-skippable ads give you ample freedom in terms of allocated content. In these ads, businesses can include elements such as people, audio, dialogues etc., whatever seems the best fit for the brand can be displayed in 15 to 20 seconds.
Since non-skippable ads cannot be skipped, it is best to create these ads with a CTA in order to optimize viewers’ attention and encourage viewers to receive something in return.
Skippable In-Stream Ads
These are ad types that the advertisers only pay when the user watches it for at least 30 seconds, or til the end of the video, or if the user takes any action on the ad. As per YouTube, skippable ads need to be between 12 seconds to 6 minutes. These ads appear at the start of the video that users have selected to watch on the streaming platform. These ads can be displayed anywhere on the Google Display Network (GDN). In-stream ads allow brands to customize Youtube ads with different overlay text and CTAs.
What Skippable In-Stream Ad Videos Can Include
Skippable Youtube ads can be customized with royalty-free music, videos with dialogue, people and other elements. It’s good not to refrain from running standard promotional commercials as users may just skip these ads, and they would not give users a reason to watch them. Whereas the ads which have a source of entertainment along with information strike a chord with the audience, and the percentage of skip ads decreases.
With the help of skippable in-stream ads, advertisers can get a lot of information concerning the performance of their ads, which can be used for optimization and testing purposes. Using a Google Ad account can help with data on the ad’s full views, partial views, rates of clickthrough on the CTA, and channel subscriptions which help in understanding and allocating the budget for the next ads.
Bumper Ads
The next type of ads that are part of a youtube marketing campaign are bumper ads which can last only for six seconds and are non-skippable. These ads cannot convey a story but can be used to complement a larger video campaign which is running. It is imperative to include components which are highly important and the ones you want the audience to remember.
Overlay Ads
These are youtube ads which hover at the bottom of the video, and they are a perfect example of advertising your product and reaching your target audience in an intrusive way.
Why Youtube Ads
Over the years, Google has constantly worked on Youtube advertising applying all permutations and combinations, making Youtube a worthwhile investment.
Cost Effective Way
The cost is calculated based on the keywords targeted, the industry, and the views that Youtube ads have. For Youtube ads, marketers can spend as little as they want and set it as a daily budget, over which Google will only charge up for the set amount. On the other hand, targeting keywords on Youtube is relatively less expensive than that on traditional Google search. On the other hand, Youtube ads are cost-effective and allow you to reach your target audience in a much more creative way.
Business Safety
Youtube has constantly been working on upgrading the policy in order to protect its advertisers as well as its viewers from harmful content. They posted the latest update in 2022 that mentions having clear language, ads not being allowed to be placed on sensitive events, acts, inappropriate language, etc.
User Search History Targeting
Among the changes that Google rolled out in terms of Youtube, the most significant for advertisers was to target audiences based on their search history on Google, alongside their viewing patterns on Youtube as well. Advertisers can target audiences based on who recently searched for a certain product or service, and if the content of your youtube ad is close to what they are searching for, it is likely that they will watch the entire ad.
Data Attribution Upgraded
YouTube’s data attribution model has also been upgraded by Google in order to have advertisers measure user engagement with the brand’s ads. There is also an option to view cost-per-conversion and see the performance of the YouTube ads alongside the Search and Shopping ads reports.
Top Tips For Advertising Your Youtube Ads
- Define your metrics and goals.
You need to keep track of four main metrics categories while analyzing the results.
- a) Audience:- First and foremost, the audience; this category can be split on the basis of income, gender, age, status, etc., to track the engagement metrics.
- b) Views and Impressions:- Under this category, you know the percentage of people who viewed the ad.
- c) Conversions:- The most important metric, the one that will help know how well the ad is doing in terms of driving leads and generating a high ROI.
d)View Rate:- The view rate could show the advertisers if the creativity in the video is entertaining and if people are watching the ad until the end. Increasing the VTR will decrease the cost per view.
- Track Low-Performing Placements.
Suppose you’re running in-display ads that will appear across the Google Display Network. In that case, you can review sites where the ad is displayed. the sites which are not performing as per the expected metrics. Exclude these sites from your ad campaign to increase your average CPV.
- Look Out For Longer Ads
Regarding the skippable in-stream ads, the advertiser will only pay for a 30 seconds ad if the viewer watches it until the end. On the other hand, for ads longer than 30 seconds, you pay if the viewer watches it for at least 30 seconds. In both scenarios, you have to pay when the viewer interacts with the ads before it gets over. It would help if you considered this while you came up with ideas to curate the content for the ad.
You may put messaging at a certain point, so uninterested viewers can skip the ad, or you may provide special offers towards the end of the video.
- Choose Ad Formats wisely
There are many youtube ad formats available, as mentioned. Hence, first, try to determine the purpose behind running the ad. Is it about brand awareness or engagement, or are you looking to increase your leads or divert the audience to the website? Depending on the purpose, you have to try to experiment with different ad formats and compare the performance. Market research and understanding the formats. Investing in market research to understand the ad format that will help you reach your business goals can be worthwhile.
- Youtube Targeting Options
Youtube ads are just like advertising on FB, Twitter and Google; you need to pay close attention to the eyes consuming your content, as you don’t want to waste your money on an irrelevant audience. With Youtube advertising, you have the flexibility of who will see your ads, right from demographic targeting, to affinity audiences, custom affinity audiences and in-market audiences.
Final Words
Video content is the king of content strategy and marketing. More and more social media platforms are focussing on video marketing. For brands, when it comes to video marketing, Youtube marketing is more relevant and beneficial as it is less competitive and more targeted.
If you’re interested in having strong Youtube marketing for your business, then DMC is the right digital marketing agency for you. DMC is a well-known social media marketing agency based out of Hyderabad. We have worked with more than 800+ businesses from all genres and have helped improve their online business presence by driving traffic through both social and local marketing channels with our trusted, time-tested and skillfully planned Digital Marketing strategies garnering business more revenues and leads.
We at DMC (Digital Marketing Consulting) can help grow your business by developing your visibility and improving your online presence.
You can fill in the details at digitalmarketingconsulting.in/contact-us.php, and our team will get back to you.