Welcome once again to our pay-per-click (PPC) series of blog posts, and this week, we will be taking a closer look at some of the terms associated with video Advertising on Youtube and Google AdWords.

If you have ever been on YouTube, you’ve almost certainly come across Google’s advertising platform on the website. These video ads are placed before and during videos, as well as sponsored videos appearing in the recommended videos to the right of the video player.

 Why you should advertise on YouTube

As the world’s second most popular search engine, YouTube has an almost unparalleled scope to connect you with your target market. The YouTube app is also immensely popular, ensuring that you will be seen by those on mobile devices as well as those on a desktop.

In fact, the video-sharing website already reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any American broadcast or cable network combined, and all of the 100 top global brands show their ads on YouTube, strongly suggesting that they know the power of video advertising.

 Video advertising formats on YouTube

There is a range of advertising formats on YouTube, ensuring that all advertising needs, whether that be to increase sales and leads or to improve brand awareness, are catered for.

The standard video ads on YouTube are called “TrueView video ads”, and these are broken down into a further three subcategories: TrueView in-stream ads, Trueview Discovery Ads, and Bumper ads.

There are many benefits to advertisers using TrueView video ads, and some of these are:

• The ads are totally customisable. The format, runtime, and the actual content of the video ad is totally up to you, meaning that advertisers are essentially given a blank slate to advertise in any way that they want to. You can also choose which people you want your ad to be shown to, and this can be based on location, demographics and interests.

• You only pay per view. When advertising on YouTube, you only get charged when your ad has been watched for over 30 seconds (or all the way through if it’s shorter than that) or when a user interacts with the ad. This means that the process is affordable for advertisers, as you can set a daily budget and how much you want to pay per view.

• The ads aren’t just seen on YouTube. As we mentioned earlier, YouTube has the ability to reach a lot of potential customers. However, the video advertisements can also appear on other websites in the Google Display Network, such as Gmail, as well as millions of partner websites and mobile apps where your ad can be seen.

TrueView in-stream ads

These are the video ads that appear before, during or after another video on YouTube, and the audience has the option to skip these after five seconds of viewing. If you have ever been on YouTube for over five minutes, the chances are that you have seen a TrueView in-stream ad.

As an advertiser, you only pay when the audience either watches the video for 30 seconds or interacts with the advert, which may include clicking on a personalised call-to-action. If your video ad is less than 30 seconds long, you will be charged if the advert is watched all the way to the end.

TrueView discovery ads

TrueView discovery ads, previously called “TrueView in-display ads”, allows advertisers to promote their videos in the recommended videos section, YouTube’s mobile homepage and YouTube search results.

Viewers will see a discovery ad as a thumbnail image of the video – which has been chosen from one of four potential images – along with three lines of text that have been set by the advertiser, which will ultimately try to entice the viewer into watching the video. Advertisers are charged when the thumbnail ad is clicked on, which then leads the user to view the video on the advertiser’s YouTube channel.

Bumper ads

These are shorter, non-skippable video ads that are optimised for reaching mobile audiences. Bumper ads have a maximum length of six seconds, and YouTube has said that:

“Bumpers are a cost-effective way to reach your target audience, ensure your message is seen and heard, and keep you top of mind.”

From this, you can see bumper ads are particularly effective for raising brand awareness with short, snappy adverts that will live long in the memory.

 Targeting the right audience

YouTube has proven to be popular with advertisers because it gives them the ability to target what audience sees their ads. Targeting the right people means that users are less likely to skip your ads, and this is likely to lead to your advertising aims being achieved. Some of the audience targeting on YouTube includes:

• Location. You can choose where people have to be located in order to see your advert. This can be as specific as a postcode or as undefined as an entire continent.

• Interests. This allows you to target your audience based on their interests, helping to ensure that they will be engaged with your ad.

• Demographics. You can also filter your audience with traditional demographics, such as gender, age, income, and parental status.

• Remarketing allows you to target those who have interacted with your videos previously, helping to drive brand awareness.

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