YouTube Advertising: Everything You Need To Know

Did you know that people watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every single day?

YouTube Advertising is a powerful way to reach your target audience with the videos you’ve worked hard to script, shoot, and edit. It is considered the second-largest search engine in the world, with 2.70 billion logins per month.

With this, you can create ads that appear before, during, or after a video, or you can create ads that appear in the search results. Additionally, you can target your ads to the people you want to reach.

In this blog, we’ll explain everything about YouTube advertising – how it works, its benefits, its types, and best practices you need to follow.

Let’s get started.

What is YouTube Advertising?

YouTube Advertising is a video promotion that appears on YouTube videos, channels, search results, and Google Display Network (GDN). With the right strategy, you can use YouTube Ads to reach your target audience and increase brand awareness.

Here’s how you can use YouTube advertising to reach your target audience:

• Create and place ads to appear before, during, or after a video.
• Create and place ads to appear in the YouTube search results and homepage feed.
• Target your audience based on specific demographics like age, gender, location, etc.
• Utilize YouTube’s advanced targeting options, such as interests, topics, keywords, and remarketing.
• Retarget past website visitors or YouTube viewers (who recently searched for related products or services) with custom audience lists.

What makes YouTube advertising stand out is the level of control and insights it provides. YouTube lets you track every click, view, and conversion. With detailed analytics, you can see which ads perform best, how long people watch before skipping, and where your budget is delivering the most ROI.

Benefits of YouTube Advertising

Let’s break down why YouTube Advertising can be a game-changer for marketers.

1. Higher ad recall rates

YouTube ads have an exceptionally high recall rate. Research shows that viewers are 2x more likely to remember your client’s brand after seeing a YouTube ad compared to commercial ads. YouTube ads are interactive, engaging, and tailored to personal viewing habits. When your ad feels relevant, it sticks in people’s minds.

2. Longer ad watch times

On most platforms, ads feel like interruptions. On YouTube, viewers often choose to keep watching – even when they could skip. YouTube encourages voluntary engagement where viewers who stick around are genuinely interested, giving your client’s brand more time to make an impression.

3. Cross-Platform Targeting

The YouTube platform is integrated with Google Ads, so you can target audiences based on their behavior across the entire Google ecosystem. For instance, if someone searches for “best running shoes” on Google might later see your shoe ad while watching fitness tutorials on YouTube.

4. Engagement views

YouTube advertising can generate views and organic engagement (like comments, shares, and subscriptions). If your ad is compelling and solves their problems, viewers may interact with your client’s YouTube channel, which builds a community around the brand even after the campaign is over.

5. Extended Reach

YouTube ads can appear on the Google Display Network. This allows your ads to appear on websites, apps, and other Google partner platforms, which increases your reach wherever people spend time online.

Types of YouTube Ads

YouTube Advertising offers a variety of ad formats to choose. You can invest in any type of YouTube video ads. Google outlines the basic YouTube ad formats here.

Below, we’ve listed some types of YouTube ad formats:

1. TrueView Ads (Skippable Ads): Skippable ads appear before, during, or after a video, and viewers can skip after 5 seconds.You only pay if viewers watch at least 30 seconds of your ad or if they engage with it. You only charge when people are genuinely interested.
2. Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads: These ads run for 15 - 20 seconds, and viewers can’t skip them. These ads appear before or during videos.This is best for brand awareness when you want guaranteed exposure.
3. Bumper Ads: Bumper ads are non-skippable ads that appear before a video. They can appear only for 6 seconds to make them short, sharp, and to the point. You can use it for brand messages, product launches, or reminders.
4. Display Ads: These are static images or banner ads that appear in the sidebar of YouTube videos or above the suggested videos list. They are used to promote a product or service.
5. Overlay Ads: These semi-transparent banner ads appear at the bottom of a video. They can only be visible on a desktop. You can use it for direct response actions like website visits, sign-ups, or quick promotions.
6. Sponsored Cards: These are interactive ads that appear within a video to showcase a product or service featured in the content.
7. YouTube Masthead Ads: These large banner ads are at the top of the YouTube homepage.You can use it for new product launches or seasonal campaigns.

YouTube Advertising Best Practices You Need To Follow

Now, it’s time to dive into the YouTube advertising best practices that you should use before making your YouTube advertisements. Let’s look at them in detail:

1) Make sure your brand stands out

Having a great headline, using bright visuals, a catchy storyline, and spending a good amount of money on your ad does not guarantee that people will remember your brand after watching it. Use the following tips to make your brand stand out:

• Add your brand name or logo early (within the first 5 seconds).
• Use consistent colors, fonts, and brand visuals to align with your brand.
• Add contrast between your brand and the background to make them pop.
• Try to show your brand at the beginning and the end. This helps people recall your brand information.
• Integrate your product naturally into the story.

2) Keep your ads between 15 and 30 seconds

Want to gain viewers’ attention within seconds?

Then, use short ads that last between 15 to 30 seconds. Google research shows that 30-second ads had the most views, while longer ads than 45 seconds made the visitor watching the ad drop significantly.

So, try to aim for 15 - 30 seconds for most of the video campaigns. More importantly, use impactful content in the first 5 - 10 seconds to grab attention.

3) Hook, engage, connect, and build

The average attention span is limited to 8.25 seconds, so you need to get your viewers’ attention over quickly. Consider the first few seconds – these determine whether they’ll keep watching or not.

• Start with a hook that is unignorable – a surprising fact, bold statement, humor, music, or a thought-provoking question.
• Build an emotional connection ads that make viewers feel something (joy, empathy, excitement, urgency) are more memorable.
• Use storytelling to show how your product or service fits into their life.
• Personalize your content based on audience segments like age, interests, or behaviors.

Understand what they require and the problems they face, and incorporate situations that they can relate to.

4) Don’t let your customers distract

YouTube is great for video advertising, but many distractions can take your viewer’s attention away – the comment section and other recommended or related videos. To minimize your viewer’s distractors, you can use the following tips:

• Use faces in your ad to connect with customers and draw their attention.
• Add a clear focus point to guide your viewer’s attention.
• Use bold text with high contrast to make your message easily readable.
• Keep your visuals clean and uncluttered so the main idea is visible.

5) Add a call-to-action (CTA)

An ad without a CTA is like a store without an exit sign – viewers won’t know what to do next. Here are some best practices for CTAs:

• Place a CTA at the end of your ad, but also consider showing one in the middle.
• Keep it simple and actionable – “Shop Now,” “Subscribe,” “Download.”
• Use both verbal and visual cues (e.g., say the CTA in the script and display it on-screen).
• Add clickable CTAs using overlay text to make it easy for viewers to act immediately.

Try Out YouTube Advertising To Grow Your Brand

Once you understand the rules, you can capture your customer’s attention. Sometimes, a 45-second ad can also work better than a 30-second ad. All related to your niche and target audience, so first understand all the rules and your target audience’s ideology to start your YouTube ad campaign.

If you’re new to YouTube advertising or need help, you have experts here. Contact NB Marketing Solutions to start your YouTube advertising campaign or get a free consultation to get started.