How much does advertising on YouTube cost?
The cost of running ads on YouTube varies depending on which ad format you choose. However, because of this, YouTube marketing is a viable option for companies with almost any budget.
YouTube Advertising Agency
Have you ever wanted to create engaging TV ads, but been worried that they aren’t targeted enough to benefit your business? Are you interested in combining the video element of traditional TV advertising with modern-day digital marketing? If so, give your products or services the moment in the spotlight they deserve with YouTube!
What is YouTube Advertising?
YouTube advertising is an increasingly popular element of display marketing that involves creating video ads to showcase your product or service. These adverts, set up through Google Ads, can be shown either before, during, or after another user’s video, or in YouTube search results.
What Makes YouTube Adverts a Great Marketing Tool?
There’s loads of information out there detailing how and why YouTube is one of the most popular advertising platforms. However, we’ve collated some of the most impressive YouTube marketing stats; we believe they speak for themselves:
- 1TrafficEvery month, YouTube gets 14.3 billion visits, which is more visits than Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Instagram combined.
- 2OmnichannelA whopping 99% of YouTube users also have profiles on other social media platforms, allowing us to configure a strong omnichannel marketing strategy.
- 3ReachThe potential reach of YouTube ads is 2.56 billion users, which equates to 32% of the world’s population, and over 50% of internet users globally!
- 4RevenueIn 2021, global ad revenues on YouTube amounted to $28 billion - an increase of 30.4% from the previous year. In Q1 of 2024 alone, global ad revenue stood at $8.1 billion.
- 5Awareness70% of users state that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands.
- 6ConversionUsers are 2x more likely to purchase a product or service that they found on YouTube.
The Different Types of YouTube Ads
The value of incorporating YouTube ads within a business’s marketing strategy is unquestionable. However, understanding the different ad formats and how to utilise them most effectively is crucial for maximising your performance potential.
Skippable In-Stream Ads
This type of ad can be shown either before a video or midway through it. They play for a minimum of five seconds, and then the viewer can choose whether or not to skip them. Skippable ads are also accompanied by a banner ad that stays in place, even if the user skips the ad.
Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
Similar to skippable ads, non-skippable ads can also be shown before or during a video. The only difference is that users don’t have the option to skip them. Due to this, non-skippable video ads are one of the best ad types for raising brand awareness.
Bumper Ads
These six-second non-skippable ads are played right before the actual video begins. They are perfect for businesses with a punchy message, and they don’t require the same level of production as a full video.
In-Feed Ads
In-feed ads are more like a Google search ad, with the big difference being that they are shown in YouTube search results. They consist of a thumbnail image with text and have ‘Ad’ written in the top corner. In some instances, they can also be shown on the video watch page.
Overlay Ads
Overlay ads are non-video ads that can be either pop-up banners that appear midway through a video, or ads that are shown on the right-hand side of results whilst a video is playing. They include an image, text, and a button linking to the advertiser’s website.
Why it’s Vital to Nail Your Target Audience
In-video ads are much more intrusive than other forms of marketing because they interrupt the user’s viewing experience. That’s why, when it comes to advertising on YouTube, it’s absolutely essential that your targeting is as accurate as can be.
Your ad not only needs to offer something valuable that’s worthy of the user’s time, but it also needs to cover a topic that’s highly relevant to them and that will pique their interest. Otherwise, you risk your adverts having an adverse effect, alienating potential customers as opposed to enticing them.
To ensure your ads get the best ROI, we utilise audience layering to craft unique strategy segments, providing a tailored advert that the user feels is made specifically for them. For instance, pre-roll skippable ads are said to be the most effective type of YouTube Ad overall, but 5-second non-skippable ads in-stream are great for raising brand awareness. They’re a punchy and poignant seed planting that drives later actions. If you know what you’re doing, you can create a really effective mini-funnel that exists entirely inside YouTube simply by leveraging the best ads for each situation.
Using YouTube in Your Wider Marketing Strategy
YouTube is what we like to refer to as a ‘discovery’ channel: it allows us to plant the seed with a wide audience at a low cost. The purpose of YouTube ads is to increase brand awareness and encourage users to consider your business as a viable option when making purchasing decisions. In fact, users who see a TrueView ad (an ad that the users can skip after five seconds) are reportedly 10 times more likely to take the action prompted in the ad.
In order to get the most out of YouTube advertising, we’d always recommend integrating it within your wider marketing strategy, instead of treating the platform as a sole activity.
As YouTube advertising is at the very top of the sales funnel, other marketing strategies need to be introduced to encourage potential customers to go deeper into the funnel and make a purchase. Essentially, the goal is to target customers at every stage of their journey.
Doing this will not only maximise long-term ROI, but also instigate brand recall, boosting sales and market share, and giving you that all-important competitive advantage.
Shining Light On Dark Traffic
As the first touchpoint in a user's journey, YouTube advertising is interruptive due to the fact that it uses contextual targeting. The user hasn’t actively searched for your product or service. Therefore, it's unlikely that they will perform the intended action upon first viewing your ad. And, to be able to track a user, a click and opt-in needs to happen.
What you will see is that your ad drums up interest with your target audience, leading them to visit your website at a later date. In instances where we’ve received consent for visibility, we’re then able to track this data via Google Analytics and report back.
What we don’t have visibility on is website visitors who have been indirectly influenced by your ad. For example, if someone resonates with your core message, but decides not to click through and visit your site until a later date, their visit won’t be accredited to YouTube; even though it was your YouTube ad that influenced them. This is what we call "dark traffic". Whilst it is essentially un-trackable and un-attributable, we have developed modelling methods that “prove” the original source was YouTube.
More often than not, if a user doesn't click your ad but at a later date remembers your video and recalls your brand name, they will search for the brand name in the search engine. This type of search is known as brand traffic. Alternatively, if they are able to remember the URL from the video, they’ll type that straight into their browser and come to your site as direct traffic.
One of our methods is to complete periodic analysis of brand and direct traffic uplifts. We assess whether any other activities could be influencing these traffic numbers (e.g. other paid media activity, PR activity, etc). This allows us to take a sensible assessment of all factors and make an educated estimate of the “dark” influence the activity has provided.
Our YouTube Marketing Process
Our team of YouTube advertising experts will create the perfect video marketing strategy for your business.
Reporting on your YouTube ads
Due to dark traffic, reporting on YouTube activity involves a large aspect of the unknown; we can't track users definitively with no cookie present. However, to give you the most accurate overview of how successful your ads have been, we’ll measure the uplift influence dark traffic has had on your website and overall brand growth.
Additionally, we’ll also work with you throughout the onboarding process to determine exactly which KPIs you’d like us to measure. We’ll then provide live, fully-customisable dashboards that illustrate your desired KPIs, allowing us to seamlessly compare data and keep track of any growth generated by campaign activity.
Creating these dashboards not only ensures your data is accurate to a 15-minute latency, but also offers more benefits than standard analytics packages. This is because we have a multitude of data points that can be combined to form one outcome; something that isn’t possible in one solution alone.
Creating attention-grabbing videos
With the support of our professional internal motion designer and high-quality stock footage, we can create videos that ensure your message is maximised from start to finish.
Using premium stock footage to create YouTube videos offers a much faster turnaround time and is significantly more cost-effective. Not only do stock footage videos look natural, but a high percentage of businesses choose this option because it provides a quicker route to market without breaking the bank.
In order to keep your brand creatives fresh, we recommend producing and putting out a new video every month to avoid ad fatigue within ad platforms. Using stock footage streamlines this process.
Additionally, if you’re still a little sceptical about how successful video marketing can be for your business, creating ads with stock footage can be a great way of determining proof of concept without investing an eye-watering amount upfront.
- 1PlanAfter discussing your objectives and finding out what you’d like to achieve with your YouTube adverts, our team will put together a plan of action, providing recommendations on which YouTube ad formats we think will work best for your business.
- 2CreateWe’ll then create and edit the video, write the ad copy, and build out the campaign in Google.
- 3TestWhen we’re sure you’re happy, we’ll then launch the ads, closely monitoring their success, and ensuring they’re getting in front of the right people.
- 4RefineFinally, we’ll analyse the results, and use research and data-backed decisions to continually refine the targeting in order to provide you with the best results.
YouTube EXPERTS
Get in touch with our award-winning team
Contact our team today to find out how we can scrub up your digital marketing strategies.
Discuss your Brief
We outline what you’re hoping to achieve through YouTube advertising, and answer any questions that you may have about how our service can help you.
Finalise your target audience
Are you launching a new product or service that you want to showcase to previous customers? Are you trying to encourage new customers to invest in your product or service? Is your target audience niche? Whoever your target market is, we’ll offer advice on how best to attract them.
Develop an innovative strategy
Once we know what your goals are and who you’d like to reach, our expert team will put together a proposal that outlines our recommendations, offering insight into which formats of YouTube advert we think will be the most effective for your business.
YouTube Advertising FAQ’s
Can I control who sees my ads?
Yes! Our team will ensure your ads are reaching the right audience. We typically layer Google Display Network audiences to allow us to hone and craft an audience as aligned to your buyer persona as possible.
How does advertising on YouTube differ from advertising on Facebook?
Both are extremely effective advertising platforms; the difference is how they’re used. Ultimately, people go to Facebook to scroll through content quickly. Ads need to be visual, snappy, and attention-grabbing. However, the sole purpose people visit YouTube is to watch videos. This means there’s an opportunity to tell a story with your ads, and that users are more likely to stick around and engage.
What Are Views From YouTube Advertising?
A view from a YouTube ad is counted when the viewer watches 30 seconds of the video or until the end of the ad, whichever comes first. That’s not all though, as interactions can also count as a view.
How Effective is YouTube Advertising?
Assessing the overall effectiveness of any form of marketing can be a challenge. After all, there are many intricacies. Regardless, it’s clear that YouTube ads can be extremely effective. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users and over a billion hours of videos are watched by users every day. Paid YouTube ads are also 84% more likely to receive viewers’ attention than TV ads.
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tailored solutions that will surpass your targets
Whether you’re looking to forge a new partnership or investigating agencies for the very first time, our experts can understand your goals and structure tailored solutions that will surpass your targets.
- 1Discuss Your BriefOutline your business objectives exactly, then uncover how we can not only help you to succeed but sky-rocket your KPIs.
- 2Secure Your SuccessOutline your business objectives exactly, then uncover how we can not only help you to succeed but sky-rocket your KPIs.
- 3Grow Your BusinessWe’ve helped some of the biggest brands in the UK to exceed their ambitions, and we’re eager to discuss how a holistic digital strategy could upscale your business performance too.
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