How to run Youtube ads: A simple guide for beginners

Here is a quick guide on how to run YouTube ads and create your very first YouTube ad campaign. Apart from music videos, viral videos, and gaming videos, there are several other ways you can use YouTube and also make some good money using the platform. All you need to do is design your ad campaign, set up your budget and target the intended audiences. YouTube does not put any limit on the lowest budget you can set while running your advertisements on the platform.

The best part about running YouTube ads is that you can adjust your ad campaigns according to your preferences whenever you want to. So let’s go into details on how to run YouTube ads. You just need some patience to go through the article.

What is YouTube Advertising?

You must have an overview of what an advertisement does. But what exactly do you mean by YouTube advertising?

In simple words, YouTube advertising is done through Google Ads. Google Advertisements is a path of advertising your video content on YouTube or in ‘search results’ so that you can quickly increase the number of users.

Suppose you are looking out for how to allocate your video ad budget. In that case, YouTube has a vast reach and powerful targeting capabilities, making it an undeniably valuable platform across the customer journey. But if you look at the other scenario, the YouTube ads arena isn’t the most intuitive part of your social media marketing strategy. Rest assured that taking a bit of extra time to learn the fundamentals now is going to pay off in your ROI ( Return On Investment) later.

Types of YouTube ads

To begin the ultimate guide, let us know various types of YouTube Ads. YouTube Ads are divided into six types.

• True View Ads
• Non-skippable in-stream ads
• Sponsored card ads
• Bumper in-stream ads
• Overlay ads
• Display ads

So, before you start creating your first campaign, it is essential to understand each YouTube ad category. In that way, you can showcase your advertisement in the format you plan on using.

What is a True-view YouTube ad?

One of the leading forms of advertisements on YouTube is TrueView, meaning that companies consider TrueView ads to be more valuable than other advertisements. For people who are interested in learning about how to run YouTube ads, TrueView ads would be considered ideal since users have control over the content that they see. As reported by Google 8 out of 10 users prefer TrueView ads to other in-stream video ads.

Additionally, TrueView ads are very beneficial for businesses. Companies will only be charged when a user views the ad for a minimum of 30 seconds or watches the whole short video. Furthermore, advertisers would be charged if the viewers interacted with the ad through the call-to-action buttons provided in the ad.

Looking at the other side, viewers can select the YouTube ads that they want to watch. Also, they have the liberty to skip the advertisements that they don’t watch. This way, advertisers save money while also being able to reach a more interested audience.

YouTube says that the maximum length a TrueView video ad can be is 6 minutes, and the minimum is 12 seconds. However, there are two main types of TrueView advertisements: Instream Ads and Discovery Ads. Let us know more about them.

In-Stream ads

True View In-stream ads play before someone watches the video they’ve chosen on YouTube. The viewers sometimes have the choice to skip the advertisement after watching it for five seconds. You can also make True View In-stream ads play anywhere in the Google Display Network (GDN) or on sites that purchased Google video ad space. In-stream ads let marketers customize video ads with different CTAs and overlay text.

True-View Discovery Ads

These advertisements appear within the YouTube search results and in the right-hand sidebar of watch pages above the suggested videos list. Generally, the ads comprise an image thumbnail and up to three lines of text. Clicking on such discovery advertisements, it takes the users to the YouTube relevant watch page or channel to view the video.

Advantages of YouTube True-View Ads

1. According to Google, when the brands use True-View, they can view the existing content, which increases the probability of viewership by up to 500%.
2. True-View ads are low in risk. You are only charged when the users opt to watch the whole advertisement.
3. Almost 76% of users reflexively skip ads, and even I do skip ads very often. At least you have the security of your budget, and later on, you can spend it on the interested viewers.

What are Non-Skippable In-Stream YouTube ads?

Yet another effective choice when considering how to run YouTube ads is the use of Non-Skippable In-Stream ads. They share many similarities with TrueView ads. However, users cannot skip them, thus having less influence on the ad-watching process. For this reason, such ads cannot be called “TrueView” ads.

Previously, users were able to watch 30-second non-skippable ads. However, nowadays, their maximum duration is reduced to 15-20 seconds. Due to the mandatory viewing required to start watching their preferred videos, these ads can be useful in terms of promoting brands and advertising in general.

The Non-Skippable In-stream advertisements aren’t quite popular. YouTube cut off the 30-second ad format last year. These days, the unskippable ads are almost between 15 to 20 seconds max.

Various non-skippable YouTube ads play a significant partway through videos that are 10 minutes or longer, these are also termed mid-roll non-skippable YouTube ads.

Unlike TrueViews ads, advertisers pay for non-skippable advertisements on a cost per mille basis, which means that advertisers pay a fee per thousand views.

So, CPM (Cost per mille) is an essential function of CPM advertising.

Pay per click and Cost Per Mille

For converting prospects into leads, PPC advertising is more apt for the purpose. In comparison, CPM advertising is more suited for achieving massive exposure.

What is a YouTube Bumper Ad?

Bumper YouTube advertisements are the third type of YouTube ads that are available to marketers. These video ads are non-skippable and play before a viewer’s chosen video and must be less than 6 seconds long. Payment for bumper ads by advertisers is on a CPM basis.

Various brands use them as part of a more extensive advertising campaign featuring other advertisement formats. Bumper advertisements are not an ideal format for stories, testimonials, or product demos. But the time limit is an excellent catalyst for creativity.

What is a Sponsored Card YouTube Ad?

Sponsored cards are a remarkably discreet form of YouTube advertising. If you have seen YouTube more keenly, a small ‘i’ symbol pops up in the upper right-hand corner of a video. And whenever a viewer clicks on that icon, the card expands.

Also, YouTube sponsored cards can showcase other YouTube videos and products through Google Shopping.

Google has a handy guide to help you out in creating a shopping campaign by using cards.

YouTube Overlay Ad

The simplest form of YouTube ads is considered to be a YouTube Overlay Ad. Overlay advertisements can also be text-based.

YouTube Display Advertisement

Another simple YouTube advertising format is Display ads. These advertisements have been around for a while and tend to appear in the right-hand sidebar. These advertisements can also be shown in different sizes. Now that you have a clear understanding of various types of YouTube advertisements. Let us go through how to advertise on YouTube.

How To Advertise On YouTube?

If you are interested in YouTube advertising, knowing how to run YouTube ads can be extremely useful. YouTube is one of the most affordable ways to acquire high-quality traffic. However, YouTube advertising has a strong potential that cannot be used without proper knowledge about how to do everything correctly.

• Creating a Google Account and Opening a YouTube Channel: When starting to learn how to run YouTube ads, first of all, it is necessary to open a Google account and then create a YouTube channel. The YouTube channel will be required for video uploads and management.
• Upload and Manage Your Content: After your YouTube channel is created, upload the desired videos. Next, determine the accessibility of the uploaded videos. It can be Public, Unlisted, Private, and Scheduled. For advertising purposes, Public or Scheduled accessibility is better suited.
• Choose the right campaign for your business: In order to learn how to run YouTube ads effectively, it is important to choose the right kind of campaign that will suit your business objectives. Different types of Google Ads campaigns include Search, Display, Shopping, and Video campaigns.
• Choose the Right Ad Format: The next step involves selecting the most appropriate ad format depending on the desired goal for the campaign. Some popular YouTube ad formats include TrueView ads, Bumper ads, Sponsored Cards, and Non-Skippable ads. These ad formats differ in many ways, each serving a particular business purpose.
• Use Organic Promotion: In addition to paying for advertisements, another crucial aspect of how to run YouTube ads involves integrating organic marketing techniques. This involves creating and uploading videos on YouTube and then promoting them through SEO and social media marketing efforts.

How to run YouTube Ads Campaign?

Let us dive into how to create your own YouTube advertising campaign.

Step 1: Upload Your Video Advertisement to YouTube

The best way to start configuring your advertisement campaign is to upload your marketing video to your YouTube account.

• A few simple steps are logging into your YouTube account and clicking the small camcorder icon, which is present on the top right of YouTube. Then, click ‘UploadVideo.’

• You will be directly taken to the upload window to select the file you want to upload.

• Make sure to fill out all the necessary information like the title, description, and tags.

Step 2: Create a New Campaign in Google Ads

Once you have uploaded your video, you are all set to go into your YouTube advertisement campaign.

• The initial step is to go to your Google Ads account.
• If you haven’t already got a Google Ads account yet, you can go to Google Ads on how to create an account on Google Ads.
• Once you are done logging into your account, click on “All Campaigns” in the left-hand sidebar. Then click on the large blue “+” icon to create a new icon.

Then you are going to see a window where you will need to select a campaign type. However, Google comes up with five options.

1. Search
2. Display
3. Shopping
4. Video
5. Universal App

Click on “Video”. All you need to do is select a single goal that corresponds to the main thing that you want in your campaign to achieve for your business.

Let us look at an example: In case you want to use YouTube ads to increase the number of visitors to your website traffic goal. Then, you need to set up your campaign, and you will find the recommended features and settings that will help you generate a visit to your website.

You can also add or remove a goal at any point in time. And if required, you can easily create your campaign without seeing a goal’s recommendations.

Step 3: Configuring your Campaign

So, coming to the configuration part of the campaign. First of all, choose a name.
Choosing a name is only for your internal use, so choose a name that clearly describes your campaign.

Choosing a name will help you to identify the campaign when you start running multiple campaigns in Google Ads.

Setting Up Your Budget

You can start by setting up the average amount that you want to spend each day.

However, it is always recommended to start in a small way initially to test and refine your advertising. And you will ensure that you are getting the highest return on investment possible. At the beginning, always opt for accelerated delivery. In that way, you can quickly collect the data that you can use to optimise your campaign.

Whenever you are creating a video ad, there are three choices available for you.

• YouTube search results: Advertisements appear next to YouTube search results. 
• YouTube Videos: Ads will show on YouTube videos, channel pages, and the YouTube homepage.
• Video Partners on the display network: This means that your ads will also show across Google’s other advertising avenues.

Select a Language and Location: Always make sure that you choose the country and language you want your ad to appear in.

Selecting the Bidding Strategy: All you need to select now is how you want to pay for your campaign. Google Ads comes up with four options:

• Maximum CPV: Costs are based on the number of views and interactions that a video has received.
• Maximum CPM: You will be charged for every thousand impressions that your advertisement receives.
• Viewable CPM: You will only be charged per thousand impressions when your advertisement has been seen. Let us say, if a viewer comes to your page and immediately bounces off, you will not be charged.
• Target CPA: Costs are based on the actions taken by viewers, such as clicking on your advertisement.

Step 4: Select the audience as per your convenience

So, before you go selecting your audience, make sure that you give your ad group a descriptive name. In this way, you will be easily able to use the same audience selection for future ad campaigns.

• Select Your Demographic: Choosing your demographic is the initial stage of honing in on your target audience. Advertisements allow you to define who you want to reach by options such as their gender, age, and parental status, etc.

• Home in on your target audience: Google Ads provides you with plenty of options to find your perfect target market. It’s well worth exploring them and being as specific as possible.

Step 5: Choose where you want your ads to show

The next step includes choosing the specific type of content that you want your ads to appear on. 

• Insert your target keywords: Enter and paste your target keywords into the box using one word or phrase per line. You can also go for the “Get Keyword Ideas” tool to find the related keywords to target.
• Select Topics: Choose any relevant topics to show your advertisements on content about specific subjects.
• Select your Ad placements: The final thing is to select specific places where you would like to show your YouTube ads. If you leave this section blank, your advertisement will appear on any YouTube or Display Network placements that match your other targeting selections. 

Step 6: Choose Your Marketing Video

Use the search bar to find out your marketing video. If you haven’t uploaded your video yet, click the link to upload it to YouTube. Once your video appears, select it by clicking on it.

Step 7: Configuring YouTube ads Video

And the final step is you need to select your video format. Advertisements will show you which options are available based on the campaign selections that you have made up to this point.

Then, the next step is to add your URLs, CTA, and headline.

To finish up, select “Save and Continue,” and then click “Continue to Campaign.”

And here you go with your first YouTube advertising campaign.

Some New Features Related to YouTube Advertising

Listing out some of the new features that are incorporated into the YouTube advertising platform:

Direct Response Shoppable Ad Format: YouTube has recently announced a new ad format known as the direct response ad format. This new format will help the brands by making video advertisements on YouTube videos more shoppable. This format adds browsable images of products beneath the video ad. Direct Response Shoppable Ad format helps in increasing traffic directly to the product pages. Also, it arrives at a time when a large number of people are often preferring to shop through e-commerce platforms to avoid the chance of getting infected by shopping through physical stores.

Video Action Campaigns: YouTube has rolled out video action campaigns this year. This is a low-cost and simple solution for marketers to boost conversion rates. This can be achieved by auto-targeting video ads driving actions to the following items, including watch pages and YouTube video partners. All this happens through a single campaign. YouTube will also roll out any new inventory in the coming years. This feature will benefit marketers by saving their valuable time on critical tasks such as creating the right creative.

Video Reach Campaigns: It is possible to describe video reach campaigns as the easiest and most efficient solution for marketing professionals to fulfill their video advertising objectives through YouTube. This tool enables marketers to load several video ads into one advertising campaign only. As a result, marketers would be spared from having to create separate campaigns for each format of ads, bumper ads, skippable/non-skippable in-stream ads. A machine learning technology, created by Google, shows the most effective combination of these video ads automatically.

YouTube Masthead: Another type of ad space offered by YouTube is called the YouTube Masthead. In the YouTube Home tab, marketers can use the YouTube Masthead to display their brands or products/services. This ad appears on all devices and provides an extremely powerful solution for reaching mass marketing. It helps marketers make their purchases independent of any auction system since it shows up on the home page of YouTube.

Instant Review: YouTube offers another type of ad placement known as the YouTube Masthead. Within the YouTube Home tab, advertisers are allowed to showcase their brand names and products and services using the YouTube Masthead. The advertisement will be visible across all devices and presents a very powerful tool for mass marketing. The advertisement helps marketers make their purchase without relying on an auction system, as it features prominently on the YouTube homepage.

Augmented Reality Try-On Ads: The concept of Augmented Reality is concerned with adding content in the form of sounds, pictures, and text into reality. The Try-On advertisement can be seen by the user on a split-screen presentation. The video would play at the upper portion of the split-screen display, while the lower part would show a camera view of the viewer himself.

Final Words

When learning how to run YouTube ads, the process may seem confusing at first because of the many settings and ad specifications. However, if you start by using the content you have already created, it becomes much easier to choose the right videos for your campaigns and attract potential homebuyers or customers.

Understanding how to run YouTube ads also means choosing the right advertising format for your marketing goals. YouTube offers different ad formats that help businesses increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive more engagement. With the right strategy and video content, YouTube advertising can become a powerful tool for reaching your target audience effectively.