Youtube Ads for SMM

Hello Friends, welcome to learnvern.

In the last topic we learnt about Facebook pixel. We saw

what custom audiences are,

what lookalike audiences are

Let us move on to today's topic where we will learn about Youtube Ads, the formats available in youtube ads and which are those formats that you can run on youtube.

As you can see from my screen, we will be discussing these 4 formats.

The first is “Skippable video ads” - I'm sure you would have seen this ad. In the skippable video ads you will have the option “Skip Ad'' which allows you to skip the ad after 5 seconds. These ads are majorly run on platforms like “desktop, mobile devices, TV and gaming consoles”. And after 5 seconds, the user can skip this ad

The second option is “Non-Skippable Ads” - these ads are a must watch, you have to watch compulsorily. You cannot skip this ad even if you want to.  These ads also run on particular platforms like “desktop”, “mobile devices”, “mobile app”, on “mobile browsers” also these ads can run, and also you will definitely get to see these ads on “TV and gaming consoles”.

The average duration of this ad is about 15 to 20 seconds depending upon the regional standards.

Then the third option we have is the “Bumper Ads” - these ads are very similar to the “non-skippable ads”. The difference is that the duration of these ads are shorter as compared to the “non-skippable ads”.

These “bumper ads” too can run on various platforms like “desktop”, “mobile devices”, “gaming devices or gaming consoles” and “TV”, this bumper ad will be visible on all smart TV’s too.

The last we have is the “Overlay ads” - If you remember any such incident where you were watching a video and all of a sudden an ad pops up. Such ads are called “overlay ads”. These ads are majorly only visible on platforms like Desktop or Laptop. Their size is, as you can see on my screen :

468 into 60

Or

728 into 90

These ads are visible in these pixel sizes.

Let us one by one understand all of these ads in more detail and how they work.

If you check out my screen, on the right side you can see “skip ad”. This is where this option to “skip ad” will be made available so that you can skip the ad. As a user after 5 seconds, you can skip the ad.

This format works in a very simple manner. As I had told you, the user has the control to skip the ad after 5 seconds. The option you have here as an advertiser is that you can show this ad before the content and also after the content and even in between the content. For example if you are viewing a video which is of 20 minutes or of 25 minutes then you have the option to place this ad wherever you want to.

If you are a “youtube content creator”, you can decide where you want to place this ad.

If you are an advertiser, you too have an option to decide where exactly you want the ad to be placed.

So “skippable video ads” is an important element of “youtube ads”.

Now the next important thing we need to know is the amount we need to spend to run such ads.

Right?

“How is an advertiser charged?”

So as you can see from my slide, this ad is run through a “CPV bidding format”

So what does this mean?

You pay only when the viewer watches 30 seconds of a video otherwise you don't have to pay.

And in this you also have 1 more option of “target CPM”

So “CPM”, “CPA” all these are internet terminologies and are very important.

What does CPM mean?

CPM stands for “Cost Per thousand Impressions”

Please note friends, this has been one of the most favourite questions of the interviewers, where they ask “How does a media sell and what is CPM?”

So these ads can be billed on “Target CPM” too.

The next option we have is “Non-Skippable ads”.

“Non skippable ads” are the ones that the users can't skip, they will have to watch this entire ad.

And as I had told you earlier, 15 to 20 seconds on an average is the duration of this ad.

Now, How are advertisers charged?

“Target cost per thousand impressions”

Right?

So you will have to define a “target cpm”

Whether you wish to spend 200 rs or 300 rs.

And youtube will set your ad’s overall cpm around your target cpm.

In this manner, an advertiser is charged.

Next we have “Bumper Ad”.

If you recall, I had told you that there isn't much difference between “Bumper Ads” and “Non-skippable ads'. The only difference is that a bumper ad is of 6 seconds, hence its duration is short.

Rest everything remains the same, no other difference exists except for the duration.

And the average cost for this, that is the bidding methodology also works on “target cpm” only.

There is one more unit that i would like to talk about and that is “Masthead”

These ads are featured on the right side of the homepage. So if this is your homepage then you will get to see your ads on the right side.

And you will also get to see this ad at the top of the “youtube home feed”

These ads usually last for 15 to 20 seconds, they are non skippable ads and they work on a fixed cost that is a fixed cost per daily basis.

Also, it works on a minimum reservation. At a couple of places youtube offers you with prime properties too, like on the sign up page/sign in page, or when you log out that time the ad is made visible to you. So all these basic properties work on a fixed cost and hence a minimum budget is required and is not open for all to use. One who needs to run this ad has to connect with the youtube team for the necessary details.

I have brought 2 case studies for you .

One is “Aegon Life”.

How “Aegon life” had run their ad on Youtube and what was their success, their achievement?

And the other case study is of “Flipkart”

Right?

I am sure you all must be well aware of the Flipkart brand.

So friends let us understand these case studies and how these brands ran their youtube ads and the success they achieved through these ads.

As you can see, I am now on youtube and before I move onto the case studies, I want to show you a basic thing.

Now if you see I am logged into youtube, as of now you may not be able to see any ads.

This first ad here is of “Audi Q5”.

Now for example if I search to see the ads on “Cricket”, I get to see all these  ads.

The first one that I opened is of cricket Australia and if you see the ad that got loaded and is visible to me is of “GRammarly”

So here I will click on play, the ad will start playing, the sound is available too but I have muted it. Now this ad is called “Skippable Ad”. As soon as we hit 5 seconds, I get the option of “Skip Ad” to skip the ad. And as soon as I clicked on “Skip Ad”, my original video started off.

Right? Got it?

You would have also noticed that along with the “skippable ad” of Grammarly, there was another ad that was playing on the top right hand side. This ad is still visible to me.

So on this particular video of cricket, I had 2 different ads visible at the same time.

Now let me look for some “cooking” related ads (2 -3 seconds break as he is typing)

As soon as I enter “Veg cooking videos”, I get to see the ads in the starting itself.

Right? These are the ads that got displayed.

So let me check out this ad as an example to see if we have skippable ads or not.

We don't have any other ad being played in this ad that I selected.

In different videos you may get to see different ads.

Let me check out this video, and again no ad in this video too.

Okay!

So this is how youtube ads work where different types of ads are displayed in different videos. I hope you have understood this.

Now let us directly move on to our case study of “Aegon Life”

So what brand is it, do you know?

Aegon Life is basically an insurance brand.

As we have LIC, HDFC Life, SBI Life, in a similar way Aegon Life is also an insurance company.

So let us see what they did?

Aegon life used Youtube to reach out to their audiences at a cheaper cost.

As an advertiser, the very important thing that one needs to understand is to reach out to our audience at the lowest possible cost.

Right? Got it?

If we wish to show a particular television commercial to a specific person, or want to convey some specific message then we will have to figure out the lowest possible cost to do so. And at the same time we also need to ensure that the communication message is conveyed properly and gets registered by the audience well. So both of these are very important. And for this they made use of youtube. They could drive 34% lower CPAs (the cost per acquisition) and 46% of campaign leads sourced from custom intent.

We will also look at custom intent a little later.

What was their challenge? What was the problem with “Aegon Life”?

The problem they were facing was that 100% share of voice on brand and non-brand category was saturated and Aegon wanted to explore other profitable avenues to drive incremental quality leads at an efficient cost per lead.

So their biggest challenge was that the market had got saturated and so they were clueless about the ways to generate leads for their business and that too good quality leads at a lower cost per lead.

Right?

So this was their challenge where they wanted to drive good quality leads. And for this they ran an ad on youtube. For youtube ads you can also explore other courses on LearnVern. Here I can briefly tell you that they used 2 audiences here, one was “custom intent audience” and they made use of “Non brand Generic keywords and Industry leader keywords”.

In this way they had created 2 buckets and started showing ads to them by which they could get highly profitable leads for their business and which will then get converted into actual business too.

Let us see their ad now. This is their ad that they had run on youtube. I would say that though this isn't a flashy ad but it is a very simple ad with direct communication and has a direct call to action. And this will actually let the audience know the purpose of showing this ad to them and the reason behind it.

So let us see this ad, and understand it too. “(PAUSE for around 54 seconds as video is being played on the screen)”

As you saw this was a very basic and a direct communication ad. This ad was not flashy,the content was very simple and the video was short too, just 54 seconds. So they run this ad and could drive 34% lower CPA’s. So friends hope you found this case study of “Aegon Life” interesting.

Now let us move on to another case study of Flipkart. When Flipkart had started running their youtube ads, they got all these success.

Around 27% of increase in “Ad recall”

Around 11% increase in “purchase intent”

A few years ago, in fact many years ago, Flipkart was only known and famous for the purchase of mobile phones. But Flipkart wanted to boost their fashion category too.

And thus they planned this marketing campaign.

They could drive around 10% increase in “brand consideration”

And around 6% increase in “brand awareness”

Especially in the fashion category.

Let us directly watch the ad they had run. “(Pause for 34 seconds as the video is being played on the screen)”

So this was the ad run by Flipkart. The tag line of this ad was “India ka Fashion Capital” and along with TV they also were showcasing it on youtube.

One of their previous creative projects was “kidults” where kids were portrayed as adults.

And its focus was majorly on Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities where the consumer growth was strong and steady. This is how they had run this campaign and it was a 10 day blast.

They had even featured leading filmstars, as we saw in this video. They had even featured “Shraddha Kapoor” for their ads. They received a very good response from these ads.

Right? So we have checked out 2 case studies of Flipkart and of Aegon Life.. Hope you understood them well. You can also explore other success stories by clicking on this link. You have this option here “See all success stories”.

As soon as you click on it, you will be able to read and go through the case studies from various countries. You will also be able to check out the case studies of different industries. I showed you the case study of only 2 industries, one was insurance and the other was ecommerce. What is happening in other countries and in other categories can be explored in detail from here.

If you have any queries or comments then click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also our team will try to solve your queries.

That is all for this unit.

In the next unit we will look at LinkedIn ads, we will also be looking at the different ad formats in Linkedin. At the end we will also check out a live activity to understand how LinkedIn ads work.