How YouTube Advertising Works
To advertise on YouTube, you need a Google Ads account. Through it, you choose the video, who to show it to, the format (video with or without skipping, recommendations in the feed, etc.) and how much you are willing to spend. After moderation, the video can be shown all over the world.
To increase your chances of passing moderation, use specially prepared accounts with increased trust.
How much does YouTube advertising cost?
The price of advertising per month depends entirely on your interests and means. You can advertise for $1/day, on average this will give about 7,000 impressions per week. In my experience, I recommend starting from $10/day, this will give about 50,000 impressions every week.
Of course, it all depends on your topic and competition. But in most niches, you can expect 20-30 thousand impressions with expenses from $10 per day.
Google has disabled advertising in Russia. What to do?
As of March 4, 2022, Google has decided to leave Russia. All Russian Google Ads accounts have been frozen or closed. You can read more in a separate article . Now you can advertise on YouTube through a foreign account with identity verification .
How to Set Up Advertising Yourself: Step-by-Step Instructions
We will need a Google Ads account (advertising on YouTube belongs to Google). If you use our accounts , just log in. In the upper left corner, click on the plus to start creating, select "Campaign".
Next, you need to select a goal. I recommend leaving the campaign without a goal: this does not affect the promotion of advertising, and we will have more control over the settings.
In the campaign type, select "Video".
The choice of the advertising campaign subtype depends on what goals you want to achieve. For the first campaign, I always recommend choosing the first subtype "More views". Click "Continue".
Let's start setting up an advertising campaign:
- Enter a name for your campaign (no one but you will see it).
- The bidding strategy specifies a maximum cost per view (CPV). This means that you set the price for each view of your ad. A view is counted if a user watches your ad for more than 30 seconds (or less if the video is shorter). If the ad is skipped, you don’t pay.
- Select the "Daily" budget type. This way you can control your advertising expenses and not waste your entire budget in a day. To start, I recommend a daily budget of $10.
- In the "Networks" column, uncheck the partner resources to avoid wasting your budget.
- Select the target location for displaying ads and languages. I recommend setting Russian and English.
Let's move on to additional settings.
A very important point is the frequency limit for one user. You can limit the number of impressions and views for one person, so as not to cause a negative feeling of repetitive advertising. In addition, your ad will be seen by more people. For example, for an advertising video of a decorative cosmetics store, I set the following indicators:
The next important step is - defining the target audience . Remember: the smaller the advertising budget, the more precisely you need to specify it. You don't have to fill in all the fields if you don't know what to specify. If you select too many criteria, no one will see the ad.
- We select gender, age, presence of children.
- Audience segments. Specify what potential clients/subscribers are primarily interested in. For example, people interested in decorative cosmetics may search YouTube for reviews of it or watch makeup tutorials. With small budgets, I recommend specifying the closest interests.
- Keywords. Google analyzes YouTube videos and can understand their content. You can specify your product or topic, and Google will suggest queries for which ads will be shown. I recommend specifying only queries directly related to your audience, or not specifying keys at all.
- Topics. Here, select the topic of the video you want to show ads on. My Path: Beauty and Fitness - Face and Body Care - Decorative Cosmetics.
- In the placements, you can specify specific channels and videos where you want to show your ads. But be careful: this can greatly reduce the potential audience.
All that's left is to add an advertising video. I recommend starting your ad with skippable in-stream ads. Add a link that users can click on and a call to action on the button.
In the lower right corner there is a button "View ad on YouTube". By clicking it, you will see how the ad will be shown to users.
And finally, we specify the maximum price for viewing your ad. For starters, I recommend specifying $0.01. Click "Create" - and your first advertising campaign is ready!
Afterword
YouTube is an effective platform for advertising and promoting your own brand. Following our instructions, you will avoid mistakes and will be able to increase the number of views, increase channel recognition and attract the maximum number of subscribers or customers with minimal costs.
I hope we were able to help you.
Sincerely, Anastasia Kotelnikova and the SaveBalance team
