YouTube Ads: How to get started with YouTube Advertising [For Beginners]

Advertising has come a long way – from print ads to static image banner ads on websites that we all remember from the early 2000s to video ads on YouTube today. Over time, advertisers have realized that ads need to carry a high recall rate and evoke emotions in consumers.

This guide is aimed to help you get started with YouTube Ads, especially if you haven’t ventured into this gold mine already!

Why should I advertise on YouTube?

The best way to evaluate is YouTube advertising will yield results for your own business or your clients, is by familiarising yourself with YouTube’s user base.

YouTube User Statistics 2019

Here are some stats about YouTube users, pulled directly from their website.

• There are over one billion users on YouTube. This is almost one-third of the entire Internet, making it the second-most visited website in history.
• YouTube users watch over a billion hours of video every day and generate billions of views daily.
• Over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices. In fact, on mobile alone, YouTube reaches more people in this US audience than any TV network.
• YouTube is available in 80 different languages across 91 countries all around the globe. The United States, India, Japan, Russia, and China drive the most traffic to YouTube.
• 96% of 18 to 24-year-old American users use YouTube. If you want to target GenZ, promoting your brand using YouTube Ads will give you good results!
• As of 2018, over 50% of internet users above the age of 75 use YouTube regularly.
• YouTube has an audience reach and user penetration of over 90% among online users up to the age of 45.

YouTube Ad Statistics 2019

• 95% of YouTube ads are played with the sound on. In a study done by Google, it was shown that ads with audio and video increase
  • Brand Awareness by 3.8x,
  • Ad Recall by 2.7x, and
  • Brand Consideration by 2.6x

• Since 2016, the number of SMBs that advertise on YouTube has increased by 200%
• YouTube has increased the number of pre-roll ads shown to viewers by 2x. In 2019, YouTube started showing audiences ‘ad pods’, which is two ads at the beginning and/or middle of a video.
• Google and Ipsos Reid conducted a report where they concluded that 83% of YouTube ads on mobile devices receive complete viewer attention, as opposed to 45% on TV commercials and advertisements.

How can YouTube Ads help my business?

You can achieve the following goals through YouTube ads:

1. Build awareness about your brand

Whether you want to capture the attention of potential users or remind your existing users that you exist, YouTube will help you advertise your brand. This will help you increase the size of the top of your funnel.

2. Increase consideration

To drive more users to the middle of your funnel, you need to ensure potential customers are interacting with your brand. You can achieve this by showing YouTube ads to your target audience during opinion-shaping moments. This is when they will be more receptive to your messages.

3. Drive conversions

When a potential customer is at the decision-making stage, i.e. at the bottom of the funnel, you can influence them to make a purchase by showing ads relevant to your product and services. Here is a quick read of the different types of video ads for different stages of your funnel.

What are the different types of YouTube Ads?

1. TrueView Ads

In an attempt to ensure that advertisers receive the most value from their ad campaigns and that ad viewers do not see irrelevant ads, Google launched TrueView Ads.

TrueView Ads are opt-in. This means that YouTube users will not be bombarded with ads that they do not want to see. This also means that advertisers will get to show their ads to an audience that is interested, giving them better conversion rates and a high ROI.

Since TrueView Ads are opt-in, they aren’t restricted by time limits. This gives advertisers creative freedom to experiment with longer demo videos, testimonials, or how-to tutorials.

What goals can I achieve with TrueView Ads?

You can use TrueView Ads to build brand awareness (drive traffic), grow interest and consideration (influence user intent), and drive action (make a purchase).

Types of TrueView Ads

TrueView in-stream: These ads play before or during any video content on YouTube. The video plays for five seconds, and then viewers have an option to watch the entire video ad or skip it. The pricing model for this is PPV (pay-per-view).

TrueView video discovery: These ads appear alongside video content on YouTube, search pages, and on websites that support GDN (Google Display Network). The pricing model for this is PPC (pay-per-click).

What metrics should I track for TrueView Ads?

• Ad recall lift: This indicates whether people recall watching your video ad.
• Awareness lift: This tells you whether people are aware of your business after watching your video ad.
• Impressions: This is the number of times your ad is shown on a search result page or on the Google Display Network.
• Unique reach: This is the total number of people who were shown an ad. This helps you understand how many times people were shown your ad across different devices, formats, and networks.
• Consideration lift: This metric tells you whether your ad convinced viewers to consider your business.
• Favorability lift: This indicates whether your ad viewers are more favorably aligned with your message after viewing your ad.
• Purchase intent lift: This will tell you if people want to make a purchase from you after seeing your video ad.
• Views: This metric is counted every time someone watches 30 seconds of your video ad or interacts with the ad – whichever comes first.
• Store visits: This metric shows you how your ads have influences store visits.
• Website conversions: The count of this metric increases when the viewer interacts with your ad and then takes any action on your page.

Check out how some factors like video views affect YouTube Monetization.

2. Bumper Ads

YouTube Bumper Ads are short videos (six seconds) that let you reach a large group of YouTube users, and increase awareness about your brand.

Note, Bumper Ads are non-skippable.

How much do Bumper Ads cost?

Although the cost of your ad depends on the quality of the video, the size of the audience you’re targeting, the competition for your selected audience, and the overall goal you’re trying to accomplish, it will cost you somewhere between 10 to 35 cents per view.

The pricing model of Bumper Ads is CPM (cost per thousand impressions). This means you will pay YouTube when your ad has been viewed a thousand times.

How do I measure the impact of my Bumper Ads?

To measure whether your Bumper Ads are delivering the results you expect, track the following metrics:

• Ad recall lift: This metric tells you whether YouTube users recall watching your video ad.
• Awareness lift: This indicates whether your ad viewers are more aware of your business after watching your video ad.
• Impressions: This is counted every time your ad is shown on a search result page or on the Google Display Network.
• Unique reach: This is the total number of YouTube users who were shown your video ad across different devices, formats, and networks.

3. Outstream Video Ads

YouTube Outstream video ads are mobile-only ads (tablets included) that appear on YouTube’s partner sites and apps outside of YouTube. They are played either inside an app (for example, before mobile games) or within the existing content on the website (for example, embedded in news articles).

These ads play automatically without sound when they appear on the mobile screen. Ad viewers can unmute by tapping on the video ad. They can also either scroll past or dismiss the ad when it appears.

Note, Outstream Video Ads are non-skippable. It is recommended that you keep your Outstream Video Ads less than 15 seconds long.

How much do Outstream Video Ads cost?

The pricing model for these ads is vCPM (viewable cost per thousand impressions). This means that you’ll pay YouTube only if your ad is viewable. 

Note, that an ad counts as viewable when 50% of the ad screen space is visible for either two seconds or more of continuous video play. 

How do I measure the impact of my Outstream Ads?

Here are the different ways you can measure the success of YouTube’s Outstream Video Ads:

• Ad recall lift: This tells you whether people recall watching your video ad.
• Awareness lift: This indicated whether your video ad viewers are more aware of your business after watching the ad.
• Impressions: This metric is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or on the Google Display Network.
• Unique reach: This is the total number of people who were shown your ad. This metric will help you understand how many times people were shown your ad across different devices and networks.

4. Video Masthead Ads

These ads are high-visibility video creatives that are shown across devices at the top spot of the YouTube homepage.

Note, Masthead Ads are non-skippable and have no maximum duration.

Masthead Ads specs

• Your video cannot be set to private, although Unlisted videos can be set as Masthead Ads.
• You can set the video ad to auto-play for a maximum of 30 seconds. Note, the start and end times configurable.
• After the autoplay finishes, the video thumbnail will be shown to the viewer.
• Autoplay does not affect the view count of your video.
• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape).

How much do Masthead Ads cost?

You can by Mastheads Ads on a cost-per-day basis. These appear on the YouTube homepage for a full day.

What metrics should I track for Masthead Ads?

• Impressions: This metric is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or on the Google Display Network.
• Unique reach: This is the count of the total number of people who were shown your video ad. This will help you understand how many times people were shown your ad across different devices and networks. 
• Views: This indicates how many viewers have seen 30 seconds of your video ad or if they have interacted with the ad (whichever happens first).

Conclusion and next steps

YouTube has the highest audience penetration between young adults (aged 18-30). If your products or service cater to millennials, YouTube promotion can yield good results!

Given YouTube’s reach, the main objective of YouTube ads is to increase Brand Awareness and drive traffic to websites.

Here are some tips to create highly, engaging thumbnails for YouTube videos. Oh, and make sure you check out some video templates available for YouTube advertisers on Rocketium – you can sign up here.