Did you know advertising on YouTube isn’t only for large brands with huge budgets? With video consistently ranking as a top format for many advertisers, small businesses should consider YouTube in reaching shoppers.
Benefits of Video Advertising
Similar to other digital advertising, video ads allow businesses to advertise affordably and without lengthy ad flights. Being a Google brand, YouTube also provides extensive audience targeting capabilities. Advertisers can target shoppers based on their location, demographics, interests, and behaviors, pinpointing their marketing dollars toward their ideal customers.
Businesses can also repurpose existing video assets such as television commercials for their YouTube campaigns, saving production costs and launch time.
YouTube Ad Formats
Like other Google advertising products, YouTube offers multiple campaign types and ad formats to suit your unique goals and budget.
- “Bumper” ads are the shortest, are non-skippable, and are 6 seconds or less.
- Lengthier non-skippable ads are available though must remain less than 15 seconds.
- Video ads 15 seconds or longer fall into the “skippable” category. Brands pay for these based on the actual number of views rather than displays.
AIDA Video Formatting
Many marketers follow the “AIDA” formula for optimal video ad performance – Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
As with any form of advertising, strive to capture consumers’ attention immediately with attractive, quality visuals. Then, develop their interest by communicating how your product, service, or business overall stands out from your competition. Next, instill a sense of desire by showing how you can meet their needs. Finally, drive action with calls to action in both the video’s content and the additional text fields provided by most platforms.
Measuring Ad Performance
As a Google advertising product, YouTube ads’ performance reporting is aided by the Google Ads dashboard and Google Analytics (if installed on your website.) Integrated reporting can measure how many viewers visited your landing page, their behavior while on-site, and any conversion actions attributable to your video campaign(s).
Additional attribution tools can be found in our guide on marketing measurement.
Summary
Video advertising on YouTube provides cost-effective reach to shoppers and robust targeting of specific audiences. Scalable budget ranges and campaign flexibility enable businesses of all sizes to leverage video ads. Lastly, analytics provides transparent campaign performance data, allowing you to measure ad results toward your overall goals.
