Dmitriy К. Google Ad Expert

Youtube Ads: features of ad settings to maximize the effectiveness of video ads

Today we're going to share our experience with setting up Youtube ads that will help you avoid mistakes and maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.

And let's start with one important thing: you can be an incredibly cool ad expert, but high-quality videos are necessary for a successful Youtube campaign. Even the most optimal advertising campaign settings will not work if the video is bullshit. So this is it.

Video ads: their features and structure

Video Power Marketing has developed a formula for creating an attention-grabbing and trustworthy video ad - Youtube Ad Formula. It includes 5 steps to create the perfect video ad.

An effective Youtube video ad should:

1. Attract the attention of the target audience. The first 5 seconds of the video is the most important part of the ad. During this time, the person decides whether he will watch further or skip the ad. Have time to present your product.

2. Address the problem or desire of the user. Touch their fears, disappointments, pain.

- Are you looking for [something there]?

- Are you tired of [something there]?

- Have you tried many different products, it does not help [something there]?

- Are you trying to achieve [something there] but can't get the results you're looking for?

- You may think that you need [something there] for [something there], but I want to show you why this might not work for you.

3. Inspire confidence. Use customer testimonials or personal stories. Tell us how you found out the solution for yourself. Let the audience know that you understand how they feel. Let the audience know that you felt the same way too.

4. Give a solution: show how the product will solve problems or satisfy the user's desires. Show the benefits and features. Explain what makes your offer unique.

5. Call to Action: Encourages the audience to click on or interact with the video ad. That is, what a person should do after watching the video (call, write, place an order).

Naturally, this should be packaged in a beautiful picture with an interesting plot. Get creative!

Setting up advertising campaigns on Youtube to maximize efficiency

Now we will analyze the features:

- setting rates;

- network selection, resource type, excluded types and labels;

- restrictions on the frequency of impressions;

- targeting;

- choice of ad types;

- additional settings;

- target metric settings.

Youtube ad bidding strategy

Youtube has several bidding strategies:

Target CPA - target cost per action;

Maximize conversions - maximization of conversions;

Maximum CPV - maximum cost per view;

Target CPM - target cost for 1000 impressions.

Tip 1. If your account is already tracking conversions and has received at least 10+ conversions, then it is better to use Target CPA with a preliminary selection of the campaign goal as the first strategy. This is how you set the cost per conversion yourself, and the system automatically optimizes bids and adjusts them during the auction to achieve the set goal.

Why Target CPA? What about other strategies? Target CPA is easier to manage and more effective in the early stages by being able to control your target CPA across ad sets and adjust device bids.

Let's compare the effectiveness of campaigns with a set goal/Target CPA and without a goal/Maximum CPV.

The campaign with Maximum CPV has a minimum cost per view ($0.1) to avoid high costs per interaction. But the bid was too low, so ads were shown on low-quality sites. At the same time, the Target CPA campaign, although it received fewer impressions, has a much greater effectiveness.

As for the second available strategy, Maximize conversions, it will try to use up the entire daily budget as soon as possible without trying to optimize the conversion cost. Therefore, it is not recommended to use it with small budgets.

Tip 2. If you have a list of quality sites (websites, channels, videos), then feel free to use Target CPM.

The strategy will only focus on CPM optimization and will not over-bid due to its algorithms to get conversions. As a result, the cost of conversion on pre-assembled quality plots.

The rates will be lower with the Target CPM strategy than the Target CPA. You can select it through Brand awareness and reach a goal.

Setting up advertising networks on Youtube

Exclude Video Partners on the Display Network. In 99% of cases, enabling this feature will lead to an inappropriate budget drain.

The exception is when you target specific sites. For example, there is a list of quality sites where video ads can only be shown when they are enabled on partner sites.

Setting the asset type for Youtube ads

The standard resource type (Inventory type - Standard) is suitable for most campaigns. It excludes the display of ads on sites:

- with pronounced profanity;

- with nudity content;

- with various documentary or news materials;

- with sensitive content (politics, religion, drugs, race, etc.).

For branded campaigns, we recommend choosing Limited inventory to exclude almost all sensitive content as much as possible.

Setting excluded types and labels for Youtube ads

Exclude:

Embedded YouTube videos are Youtube videos that are hosted on other sites. Technically, the ad is shown in Youtube videos, in practice, it sprays campaign targeting, like using Display Network partner sites;

live video broadcasts: most of them are cartoons, music or news channels, and video game streams. If this is not your topic, then it is better to exclude such content.

Uncheck all Digital content labels. Youtube can take a long time to assign one or another category for each channel or video. To exclude irrelevant content, it is better to use topics, audiences, or lists of negative sites.

Language setting for Youtube ads

Set in the settings only the language that is used in the video. If you have videos in multiple languages, create separate campaigns for each.

Setting up devices for Youtube ads

Recommended:

Create a separate group for each device in order to be able to quickly evaluate the effectiveness of each of them.

Exclude display on TV devices.

Setting frequency limits for Youtube ads

If you are using automatic bidding strategies, do not use the impression and view capping feature. In this case, the system itself will determine the optimal values. And interference will break everything

For other strategies, we recommend using the following limit settings

1. frequency of impressions - 5-10 per day;

2. viewing frequency - 3-5 per day

NB! At the same time, follow the OR/OR principle: set limits OR on the frequency of impressions, OR on the frequency of views. This is necessary so as not to create a conflict for the system and so that the restrictions can be respected.

NB! If the same video ad is being used in multiple ad campaigns, then frequency capping for a specific campaign will count all impressions and/or views registered for that user. And when the limit is reached, ads from this campaign will no longer be shown to the user.

Youtube ad targeting

Tip 1. The best targeting options for Youtube campaigns are pre-built lists of quality sites and remarketing audiences. You can download them in the Placements section.

But in most cases, at the start of working with a campaign, there is no such list or audiences yet, so use the following targeting options:

keywords;

individual audiences;

topics;

similar audiences;

audience of interested buyers;

interest audiences.

Tips for using keywords as targeting:

- the match type is not important;

- don't just use short or basic words like "ad" or "google ads". Also add long keywords, for example, "how to set up Google ads";

- try to use at least 50 keywords in one group;

- separately add keywords that differ, for example, only in the plural. Example: how to build youtube ads campaigns and how to build youtube ad campaigns;

- use brand queries of your product and the name of competitors;

- add and use variations of the most effective keywords.

Tip 2. It is crucial to create an avatar of the “ideal” buyer before launching campaigns and exclude irrelevant audiences, sites, topics in order to avoid unnecessary costs. For example, if you run a bridal salon, it makes sense to exclude people who are already married.

Examples for exclusion:

- topics - you should almost always exclude topics related to music, video games, animals and children (of course, if they are not related to your product);

- demographics - age, gender, income, parental status. For example, for children's products, the category of people who do not have children and etc.;

- Audiences: Take a look at the Detailed Demographics (Parents, Marital Status, Education, Employment) and Audience Events (New Pets, Starting a Business, Marriage, Moving, etc.) section.

Tip 3. Don't use too many targeting options in one ad group when creating your first campaigns. It is better to set 1 targeting option per group (for example, keywords only).

Better create a separate campaign for each of the targeting methods. Such segmentation will allow you to get pure statistics on the effectiveness of a particular targeting method and then combine them to get the best result.

Tip 4. Don't use negative keyword lists in your video campaigns, as this will severely reduce your traffic. Google is very inaccurate in determining what content a channel or video belongs to. Plus, the authors themselves add hype words to descriptions and tags, because of this, a bunch of sites can be banned for a negative keyword.

Tip 5. Use the Combined audience tool to test narrow but highly accurate segments of your audience.

For example, the company is engaged in automation and scaling in Facebook and Instagram. You can create an audience for it:

- with users interested in software for companies;

- with users interested in advertising and marketing;

- with employees of large companies (250-10,000 employees).

Ad types for Youtube ads

We recommend using the following types of ads on an ongoing basis:

1. In-stream skippable is the main type, used when creating campaigns for any purpose.

2. Discovery ads. Suitable for remarketing campaigns or if you need to increase the number of subscriptions/likes on your Youtube channel.

3. Responsive video ads. Can be displayed in multiple formats, both in-stream skippable and Discovery Video ads. This type of ad can be used when creating Video Action campaigns with the goals of Leads, Sales and Website Traffic.

Best used as a remarketing campaign ad. Such ads are not yet displayed in Google Editor; You can only create it in the Google Ads web interface.

Additional settings for advertising on Youtube

1. Quick links. According to Google Ads statistics, adding sitelinks to video ads increases conversions by 23%. Remember that they are only for mobile devices;

2. Always use a companion banner in your in-stream ads. In the banner, you can place additional information + visually highlight the CTA. Otherwise, a banner from the main page of the channel will be used. Banner size is strictly 300×60 px;

3. When using Discovery Ads, do not forget to add links to the site in the description of the video;

4. Create a remarketing audience based on your Youtube account data;

Target metrics for evaluating performance

Besides view, conversion rate and revenue, there are 2 important indicators of a successful Youtube campaign:

- CTR;

- lead cost.

According to different research, even a small increase in CTR, for example by 0.5%, can significantly affect the cost per lead.

You can see how a small increase in CTR with a large decrease in view-through rate more than doubled the cost per lead.

We also had a successful example in practice. In one of the campaigns, we worked on increasing the CTR (changed the structure of the video, excluded irrelevant topics and audiences) and as a result received an increase in conversions of + 213% with a decrease in CPA by 38%. And the conversion rate increased by 110%.

Youtube video ad setup checklist to maximize performance

1. Before creating a Youtube advertising campaign, make every effort to get high-quality videos from customers.

2. Start with Target CPA bidding strategy.

3. Exclude from targeting before campaign launch:

- partner video resources in the Display Network;

- embeddable YouTube videos and live video broadcasts;

- TV devices;

- irrelevant topics, audiences, platforms.

4. Target the language used in the video ad only.

5. Separate campaigns by targeting type, language, geolocation, if your budget allows.

6. Use all possible extensions for video ads.

7. Test different subtypes of video companies.