In This Lesson You Will Learn What Are YouTube Campaigns
The purpose of reviewing this lesson is to highlight the benefits of a YouTube Campaign and to have an in-depth look on the effectiveness of these video campaigns for the promotion of your brand/product/offer. Achieve better results with controlled targeting options to help you target your most valuable customers, for a minimal cost.
Different Types Of Video Ads
What are YouTube Campaigns?
YouTube campaigns, implemented through Google Ads, are a medium to advertise your video content on YouTube and different websites and apps that run on Google Video Partners (depending on your ad format and campaign settings).
Please note that the video ad content must be hosted on YouTube (a channel needs to be created in order to publish videos on YouTube). With the introduction of Custom Intent Audiences, you can use specific keywords to target the relevant traffic for your video campaign.
There are currently 5 video ad formats available, but we will discuss the most commonly used ones:
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- Video discovery ads
- Bumper ads
Skippable in-stream ads
These ads can play before, during, or after other videos.
This ad format gives user the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds of play time. They can appear on YouTube watch pages and across websites and apps that run on Google video partners.
Non-skippable in-stream ads
These ads allow you to target the audience with your entire message.
They can play before, during, or after other videos.
Their duration is 15 seconds or less. They can appear on YouTube watch pages and across websites and apps that run on Google video partners.
Video discovery ads
These ads only appear on YouTube and are positioned in the places where people are discovering content e.g. In YouTube search results, along with the related YouTube videos and on the YouTube mobile homepage.
The appearance can vary, depending on the ad sizes and ad formats. When you click on the thumbnail of the ad, the video will play on its YouTube watch or channel page.
Bumper ads
Short, non-skippable video ads which serve their purpose best for brand awareness and reach by making use of a summarised, memorable message.
The duration of these ads can be 6 seconds or less.
They can appear on YouTube watch pages and across websites and apps that run on Google video partners.
Strategy and Planning
Don’t know which ad format to go with? Following points can be helpful in strategising a YouTube Video campaign:
- Identifying the problem i.e. are you looking to resolve an issue or promoting your brand/offer/product/service
- Understanding your target audience
- Identify the devices for displaying your video ad e.g. mobile, desktop or tablet
- Identify the channel to reach your audience i.e. broad reach or specific targeting
- Ensure you have a goal for your video campaign i.e. leads, brand awareness etc.
- Ensure good creative details of your video content i.e. style, voice and tone
- Curate specifications for your video i.e. dimensions, size, format, aspect ratio etc.
- Ensure placement of text inside the frame of your video. This is crucial as default overlays (e.g. skip button, call to action overlay etc.) from YouTube can hide your textual details
If you are having an issue, we can help. Please get in touch.
First thing you need to check if your ad is fully approved. Google usually takes 2 business days to approve a video ad.
If your ad is fully approved and still not gaining impressions or clicks, it would be good to check your bidding settings and see if the minimum bidding criteria is met for your particular ad format.
Also, checking your targeting settings can be one of the options as targeting a narrow audience can sometimes result in no impressions or clicks coming through.
Yes, you do. All the video content needs to be hosted on YouTube in order for you to initiate a YouTube video campaign through Google Ads. Ensure that your channel and ads account are connected.
There is no specific answer for this question. It is dependent on various factors e.g. length of your video, what you’re looking to achieve, target audience, your message etc. Still Confused? Web Wonks can help you. You can always get in touch with Web Wonks and we can help you.
The cost of a video campaign depends on the ad format and bidding strategy you plan on using.