How to choose the right type of YouTube ad for your company

Video marketing is one of the best uses of your advertising dollar in the current market. YouTube is the most popular video sharing website in the world, with 30 million visitors every day and almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube daily. However, only 9% of small businesses utilize YouTube.

Making a YouTube ad can be daunting if you haven’t ever worked in creating videos before, but don’t let that stop you. Once you’ve decided to make the leap into video marketing, you can use a YouTube ad maker to help you design a polished product quickly.

There are several types of YouTube ads, with different costs and different ways of reaching customers. How can you be sure which one is right for you?

TrueView ads

These are the standard YouTube ads. Advertisers only have to pay for the advertisement if a user chooses to watch the ad for at least thirty seconds (or until the end of the video, if it is shorter than thirty seconds) or if the user takes action on the ad by clicking a link. YouTube requires that skippable TrueView ads are between 12 seconds and 6 minutes long, and non-skippable ads are 15 to 20 seconds long.

TrueView ads can be displayed two different ways. Video Discovery ads show up on the side of the search box in YouTube, and users have the option to click on the ads which appear related to their searches. Studies have shown that users are more likely to watch the ad fully when they choose to watch it. You can use three lines of text to accompany your ad. It is essential to not just focus on the content of the ad itself, but the accompanying text is key in convincing users to click on your ad.

The other type of TrueView ad is In-Stream ads, which users watch before watching a video. Some ads give users the option of skipping the remainder of the ad after the first five seconds.

Both of these types of ads have the option of a call to action inside of the video that users can click to be sent to your website. TrueView ads can include people, music, and dialogue that is royalty-free. Remember that since these videos can be skipped, your content should be engaging and not just a product plug.

Preroll Ads

This type of ad is not skippable, and may play at the beginning of a video or in the middle of a video that is ten or more minutes long. This type of ad can include everything that a TrueView ad contains, but should include a call-to-action so you can encourage viewers to engage with your content. These ads are paid on a per-click rate, so you’ll want to be sure that wherever your potential customers are being sent is worth the cost of the click.

Bumpers

Bumpers are the shortest ads on YouTube. The entire ad is only six seconds long, but combined with other videos and marketing they can be a great supplement to your advertising budget. Six seconds doesn’t seem like it can be long enough to get your message across, but studies have shown that users tend to remember these videos because they are so short. You will be charged per 1,000 views, but can set a daily budget to help control costs.

Choosing which type of ad to use

When you set up your ad campaign on YouTube, you will be asked what your goals are in this campaign. Based on your answers, YouTube will help you decide which types of videos are best suited to help you meet your goals.

Once you have gotten the hang of creating your ads and have started your campaign, you can use the analytics that Google offers to determine which of your ads are getting the most traction. From there, you can further tweak your strategy and refine your goals. Using this information you can use more of a certain type of ad, or kill the ads that aren’t having a positive impact on your bottom line.

While there are many different ways to get your message to consumers, there is no question that YouTube presence should be a key part of your marketing strategy. Using the analytics available you can adjust your strategy and optimize your advertising dollars to help spread brand awareness, find new customers, and ensure your slice of the market share.