How to Advertise on YouTube

Key takeaways

To advertise on YouTube, you will create an ad campaign in your Google Ads account, choose your campaign goals, and upload your video ad.

• Types of video ads to choose from include skippable in-stream, non-skippable in-stream, bumper, masthead, and infeed ads.

• Selecting a bid strategy, whether CPV, CPM, or CPA, lets you decide how much you plan to spend on your ad and set a budget.

• You can use your Google Ads account to check your YouTube advertising metrics to assess the success of your campaign and get insights on needed changes.

Learn the steps for setting up ads on YouTube, and get details on the types of ads you can choose from and how to optimize your campaign. Then, if you're ready to further develop your advertising and customer engagement skills, enroll in the Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Professional Certificate. This eight-course series is designed to help you analyze online performance and grow customer loyalty, which can, in turn, help you improve your video advertising skills.

How to advertise on YouTube

Knowing how to advertise on YouTube is important for increasing brand awareness and creating an online presence for your company. With nearly two billion users worldwide, YouTube is an excellent means to reach your targeted audiences [1]. Many different types of advertisements are available on YouTube. Once uploaded, your ads are connected to the videos on the website to reach different audiences.

Here is a quick guide on how to advertise on YouTube:

1. Create the video advertisement.

2. Create a Google Ads account and start a new campaign.

3. Choose your campaign subtype.

4. Optimize your campaign bid strategy and set target audiences.

5. Launch your advertisement.

1. Create the video advertisement.

Before uploading your ad on YouTube, you must develop an idea and film a video promoting your product. YouTube has templates available for you to fill in your company’s brand name, logos, and any other personalized information that can make your advertisement unique. Consider the story you want to tell with your advertisement, its goal, and who you’re trying to reach. YouTube has royalty-free music available to content creators that can enhance your advertisement.

Read more: How to Learn Video Editing and Why This Skill Matters

2. Create a Google Ads account and start a new campaign.

If you do not already have a Google Ads account, you can create one by visiting the Google Ads web page and clicking Start Now in the top right corner. 

Click the Create plus sign and then choose Campaign. Click on the YouTube reach, views, and engagements option, and press Continue.

Choose your campaign goal from the options: video views, reach, or YouTube subscriptions and engagements. Press Continue.

3. Choose your campaign subtype.

Once you've started your campaign and selected your goals, you’ll be prompted to create a campaign name and choose a subtype that determines what ad you will upload to YouTube. When designing your YouTube ad, you can choose from six main types of advertisements.

• Skippable in-stream ads: After five seconds, viewers of your ad can skip it. These ads can typically last up to a full minute and should hook the viewer within the first five seconds to increase brand awareness and interest. Skippable in-stream ads will play before, during, or after another video.

• Non-skippable in-stream ads: Users cannot skip non-skippable in-stream ads, which usually last six to 15 seconds. They also play before, during, or after the video and act as mini commercials to promote your product or service.

• Bumper ads: Bumper ads will play before, during, or after a video. They are non-skippable, last six seconds or less, and are best suited for quick, simple campaign messages that grab the audience's attention.

• Outstream ads: Outstream ads will appear only on mobile devices and on Google-owned sites except YouTube. They typically reach audiences with a stronger mobile presence online.

• Masthead ads: A masthead ad will appear on the YouTube home feed. However, it will only be available on a reservation basis and is intended for large advertising campaigns rather than smaller promotional ads. 

• Infeed ads: An infeed ad is a watch suggestion on a user’s search results page that encourages them to watch an ad for a product or service they may have already been searching for. 

After selecting your subtype, you can start optimizing your campaign.

4. Optimize your campaign bid strategy and set target audiences.

Your next step will be to choose a bidding strategy. Decide how much you plan to spend on this advertisement and set a budget. You can pick from three types of bidding in YouTube ads:

• CPV (cost per view): You'll pay after a user has watched your video for a minimum of 30 seconds

• CPM (cost per impression): You'll pay after the ad has been viewed 1,000 times

• CPA (cost per action): You'll pay after someone has engaged with your ad or site

To ensure your advertisement meets your intended audience, select the language, location, network, and exclusive information for your ad that correlates with the audience you are trying to reach.

Read more: How to Set Up Open Bidding in Google Ads Manager

5. Launch your advertisement.

Finally, you can launch your advertisement. After uploading your ad to YouTube, monitor its performance among your targeted audience. By checking your ad's awareness, consideration, and actions, you can assess what works with the video and what does not. You can also use your Google Ads account to check your YouTube advertising metrics, which track your reached audiences and ensure that you are not overspending.

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• Watch on YouTube: Multi-Channel vs. Omni-Channel Marketing Explained

• Follow a tutorial: How to Connect Analytics to Google Ads | Coursera

• Read our Career Chat issue: Guerrilla Marketing: Methods, Madness, and Monkey Business

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