Imagine this situation: you are watching a video on YouTube and suddenly it is interrupted by another one — a short video ad — and it lasts until you can skip it or it is skipped automatically.
As a YouTube user, for you, this video was just a regular ad, but for the advertiser, it was one more view which means this might bring new potential clients and increase its CTR. So, you’ve just helped some brand to get promoted and raise its position.
Now, if you switch roles, this is your chance, as a shop owner, to promote your business. This way we want to show you how effective YouTube advertising can be. Therefore, in this article, you will discover all the benefits of YouTube advertising and the detailed instruction on how to set it up.
Let’s get started!
- What are YouTube Ads?
- What are the advantages of YouTube ads over Facebook ads?
- Setting up an ad campaign on YouTube
- How to make effective YouTube ads
- What ad type is better to use?
- Conclusion
What are YouTube Video Ads?
Today video content has become the #1 among other types of content that people prefer to choose. And this is quite obvious because visual content affects better on us.
When we watch a video we get more additional information about the product than just from the text. Video ads visually help us learn about its color, size, practical use, etc. In general, how it looks like in reality. This instills in us more confidence in this brand and we can imagine using this item for our own purposes.
So, YouTube video ads are the best to implement all these visual effects to catch potential customers. These ads can vary by length and purpose. Therefore, before you choose to launch such ads you need to decide its type, the audience you want to target, and do many other settings which we will tell you about further in this article.
What are the advantages of YouTube ads over Facebook ads?
Along with such popular social media like Facebook, YouTube is considered one of the best places for advertising. But what advantages does this platform has over Facebook?
To find them, let’s compare two different kinds of ads: the graphic one with the text accompaniment and the video ad. Which one seems to be more impactful to you? Right! The video ad. Because the video content is way easier to perceive.
You can even notice it for yourself: you would rather watch some video and listen to a real person than see multiple images with text that you probably won’t even read. As a result, you are more likely to watch the video to the end and maybe click on it to go to the website, whereas graphic ads won’t have the same effect on you.
YouTube ads VS Facebook video ads
Surely, there are also video ads on Facebook. Let’s consider what is the difference between YouTube & Facebook video ads.
First of all, let’s talk about the different purposes these two “contestants” assume. Facebook is a social network, and people use it primarily to communicate with each other, to find out about some news, or to share it in posts. Therefore, they are less interested in watching a long video ad, and, on the contrary, they are tuned to “consume” the content quickly and dynamically.
Besides, on Facebook, most video ads are often viewed without sound and in a small format that complicates the perception of the information. So, when they read some posts and suddenly there is a soundless video ad they are more likely to pass it without clicking.
Concerning YouTube, watching video content is the primary goal for users. People spend here a lot of time watching dozens of different videos so they agree to “consume” any video content, and your ad won’t be an exception.
YouTube video ads’ advantages
One of the biggest YouTube video ads advantage are emotions: these ads are often dynamic and aimed to catch people’s attention in a few seconds by bright and “live” pictures, animations, and product presentations that influence people’s minds on a psychological level.
YouTube ads are designed for brands that need to be promoted and attract more customers. They allow spreading the word about your brand and briefly describe the benefits you offer to potential clients. So, the most significant difference between the video ads of these two platforms lies in the impact that they have on viewers.
Setting up an ad campaign on YouTube
The first step in creating an ad campaign is to realize your main purposes and your audience. So, you should ask and answer next questions:
- What products am I going to advertise?
This is the very first point you should define. Decide what product you want to advertise. Choose the most relevant and highly useful products for your potential customers. The more your products are trendy, useful, and practical the more customers will notice them and click on your ad.
- What is the audience I want to target?
The answer to the first question largely depends on the second one. Because without knowing your target audience you won’t be able to select the appropriate products and to predict their reaction to your ad. Thus, you need to establish people’s age, interest, consumer behavior, etc that fit perfectly your ad.
- Why create this video ad?
The question does really sound like “What is the purpose of this ad?”. Here you’ll need to define the customer’s pain which means the main problem your ad should touch. So, the answer to this question can be: this is how my product can solve their problem and help them in life.
- Why is my product worth buying and what are the real benefits of it?
Decide why this product would be important and useful to buyers, describe its best characteristics and its strengths, tell buyers why it is better than other brands and what advantages they can take from it, etc.
After you have found the answers to them you are ready to create a video ad campaign.
So, how to create YouTube video ads?
Setting up a campaign starts with Google Ads. So, go to your Google Ads account to create a new campaign. But first, it is recommended to turn it into a professional one. Therefore, create a new account by clicking on the “Switch to Expert Mode” link.
Then, you will be redirected to the campaign creation page. Here you should first click on the “Create an account without a campaign” and fill in all the necessary billing details and business information (such as billing country, currency, and your time zone), and your account is already set up.
Now it is time to create a campaign. So, go to the “Campaigns” tab and press the “create a new campaign” blue button. Along with this, you’ll also need to set up the “columns” for your campaign.
In this section, there are different columns that you can customize according to the metrics you would like to monitor. You need to choose the necessary columns you’d like to see. The main and basic columns among numerous of them are these: “Conversions”, “Cost per conversion”, “Conversion value”.
By choosing these columns you will monitor the relevant data about the number of your sales, the exact cost of them, and the revenue you received. Save your column set and launch your first ad campaign.
How to make effective YouTube ads?
When you have all set up and launched your campaign there is something you need to add that makes the essence of the campaign – the video ad itself. So, how to make an effective video ad to catch as many viewers as possible?
A YouTube video ad should be eye-catching from its very beginning because you have only 5 seconds until they can skip it. So, if it is boring and unattractive people will quickly lose interest to watch it to the end — consequently, you will lose views. That’s not the best scenario you would expect, right?
Let’s consider the main parameters that an effective video ad should consist of. As it is time-limited, your video ad should attract viewers’ attention immediately, in the first seconds.
For this, it should be aimed at people’s pain — tell them about the problem your ad is going to solve. You should call out their most common problem in this short time.
Effective video ad strategy
Let’s suppose you need to promote your product (bags, phones, some online services, or whatever), and in the first 5 seconds, you need to grab people’s attention by showing them the problem that is close to them.
For example, one of the most common and actual business owners’ needs is a good website that represents their brand and shows the products they offer to customers. So, such video ads should quickly show to viewers some of the best and catchy examples of the websites.
Take a look at the ad below: it is catching, colorful; it contains a slogan and some examples of the site templates, so, from the very beginning people will understand that this is about websites. So, they’ll probably stay on this ad and watch what it will propose to them.
Therefore, when planning a YouTube video ad you should keep in mind this sequence:
- In the first 5 seconds – establish the most common and relevant problem;
- The next step is to propose a great solution to resolve it;
- In the further 10 seconds show more benefits of the product to prove its necessity;
- You can also establish trust with testimonials (examples of positive reviews) to ensure people in their choice;
- And finally, at the end of the video, there should be a call-to-action (like, click the link and go to our website).
Another point you should consider to make your ad campaign more efficient. When launching a campaign you should go to “Tools & Settings”, then click on the “Keyword Planner” where you’ll need to type the name you would like to promote. This tool will help you find the appropriate keyword for this product and see how many times per month it is searched for.
What ad type is better to use?
Let’s consider what types of YouTube ads are available to choose from.
There are 5 types of ads that YouTube offers:
1. Skippable In-Stream Video Ads
The most popular type of ads, which are often served before the main video and can be skipped after 5 seconds of the viewing. These ads can be also launched after or even in-stream that means during the current video. This ad type allows you to quickly catch viewers’ attention to your brand immediately. It is a great possibility to target your audience and to sift away those who are not interested in it.
2. Non-skippable In-Stream Video Ads
This ad type cannot be skipped. Such an ad can vary by its duration from 6 to 15 seconds. Its main advantage is the possibility to promote the product for 10 seconds longer, showing more of its benefits, and to tell them in more detail about your brand. So, be sure this video ad will be seen to the end anyway.
3. Bumper Ads
On this ad type, your potential viewers will spend only 6 seconds but the result will be effective enough. Bumper ads are non-skippable and are played before an actual video. These ads allow telling the essential information about the product in a short time. Choosing these ads will be helpful for those who want to build trust in their brand and keep the viewers aware of some best products.
4. Non-video Ads
Besides all the video ad types, there is also a non-video ad that will be displayed on an actual video itself. This is the type of ad where you can emphasize the importance of your product, add an image, some text, and links. It will be shown as a banner over a video.
5. Discovery Ads
The fifth ad type appears upon the search result on YouTube. It is a separate video with the “Ad” yellow mark. This ad type will allow paying customers’ attention specifically to your video ad because it is placed at the highest position. Probably, it is the best type of advertising to get a brand noticed.
Conclusion
YouTube is a great platform for advertising products and promoting growing brands. Many of YouTube users “consume” a bunch of videos every day, so, your video ad is very likely to get success. To launch a video ad campaign doesn’t take a lot of time, however, it takes a quality video, good strategy, and some settings to be done.
