YouTube Advertising Fundamentals

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Google Ads

As YouTube is owned by Google, the advertising tools available to brands and businesses are housed within the Google Ads platform.

Google Ads is the advertising, or paid media, platform offered within the suite of Google products. It is Google’s native advertising service for businesses that want to display ads on Google products and its advertising network. A Google Ads account is required to run and manage your video advertising on YouTube.

Advertising on YouTube

For advertisers, growing a social following on YouTube can be extremely valuable. It can:

• Increase your site and search traffic.
• Help with lead generation.
• Help you create content based on the feedback you receive from your following.
• Help with brand engagement.
• Provide customer insights.
• Help with future marketing strategies and with ad targeting.

Monetizing YouTube content

YouTube channels can be monetized based on the level of engagement your videos generate and the audience they attract. You can monetize your YouTube content by joining the YouTube Partner Program to earn money from adverts that are shown on your videos. Let’s take a look at how this works.

• YouTube allows partners to monetize video content with ads. You can apply for monetization once you’ve reached 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year. You can apply for the Partner Program in the Monetization menu in YouTube Studio. Once you apply, your channel will be checked to see if you meet YouTube’s policy and guidelines.
• YouTube ads are served through Google AdSense, so you need an account to receive payment.
• Once you are accepted into the YouTube Partner Program, you can immediately turn on adverts for your videos, which allows adverts to be shown on your content. You can select which ad formats you prefer to have shown on your videos, such as, for example, skippable or non-skippable ads.
• When YouTube gets paid by advertisers, they will share the earnings with you. YouTube splits ad revenue 55% / 45% with creators.

Available ad formats

If you decide to run ads on YouTube, you’ll find that the platform offers a range of ad formats. These include:

• Skippable in-stream ads, which users can choose not to view. These can be skipped by the user after five seconds if they choose.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads, including bumper ads. Users cannot skip these ads. They must watch the ad before they can access the content.
• Video discovery ads, which were formerly known as in-display ads.
• Non-video ads, such as video overlays and banners.

When deciding which YouTube ad format to use, you need to consider your overall marketing objectives, as well as how you can use Google Ads to implement your social video strategy.

Example: Monday.com

B2B company Monday.com, which offers project and task management solutions, uses skippable in-stream ads for lead generation. These ads play before or during a video. Ads that play before a video are known as ‘pre-roll’ ads, whereas ads that play during a video are known as ‘mid-roll’ ads.

The defining feature of skippable ads is that viewers can choose to skip them after the first 5 seconds. As an advertiser, you only pay when viewers choose to keep watching past those first 5 seconds. Your ad must be at least 12 seconds long (though somewhere under 3 minutes is recommended). You pay when a person has watched the first 30 seconds, or the whole video, or if they interact with your ad by clicking, whichever comes first.

The most effective skippable ads contain clear branding, such as a logo, and stand out to the user. This creates a brand impression, even if the ad is skipped.