Introduction
Do you want to promote your brand and grow your business? Then try YouTube ads, as they are the best options. YouTube ads help you to show your product and its use to people. Furthermore, it’s a platform that allows you to grow your business.
The best part? You can select any advertisement according to your daily budget.
Your audience can reach your brand through YouTube advertisements. So, it is a golden chance for you to promote your business in minimal time. This guide will teach you about the different types of YouTube advertising.
What are YouTube ads?
It means advertising something on YouTube, an online video-sharing platform. On YouTube, we promote the video content.
Furthermore, you can search for anything on YouTube by writing it in the search bar. Google owns YouTube. Hence, we can advertise on YouTube only through Google ads.
Companies utilize many video ad formats through YouTube advertising. They use it with the display campaigns.
Many companies have extended their online marketing strategies by availing themselves of the opportunity to advertise on YouTube.
But, before starting advertising on YouTube, first, understand how to create amazing videos.
How do you use YouTube video ads to grow your business?
YouTube is one of the top-ranking marketing platforms, and it is known everywhere. However, there are a lot of competitors on YouTube. Firstly, you might face hurdles when you are advertising on YouTube.
But once you get over it, YouTube will offer you different tools for marketing purposes. You cannot find these tools anywhere; YouTube can only provide them.
Types of YouTube ads
The primary advertising format for YouTube is the True View ad. Now the question arises: What are the True View ads? These ads solve your massive problems.
Before this ad, YouTubers had no method to control their advertisement experience.
YouTube aimed to present itself as a platform that has valuable advertisements. There is no use in the ads if someone feels it irritating and skips it. The brands advertising on YouTube pay if viewers watch the ad for 0.5 min.
Now we will discuss the types of YouTube ads:
1. Skippable In-stream Ads
Skippable In-stream ads are the first variation of the True View ads. These ads are played for 6 to 12 seconds before starting your video, which you will watch on YouTube.
A countdown timer appears on the bottom side of the screen, and you can skip this ad after 6 seconds or 13 seconds. This ad is linked to the brand’s website. Once you click on the ad, you will reach the brand’s website.
The most necessary part of this type of ad is that you can skip it after watching it for a few seconds. If you choose to ignore the ad, then the brand pays nothing for this advertisement.
It is because you do not watch their complete ad. If you watch the ad for 30 seconds, you will be counted in the list of viewers, and the brand will pay for it.
2. In-feed video Ads
It is also a variation on True View ads like video discovery ads. These ads appear as an image thumbnail. Moreover, three to four lines of text are written on it. It is optional for the brands to promote their content.
Such ads appear at the top of your YouTube page.
Whenever you search for something, this ad appears at the top of the list of videos. The brand does not have to pay until someone interacts with the ad.
This type of YouTube advertisement is very beneficial for brands and marketers as well.
3. Non-Skippable In-stream Ads
For this ad, there are some rules on YouTube. These ads look Skippable, but you cannot skip them before 15 seconds. You must have to watch the ad for 15 seconds.
Brands have to pay for every thousand views on YouTube. So, it would be best if you used these ads when you wanted to enhance your reach. Note that these will be costly as compared to skippable in-stream ads.
4. Bumper Ads
There is something unique in this type of ad that makes it different from Non-Skippable In-stream Ads. Bumper Ads last for less than 6 seconds.
First, YouTube learns about your experiences and your searches on YouTube. After that, YouTube provides you with ads that are relevant to your inquiries.
You will not skip their ads when they are of interest to you. You will not have to make long ads in this type of ad. Your brand can complete the ads in just five seconds.
This way, the viewers will not get frustrated by your brand’s ads.
5. Masthead Ads
Masthead Ads are the ads that appear whenever you search for anything on YouTube. Brands dream about such ads that our brand appears on every search.
Brands have to pay 2 million for this ad every day. This type of ad is quite expensive compared to other kinds of ads.
YouTube ad costs
As mentioned earlier, Google owns YouTube, and you can only advertise on YouTube by using Google ads. Bidding for ad displacement is involved in the cost of the YouTube advertisement.
We cannot calculate how much it costs for YouTube ads. It varies according to the type of ads.
A YouTube advertisement’s average cost per view is almost $0.01 to $0.03. Moreover, the video views you generate will be included in the total viewers of the ad.
On every one lac views, you will earn 2000 dollars. This cost is the average cost of reaching 100,000 viewers.
Step-by-step process to create YouTube ads.
There are a few steps that you have to follow to create an ad on YouTube. First, clarify that you will work on conversion, consideration, or whether you are working on awareness.
This selection will impact the format you select for the bidding strategy. So, let’s take a sight at these steps.
1. Create a new campaign
Start a startup by opening your Google Ads Manager and selecting a new campaign. After choosing the new campaign, create a campaign without the guidance of the goal.
After that, select a video for the type of your campaign.
2. Choose the sub-type of your campaign
Select an appropriate option that is based on the goal of your ad and your objective of the ad. It also depends on the format of the ads. If you are not sure enough about the purpose of the ad, then you can make it a custom video campaign for now.
You have the option to change it later.
3. Set the strategy of your bid
After selecting the ad’s subtype, you have only one or two bidding options. The bid options can cost per view, or they can also cost per thousand impressions.
If you think bidding on Google is complex, you can also bid on YouTube. However, the requirements for YouTube bidding and Google bidding are different.
4. Select your network
If you don’t want any search partners, you can deselect the option for video partners. It depends on whether you want to have partners or not.
You cannot deselect any of these options if you have a specific campaign subtype.
5. Select your content exclusions
There is a standard inventory for the advertisers. However, you can choose the option for the limited stock. In this way, you can serve ads for potentially sensitive content.
Moreover, you can also select the expanded inventory. It is for the additional placements at a lower price. It can happen when the competition is relatively low.
6. Add the related videos
Never overlook this part while creating an ad. First, you must have to add the related videos. In this way, people’s engagement in your ad will be increased.
Also, there are additional settings; you will find an ad scheduling option in the other settings.
7. Set your target
The advertisements can fleet the target options in the Google ads. Also, YouTube campaigns give this opportunity. There is a wide range of contextual possibilities as well.
Every type of person is available for you as an audience. You have to note the two things while targeting your campaign. These two things are people and content.
8. Create your ad
After completing all these steps, it is time to create your ad. So, upload the video you want to use for the advertisement on YouTube.
9. Set your bid
After creating the ad, set a bid, and you are ready to launch. The initial CPV bid is almost $0.05 to $0.10.
Here are some additional tips to optimize YouTube videos and ads:
1. Creating custom thumbnails
When creating a YouTube ad, you must add a custom thumbnail to your video. The attractive thumbnails grab the attention of the viewers. Therefore, make your thumbnail highly catchy and attractive.
The uniqueness of the thumbnail will let the viewer click on that video. After that, they will watch your video to learn about its content.
The size of the custom thumbnail will be 1280×720. You can use Photoshop or Tube Shift to make a thumbnail.
2. Add the end screen
The end screen in the YouTube ad is a feature of YouTube and appears in the last video for a maximum of almost 5 to 20 seconds. It can also promote external websites, playlists, and promotion videos.
The end screen is important because it helps you get more views and subscribers for every video you upload on YouTube.
In addition, you can suggest another video at the end of your video, and all this will appear on the end screen.
Now, it is up to you what you want to display on your end screen.
YouTube allows you to add the following things:
- Playlist
- Subscriber button
- Channel
- Link
3. Use YouTube cards to drive sales
Annotations can replace YouTube cards. The feature permits marketers to add a call to action to the video. But now, YouTube cards are used instead of annotations due to some disadvantages.
You can interact with the videos through YouTube cards compatible with mobile and desktop devices. They help you to increase conversions.
You can use the YouTube cards through the following:
- Merchandise
- Fundraising
- Video playlists
- Channel
- Fan funding
- Associated websites
A video creator can use up to five YouTube cards within a video. Different types of cards can be mixed up and matched as well. It all happens according to the purpose and length of the video.
YouTube cards minimize the obstructiveness of the overlaying call-to-action videos, which is beneficial for the publishers. In addition, mobile users can also interact with minimal layouts.
How do you track YouTube ad performance?
Tracking ad performance means collecting data about the insights on your advertisement and learning about the pay-per-click on your advertising.
For example, you can follow the performance of your ads in the following ways.
- Firstly, you can use the UTM parameter to track the ad performance. Through this method, you can record the clicks on your URL. It is best for the campaign, which works on the pay-per-click rule.
- Secondly, you can also track the pixel to monitor the performance of your ads. It collects the comprehensive data of the user.
- Cookies can also be used to track ad performance. You will know about the user’s interest by using the cookie methods.
- Double-click ad tracking is another way to track the performance of the ads.
- Furthermore, you can improve your ad conversion with SEM strategies if you track through Facebook.
How do you create video content for YouTube?
As you create content in text format for your website, you can make any video describing the same thing. Using videos to explain anything will be easier to understand and is widely acceptable by users.
To create a video for your marketing, you can take the help of video marketing agencies or hire any freelancer from Fiverr or Upwork.
If you can explain anything using videos, you can create your own and upload it to platforms like YouTube.
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine; many people create videos and upload them on YouTube channels.
It is both an entertainment and business platform. Many online marketers use YouTube as a marketing tool because it has billions of users and is available worldwide.
Many websites can create a video for you as per your demand. They have a professional video editing team that can make an excellent video for your marketing.
Many agencies with considerable revenues create videos by hiring a team of professionals and spending a lot of money to make video content.
Having a good-quality video camera to start recording videos would be best. Many YouTubers use their smartphones or webcams to record videos.
If you want to do any presentation of the review of products, then you can record your computer screen using some tools and upload it.
However, when you are doing any reviews of services, you should capture your face so that people can trust and connect with your service.
But why video content for marketing?
The answer is simple. Video is one of the most profitable and growing business tools for marketing. According to a survey, 83% of businesses believe that marketing through video content has given them a good ROI.
Apart from content marketing and advertisement, ads with videos drive more sales.
You already know that videos are easier to understand. A person may forget a chapter he learned but can explain a movie he watched many years ago.
You can not explain everything in writing, but video demonstration is more accessible.
Sometimes, we encounter many things that can be explained through presentation or practically. It makes this easy; you can save your and your user’s time by simply explaining videos.
What are the benefits of video marketing?
Now we will look at the benefits:
1. It increases ROI
The analytics shows that the businesses that switch to video marketing have generated better ROI than their competitors. Many companies focus on marketing their products through video rather than campaigns and websites.
Many reasons boosted sales through videos; one of the best examples is smartphones. Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone and spends time on it.
It becomes a plus point for the companies, and they promote it through video advertisements, and users mainly check them out. So, it brings the audience to their service and makes the conversion.
Audiences generally watch the reviews of products on YouTube and compare them with other products. When they are satisfied, they buy the products. So, product reviews bring a lot of customers.
2. It improves search engine ranking for Google
According to Moovly, if you have a video embedded on your website, it is 53 times more likely to show on the first page of Google. So, video helps in SEO also.
YouTube is a service by Google that shows YouTube video recommendations on their page if you search for any term and that term is used in any YouTube video.
So, Google loves to show those sites having videos included along with the content. If you run a website and YouTube channel, embed the related videos on your site.
Make optimized videos on YouTube and have a great SEO score. Give an SEO-friendly title and description so that it will rank on the first page of Google search results.
3. It creates trust and brand awareness
Now, customers want to trust the products they like. So, they often head up to YouTube and search for their review. Only written on blogs or websites does not increase trust ratings; customers want to know more about the products they want to buy.
So, what is the solution? Easy, video marketing.
If you can show the benefits of products, talk about their durability if it is a physical one, direct them to the users, describe the pricing and other factors, and explain why it is different from other brands, then it is more likely that customers will buy your product.
You can see that many E-commerce or branded companies endorse their products from YouTubers with a more extensive subscriber base.
This builds trust because their favorite influencers or celebrities review or launch the products, and they buy.
It makes it reliable and works like any TV commercial or printed media. It brings returning customers, boosts sales, creates brand identity, and makes a profit.
According to data, 57% of consumers say videos give them more confidence to buy things online.
4. It boosts conversions and sales
Compared to text, pictures and audio videos have higher engagement. People love to watch videos and find similar ones. They got engaged in sharing, liking, and commenting on video content.
It can be from YouTube, social media, or blogs, and it helps to make the videos viral quickly.
Videos have more popularity due to engaging audiences, and companies use them as an opportunity.
Studies show that 74% of users who watch explainer videos tend to buy the product. So, ultimately, it increases the conversion rate and brings sales to the business.
5. Videos appeal to smartphone users
Most users watch videos on their smartphones. It is portable and can be used anywhere, anytime. So, YouTube sees it as an opportunity, and 90% of videos are watched on mobile.
You can think that out of 10 to 9 people watch videos on mobile, then it can be done by targeting mobile users.
People see ads on websites or YouTube that are mostly product-based or services. It comes everywhere when you browse the Internet and surf any webpage.
It is a technique that creates more engaging audiences and shows you relevant videos according to your web search, and this converts many users for sale.
If you show any advertisement to any smartphone user, it will increase the chance by 40% that they will watch the Ad. It brings clicks, traffic to your website, and sales.
6. It increases the click-through rate in campaigns
According to Syndacast, including the word video in your email campaign subject line will boost open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65%, and reduce unsubscribes by 26%.
So, it benefits marketing through video platforms and will boost your email campaigns.
Email marketing is a crucial strategy that helps attract subscribers to new updates or products. Apart from that, any campaigns for running advertisements or product promotions can include videos to attract more audiences.
Including videos, text, and images in your campaigns is best practice.
7. It leads to more shares on social media
Social media users like to share videos more than text posts and images. It is seen that people share YouTube videos on social platforms or with their loved ones. The more engagement, the more will be shared.
Shares act as a promotion for videos; nowadays, videos become popular through shares. Also, likes and comments help in sharing.
When a particular video has more likes and comments, they share it on social media and external websites.
8. Video is a traffic and leads-generating machine
If you have a channel on YouTube where you upload videos and include your website or blog link in the video’s description, then people are more likely to visit your website.
Also, they will redirect from social media videos and land on your website.
Many B2B businesses have launched their channel along with their business website because it generates traffic for them and drives new audiences. It also helps to capture leads that are useful for their business.
If you create quality videos, then you can drive high-quality traffic to your website or blog. It helps in boosting your overall SEO in the long run.
What are the types of video content for marketing?
Here are some of its types:
1. Educational
There are so many platforms where you can find video courses. YouTube, Udemy, Coursera, and SlideShare are examples of educational video platforms.
People create videos or presentations on these platforms related to some courses, tutorials, and specific topics to educate people.
It can be both a free and paid platform. People can purchase courses or learn whatever they want for free. The Internet is full of educational videos, and apart from bookish knowledge, they love to learn something new through videos.
2. Product reviews
These videos are based on a review of any particular product that people can buy online or offline. It explains product specifications, prices, benefits, and looks and answers people’s queries.
This marketing strategy tactic helps brand endorsement and gain people’s trust, so they will likely buy it and become loyal business consumers.
3. Testimonials
Testimonials are the real people who are the consumers of any product or service. To gain authority and trust, companies made testimonial videos and shared them with others so that people would believe in their products.
It is expected that if people talk about their experience with any product, they will consider the product for purchase.
4. Brand promotion
Brands are everywhere, and people trust brands. They count it because they see their favorite celebrities promoting the brands, and it attracts consumers and increases sales. Brand videos make this task easy, and it creates brand awareness.
5. Instructional videos
You can find many videos that are instruction-based. People will introduce you to some products and instruct you on using them. One typical example is the DIY(Do It Yourself) Videos.
You will follow the instructions and eventually can make something new for you.
Instructional videos can be created through presentation or in front of the camera. If you like to show people how to make a website through WordPress, you can make a presentation with correct instructions.
6. FAQ videos
When you visit any website or B2B sites, you may encounter FAQ videos to solve the user’s query. Video explanations are much easier to understand, so they include videos in their FAQ section.
Many YouTubers and bloggers also make FAQ videos to give their subscribers answers and engage with them to gain more visits and new subscribers.
Key Takeaways:
- Video marketing is one of the most affordable and widespread techniques of marketing. It can drive traffic, conversions, sales, lead generation, brand awareness, explanation, wider reach, popularity, and shares on online platforms, and many businesses use it.
- If you learn video content skills, you can start your video marketing service and provide solutions to your clients.
- Video content is more attractive and engaging for any promotion. Any online marketer who uses content marketing and advertisement should take the help of it to boost sales and business.
Conclusion
In short, if you want to grow your business, YouTube ads will significantly help you. Nowadays, everyone uses it, with almost 2 billion monthly active users.
It can help to grow your brand by leaps and bounds. But, other than that, it is a better option for advertisement than shouting on the rooftops for your product.
Vijay Kumar is a digital marketing expert and founder of TechZant.
He is passionate about helping businesses grow their online presence through SEO and data-driven strategies.