Are you looking for an effective way to grow your business online and attract more customers? Then, you should try YouTube Ads! YouTube Ads are a potent tool for companies wanting to increase brand awareness and drive conversions. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through how to run ads on YouTube to take your business to the next level. So, let’s get started!
What are YouTube Ads?
YouTube ads are video ads that can be shown before, during, or after a YouTube video. They can be used for different goals, such as increasing brand awareness or generating conversions. YouTube advertising can target users based on demographics, interests, topics, and more. Additionally, YouTube ads can be displayed on any device, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and smart TVs. Depending on your business goals, your YouTube ads strategy might shift its focus and format.
Why run YouTube Ads for your Business?
YouTube ads have shown a higher performance than any other form of digital advertising. Studies showed that YouTube ads have the potential to reach 2.56 billion users. Besides, 90% of internet users rely on YouTube to discover new products, services, and brands.
If your objective is gaining exposure for your products and brand, a YouTube video will help communicate your message much more effectively than display ads.
YouTube ads will provide you with comprehensive and measurable reports on your campaign’s performance so that you can optimize your ads to ensure maximum results. Additionally, YouTube Ads are highly cost effective and ideal for any business with a marketing budget to stick to.
How much does it cost to run YouTube ads?
The cost of running YouTube Ads depends on several factors, including the format, targeting, and budget. Generally, the prices of running YouTube ads can range from $0.10 – $20 per view. According to Graphy, if you have a video with 1000 views, you’ll pay around $10-$30 for those views. It can cost around $2,000 to reach 100,000 viewers on average. If you correctly target your audience, it is a low cost compared to the number of customers you can generate.
How to Make Ads on YouTube
It’s time to advertise on YouTube. Below are the steps you should follow to run high-performing YouTube ads for your business.
Step 1: Identify your target audience
Before you start running YouTube Ads, you need to identify your target audience. Consider who you want to reach with your ads and who is likely to be interested in your product. Create a detailed buyer persona to help you target them more effectively. Consider demographics, psychographics, behaviors, interests, and frustrations. With a clear picture of your ideal customer, you are ready to create your video ad.
Step 2: Create your video ad
Create a video that will best resonate with your target audience based on your findings. Make it short, attractive, and with a clear message in mind. According to research, the ideal length of a video ad is 15 seconds. However, the same study argued that personalized videos can be 70-90 seconds long and still bring high completion rates. In other words, the length of your video will highly depend on your target audience’s video consumption behavior. Captivate your audience to ensure they watch your whole ad.
Step 3: Upload your video to YouTube
Once you’ve created your video, upload it to your YouTube channel. Write a compelling title and description. Also, make sure you use tags that are relevant and descriptive. This process is simple and takes a few minutes.
Step 4: Create a new Google Ads Campaign
Now that your video is published log in to your Google ads account. You should then create a new Google ads campaign.
Select the appropriate campaign type and goal
Make sure to click on the “Video” campaign type. Select the goal you’d like to pursue, whether that’s brand awareness, traffic, or sales.
Name your campaign
Choose a name that will help you find your video campaign easily. This will help you keep order internally when running multiple ad campaigns.
Set a budget
Set how your budget will be spent daily. This will help ensure that your campaign drives the highest possible ROI. You can modify your budget later if you wish to increase or decrease it. Also, specify the dates when your budget will start to be spent and when it should end.
Select your display networks
Your display networks are the places where your video ad will show up. You can choose between YouTube search results, YouTube videos, or Video partners on the display network.
YouTube Search Results
The YouTube search results feature will enable your video ad to show next to search results on YouTube.
YouTube Videos
This feature allows your ad to show on other YouTube videos, channel pages, and the homepage.
Video partners on the display network
This feature indicates that your ad will also appear across Google’s other advertising avenues.
Choose language and location
Select the language and country where you want your video ad to appear.
Choose a bidding strategy
Select how you wish to pay for your ads. You can choose between Maximum CPV (cost-per-view), Maximum CPM (cost-per-mille), Viewable CPM (cost-per-mille or vCPM), or Target CPA (cost-per-acquisition).
We break down each of them below.
Maximum CPV: Costs are allocated based on your video ad’s number of views and interactions.
Maximum CPM: Costs are allocated for every thousand impressions your ad receives.
Viewable CPM: You will be charged for every thousand impressions, but only until your ad has being seen.
Target CPA: The costs will be allocated when specific actions are performed by users with your ad, such as clicks.
Select inventory type and exclude content
The inventory type allows you to specify the type of content you want your ad to be displayed on. This is important because you don’t want your ad to appear with sensitive or graphic content. For example, if your business provides dentistry services, you don’t want your ad to appear with sexual content. You can choose between expanded inventory, standard inventory, and limited inventory.
Expanded Inventory
Expanded inventory works for brands that want full access to the full breadth of videos eligible for ads. It will show your ad in some sensitive content. Still, it will exclude content with excessive profanity, sexual content, nudity, or graphic violence.
Standard Inventory
It will show your ad on appropriate content. It will exclude content with strong profanity, strong sexual content or discussions of it, and real or dramatized violence.
Limited Inventory
Limited inventory excludes most types of sensitive content. It excludes the same types of content as expanded and standard inventory but also excludes moderate profanity and moderate sexual content.
Step 5: Select your Target Audience
With the analysis you ran on your buyer persona, select the characteristics of the users that your ad will target. You will be able to segment your audience on factors such as their gender, age, parental status, interests, interactions with your business, and what they research.
Step 6: Choose your Target Keywords and Topics
Choosing the correct target keywords will help you target the right audience and people searching for your products and services. Perform in-depth keyword research to find the queries that would bring more value to you. If you are unsure of the types of keywords you should be targeting, using the “Get Keywords Ideas” is a great place to start. Additionally, select the topics that you wish your ad to show on. Choose the correct industry, as you don’t want your ad to appear on unrelated content.
Step 7: Select where your Ad will show
You should then select the specific places where your ad will show up. Leaving this blank will indicate to Google that your ad can show up on any YouTube or Display Network placements that match your targeting selections. You can choose between websites, YouTube channels, other videos, or apps.
Step 8: Select your Video and Set Up your Video Ad
You are almost ready! Proceed to select the video you will use for your ad. You can either upload it directly from your computer or use the live URL of your YouTube channel. Once you have selected your video, choose the format your video ad will have. Let’s cover each of them.
Types of YouTube Video Ads
Non-skippable In-stream ads
In-stream ads are short video ads that play before, during, or after YouTube videos. They are typically 15-30 seconds long and cannot be skipped. They are an effective way to reach a broad audience and generate conversions.
Skippable In-stream ads
On the other hand, skippable in-stream ads are also 15-30 seconds long, but users can skip them. This type of ad is less intrusive but risky to use if your video ad is not engaging and attractive, as users may decide to ignore it.
Video Discovery ads
Video discovery ads are short video ads shown in YouTube search results. They are an effective way to reach a specific audience and generate more views and engagement. Video discovery ads are an excellent option for businesses looking to increase their visibility on YouTube and generate more leads.
Bumper Ads
Bumper Ads are short, 6-second video ads that are shown before, during, or after YouTube videos. They are an effective way to get your message across quickly. Bumper Ads are also relatively inexpensive, making them an excellent option for businesses on a budget.
In-Feed Video Ads
This format allows you to put your ads next to content that is likely to be viewed by your target audience. In-feed video ads can appear in YouTube search results, YouTube watch next, and the YouTube app Home feed.
Outstream ads
Outstream ads are only designed for mobile devices and appear on websites and apps running on Google video partners. They are not available for YouTube but can appear across different mobile placements, such as banners, interstitials, in-feed, native, and portrait and fullscreen modes.
Masthead ads
Masthead ads are full-screen ads that appear at the top of YouTube’s home page. They are typically used to promote a brand’s latest product, service, or campaign and are seen by many users.
Add a CTA, URL, and headline.
Include a relevant call to action, a URL to a landing page, and an engaging headline to catch users’ attention.
Step 9: Publish your Ads and Measure its Results
Before you publish, make sure to review your ads and double-check for any errors. When ready, click the “Publish” button, and your ads will be live. Constantly monitor your ads performance to ensure you maximize results. YouTube Ads provides detailed reports to help you better understand the performance of your campaigns.
You can also use tools like Google Analytics to measure the success of your ads and determine if your campaigns are driving conversions. Once you’ve identified areas of opportunity, decide whether it’s worth optimizing your current ads or stopping them and running other campaigns.
Conclusion
YouTube Ads are a powerful tool for businesses to increase brand awareness and drive conversions. With the right strategies and time, you can use YouTube Ads to take your business to the next level.
Now that you know how to run ads on YouTube, it’s time to get started with your video ads! Don’t worry. We can help! RealTop has over 15 years of experience managing online advertising campaigns and helping businesses thrive online. Contact us today and get a free marketing plan from our team of experts.
Nik Tsoukales, founder of REALTOP, is an experienced digital marketer with a track record of growing businesses and sales teams. He has received multiple awards for leading fast-growing companies and specializes in organic SEO, Google PPC, and Social Media. With over 89k clients acquired online, Nik’s expertise spans various industries including finance, healthcare, and real estate.