Great content is bound to be found. But it’s also important to be proactive about gaining the attention of your prospects and those unfamiliar with your brand. Running a series of YouTube Ads is one way to make sure more of your target audience find the video content you’ve worked hard to produce. YouTube Ads can also help you achieve different goals such as you can get more leads, resulting in greater sales, getting more YouTube subscribers, increasing brand exposure, and so on.
Type of YouTube Video Ads
There are different types of Ads on YouTube that are catered towards different goals. So, let’s take a look at the five types of ads on YouTube.
1. Skippable Instream Ads
TrueView In-stream Ads play before someone watches the video they’ve selected on YouTube. Viewers sometimes have the option to skip the ad after watching it for five seconds. In-stream ads let marketers customize video ads with different CTAs and overlay text. These types of campaigns can include people, dialog, and music that was retrieved with permission, or is royalty-free. However, it’s best not to run a standard promotional commercial because these videos can be skipped. With skippable Ads, you need to give your audience a reason to keep watching. You could tell a story with the time you have in this video as people love seeing case studies of those who face a struggle that they can empathize with.
Skippable Instream Ads can be used to achieve the following goals:
- Sales
- Leads
- Website traffic
- Brand awareness and reach
- Product and brand consideration
2. Non-skippable In-stream Ads
The non-skippable ads play before, mid-way, or after the main video. They can be 15 to 20 seconds in duration. This type of Ad gives you just as much freedom as skippable ads in their allotted content. You can include people, dialog, audio and more elements that you find best represent your brand in 15 to 20 seconds. As this type of ad isn’t skippable, these video ads are best created with a call-to-action (CTA) so that you can optimize the attention from the viewer. In other words, these types of ads encourage viewers to click on your ad. YouTube sells this type of video ad on a pay-per-click basis.
Non-Skippable Instream Ads can be used to achieve the following goal:
- Brand awareness and reach
3. Video Discovery Ads
Previously known as In-display Ads, Video Discovery ads show up on YouTube home page, search results page, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages. Once a viewer clicks on the ad, the destination video page features a spot on the right-hand column, or a companion banner display ad will appear. For this type of ad, YouTube charges the advertiser only when viewers choose to click the thumbnail and watch the video.
Video Discovery Ads can be used to achieve the following goal:
- Product and Brand consideration
4. Bumper Ads
Bumper Ads are the shortest type of YouTube video ad available. At just six seconds per bumper, these ad spots play before, during, or after a video and viewers don’t have the option to skip the ads. Bumper Ads are great if you want to put across a simple message in front of the viewers and also to promote any events or create awareness. Bumper ads are somewhat similar to non-skippable ads which appear on YouTube videos and across websites. These ads are charged on the basis of impressions.
Bumper Ads can be used to achieve the following goal:
- Brand awareness and reach
5. Outstream Ads
Outstream Ads don’t appear on YouTube but appear on websites and many mobile placements. This refers to the ads that play on mobile with the audio off and the viewers can tap on the ad to unmute the video. These ads can be used to expand the reach of your video ads on mobile, helping you reach more customers. These ads appear on the search result page, YouTube homepage, video watch page to increase visibility.
Outstream Ads can be used to achieve the following goal:
- Brand awareness and reach
Note: All 5 types of ads can be used if you want to create a campaign without any goal.
How to analyse results of YouTube Ads?
Launching a video ad campaign is a great step, but there are some things you should set up prior to publishing an ad to make the most of your budget, and to see the highest return for your budget. Most importantly you need to define your metrics and goals. When analyzing the results there are a number of key performance metrics you can track for each video. After you link your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account, you’ll be able to access these metrics in the reporting tab of your Google Ads account.
Impressions
The first key performance metric is Impressions. Impressions tell how many times your ads were shown to a potential customer. This can be a valuable metric for increasing brand awareness. This can be a valuable metric to track if you’re interested in increasing brand awareness among your target audience.
Views
The second metric is views. When someone watches at least 30 seconds of your ad or the entire ad, if it’s longer than 30 seconds – YouTube counts it as a view. Its view rate represents your total ad views divided by impressions. It’s the total number of people who watched your ad when it was served to them. This value is a solid indicator of whether or not you’re reaching the right audience.
Cost-per-view (CPV)
Your CPV is how much you spend every time someone watches your video. Keep in mind that with the bidding system in Google Ads, you can control and adjust your bid at any time.
Earned Actions
Another metric to consider is earned actions. Actions like subscriptions, likes, and other actions that indicate interest in your as are considered “earned actions.” This metric can help you determine how deeply your audience is engaging with your ads and on a higher level, with your brand.
Video viewership
The next metric is video viewership. This differs from the standard “views” metric because you can get more specific insights into how long people are sticking around to watch your video. For example, if you notice most viewers are only watching 25% of your video, this is a pretty good indicator that you need to revise your video at the 25% mark.
Call-to-action Overlays
Finally, you could also consider tracking call-to-action overlays. These buttons can be placed at different points in your video to drive traffic to a landing page or back to your website. After you place them, you can track how often these call-to-action buttons are clicked.
Depending on the goals for the business, you should determine the goals based on these metrics.
