We're all familiar with YouTube ads in one way or another. If you aren't a marketing or advertising expert (yet), you've undoubtedly seen your fair share of ads while browsing for specific videos.

Along with over 2 billion registered users, there are likely millions more casually viewing YouTube at any given time. This is fantastic for understanding your audience through video marketing.

What do you need to know for your first YouTube advertising campaign? Let's dive into the details.

YouTube Ads

YouTube advertising is much more than merely tacking on an ad to a video. If only it were that simple.

With a change to AdWords (now simply Google Ads) a few years back, YouTube ads found a further reach. Somewhat similar to Discovery replacing Gmail ads, YouTube directly targets video advertisements towards users and their specific viewing habits.

There are a few key types of YouTube ads to consider when developing your first YouTube advertising campaign.

Trueview Ads

Using Trueview ads is the standard method of advertising on YouTube. When you see an ad playing before or during a video, you likely see a Trueview ad.

For advertisers, there are a few essential aspects to Trueview ads:

• Non-skippable Trueview ads need to be anywhere from fifteen to twenty seconds long
• Longer, skippable Trueview ads must be anywhere from twelve seconds to six minutes long
• On YouTube Kids, skippable ads need to be 60 seconds

Bumper Ads

Viewers see bumper ads before a chosen video. These are relatively short ads and last six seconds. Bumper ads are great ways to quickly pepper in your brand right before a video, hardly taking out a viewer's time. Bumpers are excellent for short messages, teaser trailers, and other quick flashes of your ad campaign.

Prerolls

These advertisements are relatively short ads, 15 to 20 seconds, that play before or during a video. For example, if a video exceeds 8 minutes, a mid-roll ad will play. These advertisements automatically place at ideal places in a video: a pause in action or scene transition.

YouTube tries its Best to place mid-rolls at the best places to lessen any disruption to the viewer.

Things to Know for a YouTube Advertising Campaign

Let's start mapping out your first YouTube advertising campaign.

1. What's Your Advertising Goal?

What are you setting out to do? Is it to reach a niche audience with shorter Trueview ads? Or are you trying to grow your brand online? Establish a clear goal before jumping into different video campaign types.

2. What's Your Budget?

It'd be great to be able to use every form of Trueview ad to maximize brand awareness. However, if your campaign is in its early stages, you may not have the budget to use different types of Trueview ads.

This is where effective budgeting comes in. You need to scale your budget in conjunction with Trueview ad play. Bidding allows you to determine who in your audience sees your ad, who will click it, and who will

3. Who's Your Target Audience?

Knowing who you're advertising to is crucial. It's a great idea to map out who your demographic is and create compelling and brand-centric ads. Building brand loyalty begins with getting to know your audience.

Final Thoughts on YouTube Ads

YouTube is a treasure trove of content and audience targeting options. If you utilize things like bumpers, prerolls, and other aspects of Trueview ads, your brand will be front and center to a broader audience.