YouTube is more than just a place to watch movie trailers and music videos; it can also be the perfect place for you to advertise your business.
YouTube is the number one video hosting platform in the world, and it is also the world’s second largest search engine, only behind 
Google. Also, more and more people are now starting to go directly to YouTube to search for video content instead of simply searching in Google. YouTube is currently getting over 1 billion views per day, so your business is missing out on a lot of potential customers if you are currently not advertising there.
There are several different types of YouTube ads, but the best way to start advertising on the video hosting website is to first start a YouTube channel and upload some quality videos that promote your business. These videos can be testimonials from current customers or videos showing how to use one of your products or services. You can share these videos with your current fan base on your website and social media pages to gather some feedback and comments. This will help you to understand what your audience wants and expects from videos and will give you some insight into how to optimize your video ads.
After you have figured out the basics of creating promotional videos, it’s time to decide what type of YouTube ad is best for you. There are currently three main types of ads you can choose from on YouTube: In-Search, In-Stream and In-Display.
In-Search ads are based on keywords directly searched for on YouTube. The goal for this type of video ad is to provide content that is relevant to what was being searched for. These ads give you the option to send search traffic to either the video ad’s watch page or to your YouTube channel. In-Search ads are a good option for businesses looking to gain new customers, because you are targeting people who are actively looking for what you have to offer.
The next type of YouTube ads are In-Stream ads. In-Stream ads are YouTube’s version of TV commercials. These are the ads that appear at the beginning or the end of the video a viewer chooses to watch and can be skipped after the first five seconds of the ad. If you click on the video ad, you will be taken to your chosen landing page. You will only be charged for this type of ad when people have watched at least 30 seconds of your ad, if your ad is 30 seconds or longer. If your ad is less than 30 seconds long, you will only be charged when someone watches the entire video. These ads can be a good option, because you are only charged for viewers that obviously have an interest in your brand and what you have to offer.
In-Stream ads also give you option of controlling the age and gender demographics of the users your ad will be shown to. You can also choose which categories of videos you would like your ads to be shown in and can also tag your video ad with keywords.
The last type of YouTube ads are In-Display ads. In-Display ads appear as suggestions to the right side of a video that is already being watched on YouTube and are highlighted in yellow. These ads give you the option to send traffic to the video watch page or your YouTube channel. This type of ad will charge you every time someone watches your ad, even if they don’t watch for 30 seconds or until the end of the video. YouTube charges for every view of these ads regardless of the length, since the viewer is actively choosing to watch your video, and the ads are not interrupting other videos.
Once you have chosen which type of YouTube ad is a good fit for your business, you need to make sure that the ads you create actually get viewers to visit your website. A good rule of thumb is your video ads should be about 15 to 30 seconds long. Longer video ads tend to lose the attention of viewers. Your ads also need to be relevant to the product or service that you are offering. Since In-Search and In-Display ads only take viewers to that video’s page or your channel page, it’s important to add a call to action overlay to these ads that can take viewers to a specific landing page on your website if they choose to click on it.
Now that you know the basics about the different types of YouTube ads, give advertising on YouTube a try for yourself! Your business is sure to benefit from the huge new audience your ads will be exposed to.
