Your Guide to YouTube Video Ad Formats for 2020!

Video marketing and brand promotion through YouTube has become a consensus among many cross-border sellers. Video content is becoming increasingly popular on the web and in the advertising industry. It’s important for marketers and advertisers to stay up to date with the latest video advertising features and updates so they can continually improve their digital marketing strategies.

The various ad formats offered by YouTube or Google can help you achieve the following marketing goals: awareness, consideration, action.

The table below shows all the video ad formats assigned to the three marketing objectives, which are further described in this article.

Marketing Goal 1: Raise Awareness

YouTube has 5 different ad formats designed to increase awareness of your product or service: Bumper ads, TrueView ads, Non-skippable ads, Masthead ads, and In-stream video ads.

Bumper ads are a very short 6-second video ad format that allows advertisers to use a short message to build their brand awareness and attract more customers. Bumper ads can play before, during, or after a video but cannot be skipped. Bumper ads can be displayed on YouTube videos or Google video partners and are purchased on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis.

Overall, bumper ads have the lowest CPMs among all streaming video formats and are primarily used on mobile devices. Bumper ads are suitable for advertisers who want wide coverage and lower CPM.

There are 4 TrueView ad formats, each of which allows you to achieve different marketing goals. All formats are skippable and in-play, and allow users to choose when to watch the video. TrueView reach is purchased on a CPM basis with the goal of driving awareness to expand a target audience.

Non-skippable ads are in-stream ads offered in auctions and reservations, designed to increase awareness and engage audiences through 15-20 second videos. These ads are similar to TV ads and are available on YouTube and Google Video partners such as Google Ads, Google Display & Video 360. Because non-skippable ads can be obtained through bidding, CPM can be reduced and purchases can be made more flexible.

Video Masthead ads run on the YouTube homepage, making them ideal for showcasing your brand to a broad audience across all devices. This ad can be purchased on a CPD (cost per day) or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis, depending on the advertiser's goals. CPD allows advertisers to reach a large audience with huge single-day reach, while CPM means advertisers can reserve the masthead ad spot on the YouTube homepage. The Masthead ad format is ideal for advertisers looking to reach a large audience in a short period of time, drive awareness of a new product or service, or focus on high-impact placements to increase visibility.

Outstream video ads are mobile-specific ads designed to reach potential customers on partner websites and apps, allowing users to choose whether or not to interact with the ad. Ads will automatically play on mute, and users can unmute with a single click, and can choose to close the ad when it appears. Outstream ads are purchased on a CPM basis, meaning advertisers only pay when the ad is viewed by the target audience.

Marketing Goal 2: Drive Consideration

To drive consideration of your product or service, you can create the following video ad formats: TrueView in-stream ads (in-stream), TrueView in-discovery ads (discovery).

TrueView in-stream ads can optimize for views instead of impressions (like TrueView reach), but the ads only count if the video is longer than 11 seconds. These ads, which can be found on YouTube and Google video partners, are only paid if someone watches at least 30 seconds of the ad or takes a desired action on the video (e.g., clicks on a call to action to visit a landing page). TrueView in-stream ads can be played on both desktop and mobile devices. TrueView in-stream ads are purchased on a CPV (cost per view) or Maximise Lift bidding strategy.

If your goal is to get views on your YouTube ad, Google recommends that you create a video that is between 12 seconds and 180 seconds long. Keep this in mind when creating TrueView in-stream ads. Any video shorter than 10 seconds will not be tracked by YouTube Analytics.

TrueView in-display ads are similar to TrueView in-stream ads. TrueView in-display ads are bought on CPV and can run on desktop and mobile devices. They can appear as promoted videos on YouTube’s homepage or in search results, and their goal is to reach viewers at key moments when people are searching or watching videos on YouTube. The marketing goal of TrueView in-display ads and TrueView in-stream ads is the same – to drive engagement. Users must click on a TrueView in-display ad to view the ad content. Overall, TrueView in-display ads are great for discovering key moments.

Marketing Goal 3: Drive Action

TrueView for action ads are a video ad format with a marketing objective that drives your audience to take action (e.g., drive customers to buy your products or services, or generate leads).

TrueView for action ads are skippable in-stream ads that grab users’ attention and convert them into website actions. They are purchased on a CPA (cost per action) basis and are designed to maximize conversions and are available to both YouTube and Google Video partners. The key feature of TrueView for action ads is that they include customizable calls to action throughout the ad, which can increase click-through rates.

TrueView for action ads are a great fit for advertisers who have conversion tracking, want to optimize their video campaigns for site actions (like purchases or clicks), and take advantage of video capabilities and Google’s automated bidding strategies.

Author: YouTube Marketing

Source: YouTube Marketing