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The Ultimate Guide To YouTube TrueView In-Stream Ads

YouTube TrueView in-stream ads are popping up everywhere and can be really beneficial to your brand awareness and business traffic. Creating YouTube TrueView in-stream ads is super easy which another great benefit of these is.

In this blog, we will go over all the steps on how to create TrueView in-stream ads for YouTube and how they can contribute to generating leads and driving sales towards your business.

First of all, why use YouTube TrueView in-stream ads?

Using TrueView in-stream ads will create beneficial brand awareness to audiences that you may not have thought about when targeting the ads. They are sponsored, short videos that appear in monetized organic YouTube content. They can also appear in embedded videos on partner sites, too.

  1. YouTube in-stream skippable ads – These are the longest ads out of the three types and can be up to 6 minutes long. The ads give the audience the option to skip to the organic content after 5 seconds.
  2. YouTube in-stream non-skippable ads – These ads can be up to 15 seconds long and they require the audience to watch the whole ad before the video content is played automatically.
  3. YouTube in-stream bumper ads – These ads cannot be longer than 6 seconds and they require the audience to watch in full before the video content is played automatically.

YouTube TrueView in-stream ad benefits:

Targeting the right audience: YouTube is part of the Google family so the video-sharing site uses Google Ads for all its TrueView in-stream ads, meaning you get access to a large amount of audience targeting options. You can target viewers by:

  • Similar audiences that share characteristics
  • Remarketing audiences that already showed interest in your business
  • Demographic data such as age, gender, location, etc.

Reaching your customers throughout their journey: Not only can you use the YouTube in-stream ads to reach different audiences, but you can create them for every stage of their customer journey;

  • Awareness: Drive awareness by reaching targeted, relevant audiences that are new to your brand.
  • Consideration: Encouraging research and browsing with engaging video content.
  • Conversion: Get consumers to buy, subscribe, or click on video content that prompts action.

Step by Step YouTube TrueView in-Stream Ads:

Before we start: If you’ve already produced short-form video content that could be turned into an in-stream ad, you can upload it to YouTube and easily add it to your campaign. These three pointers will allow YouTube effectively showcase your business, if you’re stuck for ideas,

  1. Highlight business and brand benefits – present to your audience how your business can help them solve problems.
  2. Demonstrate – If your business or product needs explanation, this is a great way of quickly but effectively showing your audience how they work.
  3. Make them laugh – the TrueView in-stream ads give you a few seconds to get a conversion so you need to capture your audience’s attention quickly. Humour and making your audience laugh is a great way of doing so.

Step 1: Start Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Check to see that you’ve added all relevant conversion actions to your business’ Google Ads account. Whatever your goals are, you might want to track these; site visits, leads, sales, and add to cart.

  • Sign in to your Google Ads account
  • Click Tools & Settings
  • Click Conversions and then choose the type you want
  • Set a value and conversion window
  • Choose an attribution model
  • If you’re wanting to import your conversion actions from an external source, you can link the account to Google Ads

Step 2: Choosing a Campaign Goal and Type

Google Ads Goal Types
  • Click on the new campaign to start setting up your ad
  • Choose between these goals;
    • Sales, increase sales on your website, app, or over the phone
    • Leads, collect contact information
    • Website traffic, get people to click through to your website
    • Product and brand consideration, encourage people to browse your products
    • Brand awareness, introduce your brand to new customers
  • After you’ve chosen a goal, click the video as your campaign type

Step 3: Selecting Campaign Settings

Google Ads Campaign Settings
  • Give your YouTube in-stream campaign a name and pick a bid strategy, if your objective/goal allows.
  • Set a daily or lifetime budget, start date, and choose your targeted languages and locations.
  • Start to review the brand safety settings
  • By default, your Google Ads will show with Standard Inventory, which means its digital content appropriate for most businesses.

Step 4: Setting up YouTube Ad Group Targeting

YouTube Ad Targeting Options
  • Give your ad group a relevant name and set targeting parameters.
  • Choose content topics or YouTube channels to target, this will allow all your TrueView in-stream ads to appear alongside the most relevant videos.
  • Add your keyword list or keyword ideas via a URL

Step 5: Creating your YouTube In-Stream Video Ad

YouTube TrueView In-stream Ads
  • To link your video to your ad, search for it on YouTube or copy and paste the video URL
  • Copy and paste the landing page URL, this is the page where customers will land after clicking on your ad
  • Add a call to action, YouTube ads work better when they directly tell your audience exactly what step to take next
  • Add the ad headline, make it eye-catching, attention-grabbing, and explain exactly what you’re offering.
  • Add the ad description, briefly explaining your offer or business within 70 characters, yes it can be tricky!
  • Add URL parameters to your landing page for usage tracking data collection

Step 6: Launching your YouTube TrueView in-Stream Ad

  • Start monitoring the results, this is vital for a successful ad campaign
  • Review targeting, you can explore your audience metrics through Google Ads and see which ads have been the most responsive
  • Adjust bids, you can adjust your bidding strategy throughout the campaign to maximize conversion and traffic

And there you have it! A full, detailed guide on how to use YouTube TrueView in-stream ads and use them to your business advantage. If you’ve enjoyed this blog, please check out our others here.

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