How to run ads on YouTube?

Placing ads on YouTube is a powerful marketing tool that can promote your business, products, services, or content. It can quickly enhance brand awareness, attract target audiences, and achieve business growth. Next, let’s take a detailed look at how to create and place ads on YouTube.

The following is a step-by-step guide to help you create and place ads:

1. Create a Google Ads Account

To run YouTube ads, you need to have a Google Ads account.

Sign up: Go to Google Ads and sign in with your Google account or create a new account.
Set up billing: You’ll be asked to set up billing information. This is where you’ll input your payment details.

Create a Google Ads Account

2. Link Your YouTube Channel to Google Ads

In Google Ads, navigate to the Tools & Settings menu (wrench icon) at the top right.
Under Setup, click on Linked accounts.
Find YouTube and click Details, then follow the prompts to link your YouTube account to Google Ads.

Link Your YouTube Channel to Google Ads

3. Choose Your Campaign Type

Now you’ll create a new campaign for your YouTube ads:

Go to Campaigns: In Google Ads, click on the Campaigns tab on the left-hand side, then click the + button to create a new campaign.
Choose Goal: Select a goal for your campaign based on your objectives (e.g., Sales, Leads, Website traffic, Brand awareness, or Product consideration). If you’re unsure, select Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance for more customization.
Choose Campaign Type: Select Video as the campaign type to run YouTube ads.

Choose Your Campaign Type

4. Select the Ad Format

There are several YouTube ad formats to choose from:

Skippable In-Stream Ads: Ads that play before, during, or after a video and can be skipped after 5 seconds.
Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads: Ads that are 15 seconds or shorter and must be watched before the video.
Bumper Ads: 6-second non-skippable ads.
In-Feed Video Ads: Ads that appear in YouTube search results or next to related videos on the watch page.
Masthead Ads: Premium ads that appear on the YouTube homepage (requires a Google sales representative).

Choose the ad format based on your campaign objectives and ad length.

5. Set Your Campaign Settings

Here, you’ll need to configure the basic settings of your campaign:

Campaign Name: Choose a descriptive name for your campaign to help you track its performance.
Budget and Dates: Set your daily or total budget and decide on the start and end dates for the campaign.
Bidding Strategy: Select your bidding strategy, such as Maximize conversions, Target CPA (Cost per Action), or Target CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions), depending on your campaign goal.

6. Target Your Audience

YouTube allows you to target your ads based on various factors:

Demographics: Choose the age, gender, household income, and parental status of your target audience.
Interests: Target people based on their interests, hobbies, and behaviors.
Keywords: Enter keywords related to your video ad, helping to target people who search for or view content with similar terms.
Placements: Choose specific YouTube channels, videos, apps, or websites where you want your ads to appear.
Remarketing: You can target people who have interacted with your channel or website before.

Add keyword themes

7. Create Your Video Ad

Upload Your Ad Video: You’ll need to upload your video ad to your YouTube channel first. Ensure the video is optimized for ads by being clear, engaging, and short (15-30 seconds works best for most formats).
Enter Ad Details: Paste the YouTube link of your ad into Google Ads. Depending on the ad format, you’ll need to provide a title, description, and call-to-action text.
Companion Banner (Optional): For some ad formats, you can upload an image or let YouTube auto-generate a companion banner that appears alongside your video ad.

8. Set Up Ad Extensions (Optional)

You can add sitelink extensions (links to other pages on your site) or call extensions (a phone number) to help increase the likelihood of user engagement with your ad.

9. Review and Launch

Review Settings: Double-check all your settings, including budget, targeting, and ad details.
Launch: Once everything looks good, click Create Campaign.

10. Track and Optimize

After your ads go live, monitor their performance:

Go to Campaigns: In Google Ads, you can track performance through metrics such as impressions, views, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rates.
Make Adjustments: If the ads are not performing well, adjust the targeting, budget, or video creative. You can also pause or stop campaigns at any time if necessary.