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Campaign Outcome

With Strike Social’s expertise in CTV advertising and gambling awareness campaigns, this initiative successfully increased engagement while reducing costs. The campaign’s strategic execution ensured high visibility and action-driven outcomes.

YouTube CTV Ads as a Key Tool for Responsible Gambling Awareness

• CTV-First Strategy: By allocating 77% of the budget to CTV, the campaign secured a 69% View Rate, 17 points higher than initial targets.

• Precision Targeting Around Key Sporting Events: To maximize message relevance, ads were scheduled to run during peak gambling periods, such as March Madness and Fantasy Baseball season.

• Expert Compliance & Platform Whitelisting: The campaign adhered to strict platform policies, ensuring zero downtime and uninterrupted ad delivery to promote responsible gambling resources.

Learn more about Strike Social

See other YouTube ad case studies.

Download the YouTube Gambling Awareness Case Study

Optimize your YouTube advertising strategy with expert-driven insights. Fill out the form to receive a personalized strategy guide tailored to your campaign goals.

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The post YouTube Case Study: Driving Public Education Through Problem Gambling Awareness appeared first on Strike Social.

Google Marketing Live 2025: Key Announcements and Recap

Google Marketing Live 2025 delivered a clear message: Google is doubling down on AI to power the future of search, discovery, and advertising. This year’s keynote showcased how Google and YouTube are evolving with smarter ad tools, deeper audience insights, and AI-native campaign structures that will shape how brands connect with consumers.

Philipp Schindler, Google’s Chief Business Officer, revealed that 83% of users engage with Google and YouTube daily, and 65% of people turn to Google or YouTube first when making a purchase decision. For advertisers, this confirms what we already know—Google and YouTube are where the journey starts, and staying competitive means aligning with the latest advancements from the Google Marketing Live 2025 keynote.

From AI-powered search campaigns to new YouTube ads and Demand Gen updates, here’s your streamlined recap of the biggest takeaways from this year’s Google Marketing Live event.

1. PMax, AI Search, and Demand Gen Take Center Stage

At this year’s Google Marketing Live, Sylvanus Belt reveals the “Power Pack”: Performance Max, AI Max for Search, and Demand Gen. These AI-powered campaigns are designed to give advertisers greater automation, transparency, and control across the entire Google Ads ecosystem, making it easier to scale both performance and brand campaigns.

Performance Max

• Performance Max (PMax) allows brands to show ads across Search, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and more – all from a single campaign. Announcements from Google Marketing Live 2025 address past concerns around transparency and brand safety by running PMax ads:
  • Transparency Tools: Channel performance reporting (currently in beta) allows advertisers to see exactly how each Google surface contributes to campaign results. This gives advertisers a better understanding of where their PMax campaigns perform across different platforms.
    • For clearer ROAS insights, Disney+ leveraged channel-level reporting to identify which platforms and campaigns (PMax vs. YouTube) drove conversions. They uncovered overlapping search queries and gained a clearer understanding of cross-channel performance.

AI Max for Search campaigns

• Built specifically for Search, it’s a one-click AI enhancement to let your campaigns adapt to how people search today, with less reliance on traditional keywords. Here are some of its features:
  • Smart Bidding Exploration: Automatically finds high-performing search queries and allocates spend toward conversions that matter.
  • Keywordless AI targeting: Offers full visibility into what users searched, what they saw, and what led to conversions.
  • AI-generated Creatives: Uses your landing page content to generate headlines and descriptions that better align with user intent.
  • AI Max works alongside your existing Search campaigns, with reporting tools that clearly show which AI-powered assets drive performance.

Demand Gen

• Demand Gen focuses on converting interest into action across highly visual Google surfaces such as YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. It continues to evolve with:
  • Performance Enhancements: Includes view-through conversion optimization and more sophisticated bidding strategies.
  • Improved Channel Controls: Offers tighter management over where your ads appear.
  • Coming Soon – Custom Acquisition Goals: This allows for more precise targeting based on specific business objectives, further refining campaign effectiveness.

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Further Reading

Demand Gen vs. Performance Max vs. Display Ads

Demand Gen, Performance Max, and Display Ads each offer unique strengths, even though they may share some overlapping placements and features. Understanding how these formats differ is essential to selecting the one that best supports your advertising objectives.

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Because paid ad campaigns must work alongside organic, Google Marketing Live also addressed this for businesses and brands. With AI Overviews now changing how users interact with Search, advertisers can expect higher-quality clicks from high-intent audiences.

To succeed in this new environment, Google recommends:

• Creating people-first content that directly answers real user questions.
• Emphasizing strong visuals (images, video, and product content) plays a bigger role in both ads and organic discovery.
• Aligning your ad creative and copy with AI-powered search behaviors and discovery journeys.

2. YouTube Ads Get Smarter and More Visual

As of 2025, YouTube is officially the #1 platform for streaming watch time in the U.S., making it a key player in both performance and brand advertising. With over 90 million hours of shopping-related content consumed daily, YouTube is rapidly becoming a more immersive and commerce-ready platform.

At Google Marketing Live 2025, several major YouTube ads upgrades were announced, all aimed at helping brands thrive in a video-first, creator-led environment.

To keep up with shifts toward Shorts, Connected TV (CTV), and creator-first content, Google Ads now includes built-in generative AI features for faster creative production:

• Easily generate video and image assets using generative AI directly within Google Ads
• Smart editing tools make resizing, reformatting, or localizing assets for YouTube Shorts, horizontal video, or CTV easier.
• Creative experimentation is now native to YouTube campaigns, making it easier to test multiple versions and quickly scale top performers.

Further, YouTube Shorts and Connected TV have now become core mediums for performance and shopping strategies:

• YouTube Shorts as storefronts: Last year’s spotlight was on YouTube Shorts, which enabled app install campaigns without leaving the platform. This year, Shorts is evolving into a more shoppable experience, allowing brands to turn vertical videos into dynamic product placements. This change makes it easier for viewers to move from discovery to purchase without leaving the app.

• CTV ad upgrades: New interactive, shoppable formats are being rolled out for YouTube TV and CTV inventory. These formats offer larger creative canvases, allowing brands to deliver more immersive ad experiences on connected devices.

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Further Reading

Guide to CTV Advertising Rates and Metrics

This guide covers essential benchmarks, from average CPMs and CPVs to key viewability rates, giving you the insights needed to budget smarter and plan more effectively for your next CTV campaign. As one of the fastest-growing ad formats in the U.S., understanding CTV pricing is more important than ever.

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3. How AI Is Transforming Google Search Ads

Even in a social-first world, Google Search remains a trusted final step in the buyer’s journey. According to Google, 70% of users turn to Search to evaluate products they first discover on platforms like TikTok or Meta. This is especially true for Gen Z audiences, who may find brands on social but rely on Google to verify them.

During the Google Marketing Live stream, the spotlight was firmly on how Google AI is transforming Search campaigns into more intelligent, intent-driven ad experiences: bringing users closer to conversion.

• Rolling out first to U.S. desktop users, AI Overviews will now include ads contextually placed alongside AI-generated answers. These placements offer brands a powerful new surface to connect with high-intent users during deeper search discovery moments.
• AI Mode in Search enables more fluid, conversational experiences. Users can ask follow-up questions, and your ads remain contextually present, aligned to evolving intent across multiple queries in a single session.
• Google AI is also moving from assistive to agentic. This means the AI doesn’t just answer: it acts. When users express strong purchase intent, agentic AI can now help them complete transactions directly in Search, such as booking appointments or making purchases.
• With multimodal understanding, Google’s AI can now interpret and respond to visual inputs, voice prompts, and contextual cues, all while matching ads dynamically based on creative and intent.

Other Key Takeaways from Google Marketing Live 2025

Whether you’re a brand, agency, business, or creator, the key theme from this year’s Google Marketing Live is clear: the ecosystem is expanding, and everyone stands to benefit. While some updates go beyond direct advertising tools, they highlight how Google, YouTube, and Google AI are broadening opportunities across more formats and surfaces.

• YouTube Shorts Unlocks New Brand Discovery. Shorts continues its surge: engaged views are up 20%, with over 2 billion monthly users, and 58% of viewers say they’ve discovered new brands through Shorts ads. 
• Shoppable Ads Now Span More Surfaces. Video ads, including Shorts, can now appear directly in Search and Shopping results, creating a more seamless path to purchase across formats.
• Influencer Ads Powered by Creator Hub. Google is making it easier to collaborate with YouTube creators by giving advertisers access to creator performance stats, costs, and fast-track tools to launch partnership ads using existing creator content. 
• Attribution and Prospecting Controls. GA4 now features Attribution Path Reporting to help track branded search lift from YouTube ads. Advertisers can also exclude users who’ve previously seen your content or visited your app, giving more precision when prospecting.
• AI Creative Tools for Google Merchant Center. The Merchant Center can now sync videos from your website, YouTube channel, or social media profiles — and automatically suggest or generate ad-ready creative assets. This makes scaling product-focused campaigns faster and more dynamic.

Scaling With Confidence in the New Google Ads Era

Google and YouTube are no longer just platforms for search and content: they’re becoming a connected, assistive engine for discovery, decision-making, and conversions. 

As the updates from Google Marketing Live made clear, the future of advertising on YouTube and Google platforms is built for full-funnel strategies. Whether you’re optimizing Search, scaling YouTube Shorts, or testing new AI formats, agility and automation will determine your success.

The shift towards more AI-driven campaigns and high-intent touchpoints means advertisers must rethink how they structure campaigns, interpret performance, and prioritize content.

Working with an expert partner that can help you optimize your video and search campaigns is an excellent first step. Strike Social’s ad tech and managed services are built for scale, speed, and performance across every surface Google touches.

Join Strike Social’s growing network of successful clients.

Get a personalized walkthrough of our ad activation and management tools from our expert team.

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The post Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers appeared first on Strike Social.

This post was updated in May 2025 to provide you with the latest information.

Optimizing your YouTube ads means tailoring content to align with viewer preferences—whether they’re watching on desktop or mobile. Understanding the right YouTube ad specs, sizes, and dimensions ensures your creatives are displayed correctly and viewed exactly as intended.

Successful YouTube advertising isn’t just about performance metrics; it’s about how your audience perceives and interacts with your video ads on the platform.

We’ve outlined the YouTube ad specifications below to help you with your 2025 YouTube advertising.

Types of YouTube Ads, Sizes, and Specifications

Overlay ads

As of April 6, 2023, Overlay ads have been discontinued in YouTube. Active overlay ads will only appear on desktop view as YouTube Creators shift to newer ad formats for YouTube advertising.

Overlay image: required

• Unit: 480 pixels by 70 pixels
• File type: static GIF, PNG, JPG
• File size: 150KB

Companion banner: optional

• Unit: 300 pixels by 250 pixels
• File type: GIF, PNG, JPG
• File size: 150KB

Think of discovery ads as an online billboards of sorts. These are generally static images or have very minimal movement and animation to them. According to the YouTube ad specifications, they appear either to the side of the video or as an overlay on the bottom of the video. They’re good to include in your YouTube advertising mix because they’re less expensive than other ad forms like those that appear before or during videos.

Since they don’t directly interfere with user activity on the site, users might also respond better to their presence. A potential drawback could be that some users have a tendency to tune out these kinds of ads, but a truly great ad can break through the clutter. Whatever size or format you choose is up to you, just make sure that the content is optimized for the ad format and that there is a clear call-to-action for your YouTube audiences to respond to.

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Further Reading

Understanding YouTube Advertising Costs for Maximum Efficiency

For YouTube advertisers, balancing cost management with expanding reach is critical to success. As video consumption trends evolve, media buyers face challenges in identifying the most efficient ways to maximize ad visibility without exceeding budgets.

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Sponsored cards

YouTube Sponsored cards have also been discontinued, as part of an ongoing effort to streamline the viewing experience and shift towards different video advertising formats.

Sponsored card worked as a brief “teaser”, which will be replaced by a card icon after a few seconds. Appearing in the upper right-hand corner of the video they are currently watching, the icon gives users the choice of clicking through to access further information about the sponsored content.

• Platform: Desktop and mobile devices
• Media: image
• Format: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Aspect Ratio: 1:1
• Length: 15 or 20 seconds
• File Size: 2MB max

In that sense, a sponsored card ad is similar to display ads except where it’s located and how it functions differs slightly. The commonality among them is the ever critical call-to-action.

Bumper ads

Ad placements

• YouTube videos, video partner sites, and apps within the Google Display Network

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
• Final URL: Destination landing page users reach after clicking the ad
  • Note: Must directly reflect the product or offer promoted
• Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
  • Helps users understand what to expect (e.g., if your final URL is www.yourwebsite.com/autumnbreeze/add-to-cart, your display URL can be www.yourwebsite.com/newcollection)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
• Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
  • Maximum file size: 150KB

Video ad settings

• File format: AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4 or MPEG
  • Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
  • Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
• Resolution: 640 pixels by 360 pixels or 480 pixels by 360 pixels recommended
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: native aspect ratio without letter-boxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
• Maximum file size: 1GB
• Length: ≤6 seconds

A bumper ad is a non-skippable video ad format created to extend the reach of a campaign. It appears before the video the user has chosen to view. Sold on a CPM basis, Bumper ads perform well on both Connected TV and mobile devices. In alignment with the 2025 YouTube ad specs, the maximum video length for bumper ads is 6 seconds.

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Further Reading

Expand Your Audience with YouTube Video Reach Campaigns

By leveraging multiple advertising formats, YouTube advertisers can effectively broaden their reach, engage a wider audience, and maximize the impact of their campaigns beyond the YouTube app and YouTube TV.

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Standard display ads

Ad placements

• Google Display Networks, Gmail, YouTube Home Feed and YouTube In-Feed

Assets overview

• Images: Up to 15 images
• Logos: Up to 5 variations
• Videos: Up to 5 videos
• Final URL: Landing page users reach after clicking the ad
• Business name: ≤25 characters
• Headlines: ≤30 characters; can add up to 5
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5

Technical YouTube ad specifications

• Dimensions:
  • 300 pixels by 250 pixels
  • 300 pixels by 60 pixels (YouTube Reserve companions)
  • 300 pixels by 600 pixels (Zagat only)
• Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
• Maximum file size: 150KB
• Maximum animation time: 30 seconds (all animations, including loops, must stop at 30 seconds)
• Audio: no sound
• Border: creatives with partially black or white backgrounds must have a visible border of a contrasting color

Demand Gen (formerly Video Action Campaigns)

YouTube advertising goes beyond awareness, helping brands move audiences down the funnel to drive engagement and conversions through video ads and product shopping ads. Video Action Campaigns (VAC) have been pivotal in achieving these goals.

VAC has now transitioned to Demand Gen, enhancing its capabilities to expand its reach while maintaining the performance and results that brands rely on. This evolution offers advertisers an opportunity to tap into broader audience segments without compromising on the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Ad placements

• YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and the Google Display Network (GDN)

Assets overview

• Final URL: Destination landing page
• Logos: Up to 5 variations
• Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
• Image: Choose from 4 autogenerated thumbnails
• Headline: (1) ≤30 characters – in-stream inventory; (1) ≤90 characters – in-feed inventory
• Description: ≤90 characters
• CTA: ≤10 characters

Image ad settings

• Images: Up to 15 images
• File format: JPG, PNG, or static GIF
• Business name: ≤25 characters
• Headlines: ≤40 characters; can add up to 5
• Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
  • Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
• Maximum file size: ≤ 5MB

Video ad settings

• Videos: Up to 5 videos
• Business name: ≤25 characters
• Headlines: ≤40 characters; can add up to 5
• Long headline: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
• Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
• File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
  • .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
  • Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
• Maximum file size: ≤ 256GB

Carousel ad settings

• Images: Up to 10 image cards
• Business name: ≤25 characters
• Headlines: ≤40 characters; 1 per card; 1 headline for the full carousel
• Description: ≤90 characters

In-stream non-skippable ads

These YouTube ad formats play while viewing the video content and last up to 15 seconds or shorter. Non-skippable video ads appear before the selected video and much be watched in its entirety before the video can be viewed.

Ad placements

• Where they appear: Appear before, during, or after YouTube videos
  • Also served across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
• Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 255 characters
• Headline: ≤15 characters
• Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
• Maximum file size: 150KB

Video ad settings

• File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
  • .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (h265)
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
  • Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
• Maximum file size: ≤ 256GB
• Length: 15 or 20 seconds for non-skippable; ≤ 20 seconds for long non-skippable

In-stream skippable ads

Skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds and move on to their viewing selection.

Ad placements

• Where they appear: Ads are served before, during, or after YouTube videos
  • Across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
• Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters
• Companion (desktop only): 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
  • Maximum file size: 150KB

Video ad settings

• File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
  • .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
  • Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
• Maximum file size: ≤256 GB
  • Best practices for Awareness and Action campaigns: 15 to 20 seconds; for Consideration campaigns: 60 seconds to 3 minutes
• Length: 15 seconds to 3 minutes

Video View Campaign Skippable in-stream

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
• Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters

Video ad settings

• Resolution:
  • 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
  • 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal)
  • SD: 640 x 480px (horizontal)
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; SD: 4:3 (SD) for horizontal
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• File Size: ≤256 GB
• Format composition for In-stream placement: ≥:05 seconds horizontal

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Further Reading

YouTube Video View Campaign vs. Video Action Campaign

With the variety of YouTube advertising options, choosing the right one for your brand can be challenging. To guide your decision, we break down the differences between YouTube Video View Campaigns and Video Action Campaigns. Discover their unique objectives, benefits, and the ideal scenarios for leveraging each campaign type.

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Video View Campaign In-feed

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
• Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters

Video ad settings

• Resolution:
  • 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
  • 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal)
  • SD: 640 x 480px (horizontal)
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; SD: 4:3 (SD) for horizontal
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• File Size: ≤256 GB
• Format composition for YouTube in-feed placement: ≥:05 seconds horizontal

Video View Campaign in YouTube Shorts placement

As YouTube Shorts emerges as a standalone vertical video feed, Video View Campaigns capitalize on this placement to drive more engaged views. At Strike Social, YouTube Shorts has proven highly effective, with one of our standout campaigns attributing 43% of its total ad views to Shorts placements alone.

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
• Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 2 path segments (15 characters each)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters

Video ad specifications

• Resolution:
  • 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
  • 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 720 x 1280px (vertical)
  • SD: 480 x 640px (vertical)
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Aspect Ratio: HD: 9:16 for vertical; SD: 2:3 (SD) for horizontal
  • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• File Size: ≤256 GB
• Format composition for YouTube Shorts placement: ≥:05 seconds vertical

Video Reach Campaign

To expand your reach across both YouTube and YouTube TV platforms, Video Reach Campaign (VRC) allows your video ads to appear on both small and large screens. Below are the recommended YouTube ad specifications for VRC:

Ad placements

• Where they appear: Appear before, during, or after YouTube videos (desktop, mobile, tablet, and Connected TV)
  • Also served across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)

Assets overview

• Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
• Final URL: Destination landing page users reach after clicking the ad
• Display URL: Up to 2 path segments (15 characters each)
• Long headline: ≤90 characters
• Description: ≤90 characters

YouTube VRC specifications

• Resolution:
  • 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
  • 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 720 x 1280px (vertical)
  • SD: 480 x 640px (vertical)
    • For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
• Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
• Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
• File Size: ≤256 GB
• Format composition: Any length; Recommended:
  • (1) horizontal :15 and (1) horizontal :06
  • (1) vertical :06-:60

Set Your YouTube Ad Creatives for Success

Your YouTube ad is the first point of contact with your audience, making it essential to ensure it’s both visually appealing and conveys your message effectively. To ensure your ad is displayed as intended and captures your audience’s attention, it’s crucial to follow the right specifications.

This YouTube ad specs guide will prepare you for success in 2025. Looking for more tailored insights? Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates on YouTube paid advertising and more.

The post The complete list of YouTube ad specifications (2025 Update) appeared first on Strike Social.

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Campaign Outcome

Strike Social’s ability to combine localized targeting, platform-specific strategy, and creative messaging ensured that the retailer’s Mother’s Day campaign reached the right shoppers at the right time.

Turning Local CTV Audiences into Engaged Shoppers

• Granular DMA Targeting: Customized zip code-level targeting allowed the campaign to prioritize specific DMAs and ensure ads were served to relevant and engaged local audiences.

• CTV-First Bidding Strategy: Allocated 81% of total spend to Connected TV, enhancing viewer retention and minimizing skip rates.

• Balanced Distribution Across Segments: Budgets were evenly paced across demographics, geos, and audience segments to stabilize CPV and maximize reach.

Learn more about Strike Social

See other YouTube ad case studies.

Download the YouTube Mother’s Day Local Awareness Case Study

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The post YouTube Case Study: Capturing Mother’s Day Shoppers Through Hyper-Targeted CTV Campaigns appeared first on Strike Social.

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Campaign Outcome

By leveraging YouTube and CTV’s capabilities, the campaign successfully engaged high-risk audiences while achieving cost savings and maximizing ad retention. With Strike Social’s expertise in YouTube CTV advertising, the campaign effectively delivered its message.

Promoting Driving Safety Awareness Through Targeted YouTube CTV Ads

• CTV as a Primary Awareness Driver: The larger screen experience resulted in 67% of video completions, reducing skip rates and improving engagement.

• Geo-Specific Targeting: Focused on high-risk regions leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, increasing message relevance and engagement.

• Optimized Placement & Budget Allocation: By investing 63% of the budget into CTV, the campaign leveraged the most cost-effective platform for driving awareness and action.

Learn more about Strike Social

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The post YouTube CTV Case Study: Driving Engagement and Lowering CPV for a Statewide Safety Initiative appeared first on Strike Social.

How the Changes in YouTube Shorts View Count Will Impact Your Paid Ads

YouTube Shorts generates more than 70 billion views daily, with the United States accounting for the largest share at 18%. As YouTube shorts views continue to grow, both creators and advertisers are competing to stay top-of-mind in an increasingly crowded space. Success now depends on aligning content and ad strategies to keep audiences engaged.

With YouTube changing how it measures Shorts views, how can brands craft smarter ad strategies to navigate this change?

How Will YouTube Shorts Count Views Going Forward?

As of March 31, 2025, YouTube announced a significant update to how YouTube Shorts views are counted—a system that had remained unchanged since Shorts launched in 2020. This shift is poised to send ripples across the platform, especially for creators and advertisers who rely on Shorts videos to grow their brands.

How YouTube Shorts Views Were Counted Before

Previously, a YouTube Shorts view was triggered when a viewer watched a video for several seconds, similar to the 30-second threshold applied to standard YouTube videos. The goal was to ensure that views on Shorts reflected genuine audience interest rather than accidental plays or quick scrolls.

What’s Changing Now

Moving forward, YouTube Shorts views will be counted each time a video is played or replayed, regardless of how many seconds it’s watched. This means even brief auto-plays, scroll-pasts, or fast replays will count as views, removing the watch-time requirement entirely.

This new metric aligns YouTube with competitors like TikTok and Instagram Reels, where short-form video views are similarly counted based on initial playbacks. Meanwhile, the older, more selective metric will still exist under YouTube Analytics as “Engaged Views,” offering creators and brands a deeper insight into quality viewership.

Why the Change Matters

This shift could lead to a sharp increase in reported YouTube Shorts views, particularly for videos with compelling hooks or repeat-play appeal. But for advertisers, it’s critical to distinguish between quantity and quality—YouTube ads on Shorts may now acquire more views that don’t necessarily reflect higher intent.

At the same time, this change allows a more direct, apples-to-apples comparison of YouTube ads with campaigns on TikTok and Instagram. For YouTube advertising focused on reach or brand awareness, the ability to benchmark performance across platforms becomes more streamlined and transparent.

Ultimately, this update emphasizes YouTube’s commitment to competing in the short-form video space. As TikTok faces ongoing regulatory challenges and Instagram expands its footprint, YouTube is reminding advertisers that Shorts is still a force to be reckoned with.

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Further Reading

Thinking About Moving Your TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts? Start Here

As YouTube cements its place as the world’s second-largest search engine, it’s quickly becoming a go-to platform for brand discovery. If you’re on the fence about sticking with TikTok, now’s the time to explore the full potential of YouTube Shorts advertising.

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Impact on YouTube Users

With YouTube Shorts views now counted from when a video starts playing, concerns are mounting across the platform. Creators worry about monetization metrics, while advertisers evaluate CPVs and YouTube ad spend.

Let’s break down how this change affects both sides of the equation:

Impact on Creators

• Good news first: monetization through the YouTube Partner Program will remain unchanged. Engaged views will still be the metric used to determine monetization eligibility. For creators, the focus remains on holding viewer attention and encouraging full or repeated views.
• To differentiate Views (new view count) from Engaged views, creators can go to YouTube Studio > Analytics > Advanced Mode. The primary metric displayed will be the new view count.
  • Check the box next to a specific Shorts video, and set Engaged Views as the secondary metric.

Impact on Advertisers

• While the new YouTube Shorts view count might sound like a win for exposure, it may also blur the line between views and impressions.
• For Video Views campaigns where the goal is actual viewer engagement, this change could inflate performance metrics and lead to ad spend on non-engaged impressions.
• Surface-level reporting may show higher view counts, especially in campaigns focused solely on advertising on YouTube Shorts. But without deeper analysis, advertisers risk misreading performance.

To optimize campaigns effectively, advertisers need to rethink their Shorts strategy and focus on data that reflects meaningful audience behavior.

Adapting Your Paid Ads Strategy to YouTube Shorts View Changes

With YouTube Shorts now counting every autoplay as a view, advertisers need to recalibrate how they measure performance and allocate budget. Here’s how to keep your YouTube ad strategy sharp and focused, despite the shift in view metrics:

Prioritize Engagement and Conversion

Explore the deeper metrics and benchmarks that help you better understand your campaigns. If your campaign goal is clicks, prioritize metrics like click-through rate (CTR) rather than relying on Shorts views or view rate.

For view-based campaigns, dig deeper into which placements are driving quality engagement. When working with creators, focus on Engaged views and prioritize video completion rate (VCR) to measure whether audiences are watching your ad all the way through.

Optimize Ad Creatives for the First Few Seconds

The new Shorts view metric activates on autoplay, meaning your ad’s opening 3–5 seconds matter more than ever.

Take a page from the creator playbook, such as using viral video hooks like “Have you heard about…”, “This is the best product I’ve ever used…”. Creators like Sean Andrew have seen over 13 million views with this approach, so why not put that strategy to work for your brand?

Lean Into AI-Powered Optimization

If you’re already utilizing Google’s AI-driven solutions to test and optimize different ad formats, placements, and bidding strategies, you’re already on the right track. The latest changes give you more flexibility to align your campaign goals with actual outcomes, and Google’s AI can help you make the most of that.

For example, if your YouTube Shorts ad is designed to grow your subscriber base, you no longer need to set a separate campaign just to track conversions. With Demand Gen, you can select YouTube engagements as your campaign objective and set channel subscriptions as your conversion goal—streamlining your strategy.

Even better, Demand Gen campaigns optimize for conversions and engaged views, not just reach. This means your ad spend targets high-intent viewers, not passive impressions.

---

Further Reading

Optimize for YouTube Subscribers Using Google Ads

In addition to generating clicks and sales, you can now effectively drive YouTube channel subscriptions using Google Ads. Thanks to Demand Gen and Google’s AI, growing your YouTube following is now significantly easier.

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Segment Your Campaigns by Funnel Stage

Match your campaign objectives to your use of YouTube Shorts ads. Shorts can boost visibility at every stage, but engagement tracking now requires more careful planning.

For top-funnel campaigns like Video Reach, Shorts still deliver strong results. Impressions remain the key metric, and CPM remains the cost focus—so the new Shorts view update doesn’t shift much here.

However, for mid- and bottom-funnel efforts, greater precision is necessary. Demand Gen campaigns focused on conversions should prioritize Engaged-view conversions to track ad performance accurately. These are counted when:

• A viewer watches at least 10 seconds of a skippable in-stream ad (or the full ad if it’s shorter than 10 seconds), or
• A viewer watches at least 5 seconds of a Shorts or in-feed ad and then converts.

This distinction helps you avoid confusion from the new YouTube Shorts view system and gives you a clearer picture of ad effectiveness.

These strategies will help your paid ad efforts stay effective as YouTube Shorts continues to evolve alongside other short-form platforms.

YouTube Shorts is Changing—Don’t Get Left Behind

YouTube’s updated Shorts view counting system brings a major shift for creators and advertisers. While creators may notice minimal impact, advertisers must look beyond surface-level views and focus on true engagement to avoid misreading campaign performance.

This update is a chance to realign your strategy: prioritizing content that captures attention and ad tactics optimized for meaningful results.

Stay ahead with the latest on YouTube advertising and other paid social advertising insights. Follow us on LinkedIn and stay informed.

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Article by
Syd Olivarez, Strike Social’s SEO Content Specialist

Syd crafts content on paid digital advertising strategies, blending 5+ years of writing expertise with 3 years in digital marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends to deliver valuable insights that keep brands informed and competitive.

The post YouTube Shorts Views Are Changing: How You Can Adapt Your Paid Ads Strategy appeared first on Strike Social.

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Campaign Outcome

Through Strike Social’s hands-on optimization and regional segmentation strategy, the campaign surpassed view guarantees and outperformed CPV targets, delivering strong results across every key performance metric.

Advancing Regional Tourism with YouTube Skippable Ad Strategies

• Tailored Regional Targeting: Segmented budgets and creatives ensured messaging resonated with each local market.

• Continuous Campaign Management: Over 3,100 optimizations were executed during the campaign, allowing Strike Social’s team to maintain cost control while continuously improving delivery and engagement.

• Internal Team Efficiency: Strike Social’s scalable campaign workflow allowed the internal team to support expanded reach without adding overhead.

Learn more about Strike Social

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The post YouTube Case Study: Promoting Local Tourism with Skippable Ad Campaigns appeared first on Strike Social.

How to Increase YouTube Subscribers with Google Ads

YouTube subscribers are the backbone of a recurring audience that will engage with your future content, such as product releases or holiday-exclusive products or services. A growing subscriber base also fosters a stronger sense of community, helping you better understand how viewers interact with your content.

According to Google, viewers who engage with video ads are 23 times more likely to take follow-up actions like subscribing to a channel or exploring more videos. Therefore, if you’re looking to promote your YouTube channel further, it’s essential to go beyond organic tactics and learn how to optimize for subscriptions using Google Ads. With the right ad strategy, you can increase your YouTube subscriber count and accelerate your channel’s growth in a measurable, scalable way.

Preparing for a Subscriber-Focused Google Ads Campaign

Unlike standard campaigns that focus on driving traffic or action, a subscriber-focused Google Ads strategy is designed to grow your YouTube subscriber count and build long-term audience engagement. To increase YouTube subscribers effectively, you need to fine-tune your campaign setup for conversions that lead to subscriptions.

Define Your Goal

• To get more subscribers on YouTube using Google Ads, set your campaign’s conversion goal to “channel engagement” or “subscriptions.” This tells Google Ads to optimize delivery toward users most likely to click “Subscribe.”

• With Demand Gen, you can now track YouTube subscriptions as a conversion action, giving you more control to measure and optimize campaigns specifically for subscriber growth.

Choose the Right Audience Targeting

• Use in-market and custom intent audiences to target people actively searching for content in your niche. For example, if you want to gain YouTube subscribers interested in personal finance, you can target users looking up “investment apps” or “financial planning tips.”

• Using YouTube retargeting is an effective way to find non-subscribers who have already engaged with or viewed your video but haven’t clicked the subscribe button yet. This audience targeting strategy can increase effectiveness because these people are already familiar with your content and just need a nudge to subscribe.

• Build lookalike audiences using your email list or CRM data. While you can’t pull a direct list of YouTube channel subscribers, if you have at least 100 email subscribers or customers, you can upload that data into Google Ads to find similar people who are likely to become subscribers of your YouTube channel.

Select the Best Video Ad Formats

• Pairing compelling creative with the right audience is key. Skippable in-stream ads and in-feed video ads are especially effective at capturing attention and encouraging subscriptions. These formats allow you to show up in front of users already interested in related content, increasing your chances of attracting YouTube subscribers.

• Demand Gen campaigns support multi-format creative—video, image, and carousels—to keep engagement high and avoid ad fatigue. Since your goal is to get YouTube subscribers, Demand Gen’s focus on conversion actions makes it an ideal format to drive real, measurable growth.

With these preparations in mind, you should be fully equipped to set up and launch your campaign aimed at increasing your YouTube subscribers. Utilizing Google Ads indeed presents you with numerous opportunities and strategies to achieve your advertising goals.

Download the YouTube Livestream Case Study

Ahead of a major livestream event, a leading content brand teamed up with Strike Social to drive high-intent viewership and long-term subscriber growth.

Using a Demand Gen Campaign powered by YouTube Shorts, precision targeting, and real-time creative updates, the campaign generated 70K+ livestream views and added 315K+ new YouTube subscribers.

See how we did it

Setting Up Your Campaign to Get YouTube Subscribers

Once your creatives are ready and your campaign strategy is locked in, it’s time to launch. Below is a step-by-step walkthrough on how to set up a campaign specifically designed to increase YouTube subscribers using Google Ads and YouTube Ads.

1. Link Your YouTube Channel to Google Ads

• In your Google Ads dashboard, go to: Tools > Data manager > Connected products.

• Under Featured products, select YouTube and click Link channel*.

* Note: You must have admin-level access on the Google Ads account to link a YouTube channel.

• Paste the URL of the YouTube channel you want to grow. Click Enter, then select the correct channel from the results.

• Enter the email address of the channel owner. They will receive a notification to approve the link.

• Once the owner approves, the YouTube channel will appear under the Connected Products > YouTube section in your Google Ads account.

2. Set Up Your YouTube Subscriber Campaign

• Go to New campaign > Choose Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.

• Select Demand Gen as the campaign type.

• Under Conversion goals, click Add goal, then choose Engagements. Click Continue to proceed.

• Confirm that YouTube engagements have been selected as your campaign’s goal. Then, continue setting your daily budget and bidding strategy.

• At the ad group level:
  • Define your audience targeting (in-market, custom intent, retargeting, or lookalikes).
  • Choose your placements—you can opt to appear across Google channels or select only YouTube placements like in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts.

• At the ad creative level:
  • Set your final URL to your YouTube channel homepage to drive more traffic and get YouTube subscribers directly.
  • When uploading your YouTube video creative, you can manually select placements if you prefer optimizing for specific ad formats (e.g., in-feed vs. in-stream) or let Google serve across all for broader reach.
  • Add strong headlines and descriptions, and set your CTA to “Subscribe.”

3. Confirm the Conversion Action

• To ensure that your campaign will be properly tracking subscriptions, go to Goals > Conversions > Summary.

• You should see the YouTube subscription conversion under Engagement(s).

• Confirm the goal is active and properly configured. Review this with your Google Ads expert or dedicated media buyer.

Once everything is set up correctly, your campaign should be ready to acquire YouTube subscribers with a data-driven approach powered by Google Ads.

Best Practices to Increase YouTube Subscribers Using Google and YouTube Ads

We always say that launching the campaign is just the beginning—real results happen during optimization. This is where close monitoring and agile decision-making are essential. Subscriber-focused campaigns need continuous fine-tuning to ensure they’re not just reaching the right audiences, but also converting viewers into long-term followers.

To help you maximize results throughout the campaign flight, we’ve compiled proven best practices that consistently drive YouTube subscriber growth:

• Retarget non-subscribers who have watched but not subscribed. Once your YouTube channel is linked to Google Ads, you can retarget users who watched your videos but haven’t subscribed.
  
  Create retargeting audiences based on viewer behavior and layer in similar audiences to expand your reach and convert passive viewers into active subscribers.

• Use strong “Subscribe” CTAs in your ad creative. For YouTube in-stream placements, include clear verbal and visual CTAs that encourage subscriptions. Phrases like “Subscribe for more insights!” or on-screen animations pointing to the Subscribe button are especially effective when placed mid- or end-video, where engagement is highest.

• Prioritize high-retention content for mobile and TV. Our benchmark report shows that short-form video drives better retention, particularly on mobile, where YouTube ads capture up to 42% of impressions.
  
  But don’t stop there: TV screens have now overtaken mobile as the top device for YouTube content consumption in the U.S. Longer ads (30 seconds or more) are gaining traction on Connected TV, where messaging can be more immersive and CPVs are 12% lower than average. Use every second to capture attention and nudge viewers toward subscribing.

• Monitor and optimize campaign performance regularly. Schedule Google Ads performance reports to be emailed daily or weekly. Monitor your top-performing campaigns, ad groups, and creatives to find what’s driving subscriptions.
  
  Look for outliers, scale what works, and adjust what doesn’t. These real-time insights are crucial to consistently increasing your YouTube subscribers using Google Ads.

• Work with a performance-focused media partner. We get it—not everyone can monitor their campaigns 24/7. But subscriber-focused campaigns need constant attention to hit your goals.
  
  Strike Social’s ad tech enables round-the-clock optimizations to reduce costs and deliver guaranteed outcomes. Our combination of expert media buyers and AI-driven tools ensures your YouTube subscriber campaign is always improving, even when you’re not looking.

Whether you’re just starting your channel or scaling your audience, we’re here to help you grow your YouTube subscriber base with precision and cost-efficiency.

Let’s talk strategy. Contact us and let our Strike Social experts walk you through our YouTube ad solutions.

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The post Increase YouTube Subscribers with Google Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Strike Social.

Hop on to Higher Easter Day Sales with Demand Gen Ads

Easter 2025 is set to be one of the most anticipated holidays, ranking as the 4th-most popular holiday just behind Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Mother’s Day. With Easter falling on April 20th this year, consumers have extra time to plan their celebrations and shop for Easter promotions, providing advertisers with a unique opportunity to drive sales.

This extended shopping window opens the door for advertisers to implement targeted strategies and drive high-intent customers into the lower funnel. In this blog, we’ll explore how Demand Gen ads can maximize targeting, creative flexibility, and campaign performance. With proven strategies and creative options, you’ll be fully equipped to increase your conversions for your Easter Day sales campaigns.

Easter Advertising and Consumer Trends

Are Easter Day sale campaigns going to be a hit this season? Let’s explore the consumer behaviors and shopping trends to help guide your Demand Gen ads strategy:

What Do Consumers Buy For Easter?

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2024 survey, candy and food are the top two purchases for Easter, a trend expected to continue in 2025. Additionally, Easter decorations are seeing a 7% increase, reflecting the growing enthusiasm for holiday celebrations. Gifts, traditionally associated with the Christmas season, also rank in the top three purchases for Easter shoppers.

Easter egg hunts remain a beloved tradition, securing the top spot in celebration plans for the season. While Easter events had waned in popularity in recent years, they’re back on top this year, with holiday meals and family gatherings taking second and third place, respectively.

When Do Shoppers Start Hunting for Easter Deals?

Easter shoppers typically begin searching for deals and inspiration about a month before the holiday but make their final purchases closer to the event. According to Numerator, purchase planning often begins 1-2 months in advance, with the most active buying period happening 1-2 weeks before Easter.

Timing your Easter advertising is essential so your campaigns align with your target audience’s shopping habits, capturing them as they move through the purchase funnel.

How Do Shoppers Engage with Ads Leading Up to Easter?

While 61% of U.S. consumers will be celebrating Easter, 33% of shoppers will be flocking to online stores, offering a prime opportunity for advertisers. Demand Gen ads, which can be presented across different networks, are an effective way to reach these consumers. Your Easter ads should focus on related items that highlight traditions, Easter activities, or promotions to draw attention.

Even for the 55% of consumers who say they are not celebrating Easter, many will still be engaged with Easter Day sale ads, eager to take advantage of the deals. This makes advertising during Easter a lucrative opportunity for brands looking to launch seasonal sales campaigns.

Aligning your Easter campaign strategy with consumer trends and shopping behaviors can help you boost engagement, drive sales, and optimize conversions this season. So, how will you make your brand stand out and be Easterrific this year?

Easter Day Sale Ads That Convert

Easter is a season of joy, renewal, and vibrant celebration. For some, it’s rooted in faith and tradition. For others, it’s a cheerful time filled with pastel colors, sweet treats, and springtime energy.

As such, how can your Easter Day sale ads stand out and convert? The key lies in aligning creativity, format, and urgency to inspire clicks and purchases.

Inspirations for Easter Ad Campaigns

• Creative Elements That Drive Engagement: Easter-themed campaigns come to life with soft pastel color palettes—think pinks, greens, yellows, blues, and purples—that evoke warmth, happiness, and the spirit of spring. Each color carries meaning: pink for joy, green for life, and white for light—making them ideal for crafting scroll-stopping Easter promotions.
  
  Take M&M’s 2024 Easter campaign as an example. Their limited-time “Easter Sundae” flavor ad featured their mascot donning a bunny headband alongside classic Easter colors like purple, white, and soft blue. The result? A visually engaging campaign that felt seasonally relevant.
  
  Here’s a sample YouTube Shorts ad that uses pastel shades of pink, blue, and orange while demonstrating how to make homemade carrot-shaped cookies is a great way to capture the festive spirit and drive engagement for your Easter Day promotion.

• Winning Ad Formats: Short-form video ads, especially on YouTube, are proving to be powerful tools in Easter advertising. In fact, YouTube Shorts holds an average engagement rate of 5.91%—beating out TikTok (5.75%) and Instagram Reels (5.53%). Easter promotions featuring product demos, festive recipes, or DIY crafts are perfect fits for this ad format.

• Urgency-Driven Marketing: Easter Day sale ads with a clear deadline or exclusive offer perform exceptionally well.
  
  Communicating urgency—whether it’s a flash sale or limited-edition product—pushes audiences to act fast. Brands that proactively announce Easter promotions can see conversion boosts of up to 400%.
  
  For instance, a carousel ad promoting bunny-shaped chocolates marked with “Limited Time Only” can drive faster decision-making. Use countdown timers, bold CTAs, and early-bird announcements in your Easter social media campaigns to encourage immediate engagement.

Easter Marketing Using Demand Gen Ads

YouTube advertising gives you all the tools to build a full-funnel strategy—from creating awareness to driving traffic and action. For your Easter Day sales, you can layer your campaigns: start with Video Reach Campaigns to spark interest, use Video View Campaigns for deeper engagement, and activate Demand Gen Ads to turn viewers into customers.

Why Use Demand Gen Ads for Easter Day Sale Campaigns?

With Google’s AI, Demand Gen ads use dynamic content and advanced targeting to engage audiences and drive action. The design is to deliver visually engaging, multi-format ads across Google’s most immersive platforms, including YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail. 

The focus is to create demand rather than relying solely on search intent, making them ideal for Easter advertising when consumers may not yet be actively searching for specific products but are open to inspiration.

Still new to Demand Gen ads? Check out our complete guide to setup and strategy.

Why YouTube and Google’s AI-Powered Audience Expansion Make Them Ideal for Easter Promotions?

Google’s AI ensures that ads are shown to users most likely to engage with Easter-themed promotions, whether they’re browsing for gift ideas or planning family celebrations. Since YouTube is a highly engaged platform, first-party data and behavioral signals are analyzed to identify users most likely to click, watch, and convert.

Demand Gen ads have been proven to deliver 2.3x higher ROAS than other paid social campaigns, making them highly ideal and effective for Easter Day sale campaigns.

How Can Demand Gen Ads Help Brands Scale Campaigns Efficiently While Reducing Costs?

Not only do Demand Gen ads optimize campaign performance by automating ad placements, but it also actively optimizes bid strategies. As Demand Gen identifies the most optimal placements to generate views or clicks, you benefit from improved cost efficiency because your ads are shown to viewers who are more likely to stay engaged or make a purchase.

Here are additional examples of cost efficiency achieved with YouTube and Demand Gen ads:

• A campaign promoting a movie’s theatrical release, primarily using Demand Gen ads on YouTube, achieved up to a 7.6% CTR with a 43% improvement in CPC efficiency.
• Rituals, a health and beauty brand, saw impressive results from YouTube Shorts placements; their Easter Day sale ads drove 145% more sales by leaning on current consumer trends.
• A marketing company that previously relied on Discovery ads shifted to Demand Gen ads, using multi-format YouTube video and carousel ads, and experienced up to 6.8x more clicks compared to their former strategy.

Seeing these results, Easter 2025 is definitely an advertising season that brands should not miss.

Download the YouTube Demand Gen Case Study

By allocating 99% of the ad spend to mobile placements and using Demand Gen ads on YouTube, the campaign delivered highly personalized content to affluent professionals, targeting high-intent audiences.

As a result, the campaign achieved a 3.3% link click-through rate (CTR) and 50% spend efficiency, demonstrating how Demand Gen ads can reach high-intent audiences while driving cost savings.

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Creating Effective Demand Gen Ads for Easter Promotions

To capture the attention of Easter shoppers, Demand Gen ads offer a creative solution. By combining trends and insights from this blog, here’s how you can build an effective Easter Day sale campaign:

• Use Google’s AI-driven audience insights alongside your own first-party data (e.g., past purchase history) to segment audiences effectively. Focus on behaviours like browsing for Easter gifts or engaging with spring-themed content.
• Demand Gen ads support localized targeting, allowing you to direct your campaigns toward users in specific store locations. Promote offers such as “Available at your nearest store” to increase foot traffic and boost in-store purchases during your Easter Day sale.
• Vertical video formats (9:16) on YouTube Shorts create immersive experiences that capture attention quickly. With Demand Gen’s multi-format ads, you can also use carousel ads to showcase Easter bundles or limited offers.
  • Bonus: Use Google’s creative enhancements for video and image ads to generate multiple ad variations tailored for different platforms.
• With over 75% of U.S. retail site visits coming from mobile devices, optimizing for mobile placements is always a smart move. While audience location is a key factor, Strike Social data shows that both CTV and mobile lead in ad retention rates, with 63% for CTV and 47% for mobile.

Demand Gen ads offer enhanced solutions for scaling 2025 Easter Day sales campaigns by combining AI-driven targeting with visually immersive formats across YouTube and Google platforms. By tailoring your creative approach to seasonal trends, you can drive higher engagement and conversions.

What’s your strategy for Easter advertising? Reach out below, and we’ll guide you through a personalized walkthrough of our ad activation and management tools to set you on the path to a successful Easter 2025 campaign.

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Campaign Outcome

Strike Social’s strategy combined hyper-local geo-targeting, interest-based content alignment, and mobile-first delivery to maximize results. By focusing on the right placements and audiences, the campaign exceeded its performance goals while maintaining tight control over cost.

Enhancing Demand Gen Efficiency with Adaptive Targeting

• Audience-Custom Audience Layering: Targeting combined household income overlays with curated financial content audiences to reach viewers most likely to engage with personalized financial services.

• Hyper-Focused Interest Targeting Strategy: To supplement income-based targeting, content, and interest categories were selected based on business, entrepreneurship, and finance—reaching audiences associated with professional growth and wealth-building behaviors.

• Mobile-Only Optimization: With 99% of spend on mobile, the campaign excluded Connected TV to align with scroll behavior and increase action-driven engagement.

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Campaign Outcome

Through precise ad segmentation and real-time optimizations, the campaign successfully drove awareness and engagement while achieving significant cost savings. With Strike Social’s expertise, the baking brand maximized its holiday advertising impact, reinforcing the value of audience-first strategies in YouTube campaigns.

Achieving High Retention and Efficiency on YouTube Holiday Campaigns

• Granular Audience Segmentation: Gender-specific targeting ensured messaging resonated with the right audience, with female viewers driving 66% of total ad engagement.

• Multi-Format Efficiency: Combining Bumper and Skippable ads optimized cost efficiency—Bumper ads boosted quick brand recall, while Skippable ads maintained a 74% retention rate.

• Real-Time Optimizations: Daily budget adjustments maximized holiday ad spend, reducing waste and capitalizing on peak engagement periods for higher retention and cost-effective reach.

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Campaign Outcome

With real-time data insights and CTV-optimized content, Strike Social supported NJDOH in driving engagement with public health awareness ads on YouTube. The campaign’s strategic execution delivered high retention and cost efficiency while amplifying message impact.

Using YouTube Ads to Strengthen Public Health Awareness

• CTV Non-Skippable Formats for Stronger Retention: The campaign utilized YouTube’s non-skippable ad placements on CTV to create an immersive and uninterrupted viewing experience, leading to higher retention rates and improved brand recall.

• Precision Audience Targeting: Spanish-language ads performed better when served to Spanish-speaking viewers, achieving a 75.17% video completion rate on CTV.

• Localized Messaging: Geo-targeted strategies helped deliver over 3 million impressions, ensuring the campaign resonated with communities most at risk of vaccine hesitancy.

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Campaign Outcome

Through precise ad delivery and strategic optimizations, the campaign effectively raised awareness while maintaining cost efficiency. With Strike Social’s expertise in audience targeting and real-time adjustments, the NJ Attorney General’s Office successfully reached and educated a broader audience on security measures.

Demonstrating the Strength of YouTube Ads in Driving Awareness

• Brand Lift Study Insights: A study measuring campaign effectiveness found that 15-second YouTube creatives achieved a 98% hook rate and a 63% view rate, outperforming other ad formats.

• Real-Time Campaign Adjustments: Ongoing analysis identified the highest-performing placements, keywords, and demographics, driving cost efficiency and relevance.

• Hyper-Local Targeting: A highly focused approach ensured the campaign exceeded its view goal while directing traffic to the website for additional safety resources.

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Campaign Outcome

Strike Social’s data-driven approach to YouTube Demand Gen delivered cost-efficient performance and strong user engagement. The campaign successfully turned YouTube movie trailer interest into ticket sales with advanced targeting and mobile optimization.

Efficient Traffic Campaign Performance with Demand Gen Optimization

• Audience-Based Media Planning: Targeting inclusion and exclusion lists helped the campaign reach moviegoers most likely to engage and convert.

• Leverage on High-Impact Creatives: A mix of 15- and 30-second video formats, native video asset for YouTube Shorts placement.

• Real-Time Optimization: Daily performance monitoring enabled budget reallocations toward top-performing placements, improving CPC and CTR outcomes.

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The Go-To Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing Agencies

Collaborating with a top-tier social media influencer not only reduces the workload on your creative team but also enhances brand authenticity. Utilizing user-generated content (UGC) creates a more natural and relatable ad experience, making your campaigns more engaging to your audiences.

Currently, there are over 12 million U.S. influencers across all social media platforms. Yet the real question is: Which influencer marketing platform delivers the best results when integrated into paid ads, and where do they perform best? From audience reach to ROI, several factors determine whether TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube is the ideal choice for your influencer marketing campaigns.

Top Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing

The competition between TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram is fierce when it comes to video advertising and audience reach. YouTube leads with over 250 million users, followed by Instagram at 138.5 million.

However, TikTok is not to be overlooked. The app saw a surge of 88.3% user growth in 2019 and continues to grow by 2.2%–2.4% annually through 2029.

But does a platform’s user base directly translate to its effectiveness for influencer marketing? Let’s take a closer look at the different platforms and how influencer marketing agencies maximize them:

TikTok

While many assume the platform caters only to younger users, our campaign data tells a different story. Despite the majority of U.S. TikTok users being under 30, our data reveals up to 37% CPM efficiency even among audiences aged 55 and up—demonstrating TikTok’s versatility in reaching diverse audiences.

So, how does this well-rounded strategy position TikTok as an influencer marketing platform worth considering?

Promoting your Brand with TikTok Influencers

Influencer marketing agencies choose TikTok for its ability to drive high engagement through viral, short-form videos. Its algorithm naturally amplifies content, enabling brands to reach wider audiences without relying solely on paid media.

Spark Ads further enhances this by boosting organic influencer content, allowing brands to connect authentically with target audiences through established influencer communities.

• Authentic and Relatable Content: TikTok thrives on raw, unfiltered content that feels genuine, bringing authenticity to each video. This “in-the-moment” vibe resonates with users across age groups, making influencer recommendations feel more like advice from a friend than a corporate pitch.

• Cross-Generational Appeal: Though TikTok’s user base skews younger, influencer marketing remains highly effective across all age groups. Audiences aged 55+ have an average engagement rate of 7.3%, surpassing the 5.3% average for younger users. This indicates that while they may be fewer in number, older users demonstrate higher intent and engagement on the platform.
  
  From Gen Z creators to senior influencers, TikTok offers brands a wide range of niche communities to tap into.

• Innovative Content Formats: TikTok offers unique content formats that amplify influencer campaigns:
  • Branded Hashtag Challenges: Brands partner with influencers to create viral trends, increasing user participation.
    
    HP’s #HPRadicalReuse campaign, featuring creators like @dreaknowsbest and @alisonsadventures, achieved an 18% engagement rate, with over 4 million video views from Spark Ads alone.
  • Interactive Add-Ons: In addition to promoting video ads, you can make them more engaging by adding interactive features such as gestures, gift code stickers, and pop-out showcases.

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Further Reading

Activating Authorization Code for TikTok Spark Ads

TikTok’s Spark Ads simplify collaboration with influencers, making it easier to boost their content. With just a few quick steps, you and your chosen content creator can activate a sponsored post and seamlessly launch a successful influencer marketing campaign.

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Keep in mind that TikTok is just the first social media advertising platform in this discussion. While we see how it excels in both video advertising and influencer marketing, how do Instagram and YouTube compare?

Instagram

As Meta continues evolving Instagram into a video-first platform, it has become a top alternative to TikTok—especially during discussions of a potential TikTok ban. When advertisers explored shifting TikTok campaigns to Instagram Reels, it reinforced Instagram’s position as one of the top choices for influencer marketing agencies.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Instagram Influencer Advertising

Instagram is home to over 10 million influencers in the U.S., accounting for 9.8% of its users. With such a vast creator ecosystem, brands have plenty of opportunities to collaborate with influencers across various niches.

Understanding Influencer Tiers

Instagram offers a broad spectrum of influencers, from small, niche-focused creators to mega influencers with massive reach.

More followers don’t always mean better results—nano-influencers often have the highest engagement rates due to their highly engaged, niche communities, making them a strong choice for influencer-driven ads.

Visual Storytelling

Instagram is inherently a visual-first platform, making it ideal for brands that rely on aesthetics and storytelling to connect with audiences. Its various ad formats cater to different marketing objectives:

• Reels: Short-form videos optimized for discoverability and engagement. Influencer-driven Reels see engagement rates of up to 2.08%, outperforming the 1.8% average for regular Reels and other content types.
• Stories: Ephemeral content perfect for real-time updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or limited-time offers. Stories ads can boost reach by 35%, particularly for small brands looking to expand their audience.
• Carousel: Multi-image posts designed to encourage user interaction by swiping through content, making them ideal for detailed storytelling or showcasing multiple products. As a prominent ad format on both Facebook and Instagram, Carousel ads have proven effective—helping a luxury watch brand drive up to 56% of landing page views in a traffic campaign.

Meta’s Stability and Instagram’s Longevity

As part of Meta’s advertising network, Instagram remains a dominant force in social media advertising–and it’s here to stay.

Meta’s resilience in the stock market reinforces its position as a leading platform, and with 47% of brands using Instagram for influencer marketing, its relevance will persist—especially as uncertainty around a potential U.S. TikTok ban continues to impact advertiser decisions.

Is Instagram more effective for influencer advertising than TikTok? The answer depends on campaign goals, target demographics, and engagement strategy. But before drawing conclusions, let’s analyze yet another major influencer marketing platform—YouTube.

YouTube

While YouTube might appear last on this list, its engagement, effectiveness, and video advertising impact are anything but last place. Known for brand awareness campaigns, YouTube is also a high-performing platform for action and conversion-driven marketing.

Why YouTube Influencer Marketing Works

YouTube’s advantages for influencer marketing agencies are strongly tied to its ability to deliver detailed, engaging, and authentic content—whether in short form or long form. Discover why you should consider YouTube for your social media influencer campaigns:

Long-Form Content for In-Depth Storytelling

YouTube stands out in influencer marketing for its ability to host extended video content, making it ideal for detailed product showcases and tutorials:

• Detailed Product Reviews: YouTube influencers spend 10–15 minutes (or longer) discussing a product’s features, benefits, and real-world applications, making it the top choice among U.S. consumers for product reviews and information.
• Step-by-Step Tutorials: 64% of viewers have reported making a purchase after watching an explainer video. And because there’s (basically) no length limit to the videos a YouTube content creator can create, they can go into detail on product tutorials, allowing viewers to understand better what they are recommending.

Full-Funnel Marketing Capabilities

YouTube also plays a crucial role in performance-driven marketing, helping brands achieve action-based results such as lead generation, website traffic, and direct sales.

• Action Campaigns: YouTube influencers excel in driving video views and audience engagement, with the help of Video Views Campaigns. The U.S. leads in YouTube influencer engagement with 28.4 billion interactions, and click-through rates peak during high-traffic ad seasons like Q4.
• Driving Conversions: From Strike Social’s data, a family entertainment brand achieved a 7.8x ROAS by using YouTube ads to drive in-store visits. Additionally, influencer-driven YouTube campaigns have been shown to generate up to 10 times higher conversion rates than organic traffic alone.

Trusted by Audiences

98% of online users trust recommendations from YouTube influencers—more than any other social media platform.

A strong example is MAC Cosmetics, which partnered with beauty content creators Ankita Chaturvedi and Naina Bhan for their YouTube Video Reach Campaigns. With the help of YouTube Shorts, their campaign achieved:

• 66% lower cost per view (CPV)
• 2.5x higher view-through rates than their standard YouTube ads

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Further Reading

Driving Conversions with YouTube Influencer Advertising

Don’t let assumptions about high costs and large ad budgets deter you from considering YouTube influencers for your campaigns. Collaborating with YouTube creators could be the key to fully integrating your ad funnel into this video-centric platform.

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Now that you have a clear understanding of how these social media influencer platforms work and how you can collaborate with content creators for brand campaigns, it’s time to assess your options. While these major platforms are the top choices for influencer marketing agencies, the right fit depends on various criteria that require careful evaluation.

Why Influencer Marketing Agencies Choose These Social Media Platforms

Influencer marketing agencies select TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube based on their unique strengths in audience engagement, creative content, placement strategies, and cost efficiency. Below is a condensed overview of each platform’s advantages:

Each social media platform has unique strengths that can enhance your influencer marketing campaigns. By aligning your campaign goals with the criteria outlined here, you can determine the best platform for your strategy.

Beyond platform selection, the influencer’s existing community is another critical factor. For example, if your brand performs well on TikTok but the influencer you’re targeting has stronger reach and engagement on YouTube, shifting your ad spend may be more effective. Likewise, if a YouTube influencer’s rates are too high, exploring Instagram influencers could deliver better results at a lower cost.

While each platform has its pros and cons, Strike Social’s data shows that a multi-platform influencer campaign can drive strong results while maintaining cost efficiency.

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Case Study:

A leading CPG brand partnered with Strike Social to drive high-quality traffic and engagement through influencer marketing across TikTok and Instagram while maintaining cost efficiency.

By aligning influencer-driven content with key audiences—homemakers, food enthusiasts, and younger consumers—the campaign achieved 43.2% cost efficiency, with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) contributing to 70% lower CPLC on Meta placements.

Further, capitalizing on the platform’s strength in interactive, trend-based engagement, 61% total engagements were driven by TikTok influencer ads.

Download the CPG Influencer Campaign Case Study

Connecting with More Engaged Audiences with Influencer Marketing

Choosing the right social media platform for your influencer marketing campaign is a crucial step in effectively promoting your brand. Each platform offers distinct advantages based on your goals, target audience, and budget—and when combined strategically, they can deliver even stronger performance and cost efficiency.

However, these platforms are just the mediums. Success in influencer marketing depends on aligning with the right audience, budget strategy, and content approach. Whether partnering with Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok influencers, integrating influencer marketing into your paid social strategy is now essential.

Ready to launch your influencer campaign? Contact our team for a personalized walkthrough on how we can activate and manage your influencer ads.

The post Which Social Media Platform Works Best for Influencer Marketing? appeared first on Strike Social.

Driving Traffic and Sales with YouTube Influencer Advertising

Did you know that 67% of marketers struggle to find the right influencers for their brands? Yet, those investing in YouTube influencer advertising seem to have cracked the code—allocating up to 40% of their marketing budgets to influencer campaigns on the platform.

When brands collaborate with YouTube creators whose audiences align with their target market, the results translate to real engagement, traffic, and conversions. In this blog, we’ll break down how YouTube influencer advertising can deliver measurable ROI and why it’s worth integrating into your strategy.

Why Should Brands Use YouTube Influencers for Advertising?

Running YouTube ads can definitely help with brand promotions, but partnering with a trusted YouTube influencer adds a layer of authenticity that traditional ads can’t match. Here’s why YouTube influencer advertising is a powerful strategy for driving engagement, trust, and conversions:

Benefits of Collaborating with YouTube Content Creators

Higher audience trust and engagement

• YouTube creators have built-in credibility, making their recommendations feel more like peer advice than traditional advertising. Influencer engagement rates typically average around 3%, with micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 subscribers) reaching up to 5%.
• This aligns with YouTube’s overall engagement benchmark of 3-7%, reinforcing why influencer-led campaigns often drive stronger brand affinity and trust.

Longer content lifespan

• Unlike short-lived content on TikTok and Instagram, YouTube videos continue to generate views long after they’re published:
  • YouTube: Videos gain traction for 20-30 days initially but can keep accumulating views for years.
  • TikTok: Viral content peaks in minutes but fades quickly without sustained engagement.
  • Instagram: Reels last around 14 days in circulation, while standard posts have a visibility window of up to 48 hours.

Better storytelling opportunities

• Data from our 2024 YouTube ads benchmark report shows that both short-form and long-form content perform well in YouTube advertising:

• While shorter ads achieve higher view rates, longer content remains competitive, proving that YouTube fosters engagement across various video lengths. YouTube influencer ads go beyond simple product promotion, offering brands a way to tell authentic stories that connect with audiences on a deeper level.

How to Find the Right YouTube Influencers

With over 200,000 U.S. content creators in the macro-influencer category alone (up to 500K subscribers), the options for YouTube influencer advertising are vast. Brands can also choose from nano-influencers, micro-influencers, and mega-influencers, each offering different levels of reach and engagement.

But how do you determine the right YouTube influencer? Here are two key strategies:

1. Discover Influencers with YouTube BrandConnect

YouTube BrandConnect simplifies the process of finding the right YouTube influencers by providing data-driven insights and audience-matching tools. You can filter creators based on:

• Audience demographics (e.g., age, location)
• Engagement rates (e.g., 10%+ comment rate on videos)
• Content category (e.g., tech, beauty, food)

Beyond discovery, YouTube BrandConnect also facilitates campaign planning, negotiations, and communication—helping to streamline influencer marketing campaigns while ensuring a secure collaboration between advertisers and creators.

2. Look Beyond Vanity Metrics

Follower count and video views may look impressive, but they don’t always translate to engagement or effectiveness for YouTube influencer advertising. Instead, assess:

• Past collaborations: Have they done influencer ads on YouTube before? If their branded content consistently outperforms non-branded videos, it’s a strong indicator of their influence and audience trust.
• Engagement rate: Calculate the engagement rate of their channel using this formula:

Engagement Rate = [(Likes + Comments + Shares) / Subscribers] × 100%

As a benchmark, nano-influencers (1K to 10K followers) typically have an engagement rate of around 4.6%. If you’re targeting influencers in this category, their engagement rates must meet or exceed this standard.

3. Work with an Influencer Agency

Manually searching for the right YouTube influencers can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Partnering with an influencer agency streamlines the process, allowing you to focus on campaign strategy and performance.

Influencer agencies have data-driven insights into which content creators consistently deliver results, helping you connect with those who align with your brand and audience. With their deep understanding of influencer marketing trends, they can identify high-performing creators faster than traditional vetting methods.

Furthermore, agencies handle key logistics, from facilitating partnerships to negotiating fees, making them especially valuable if you’re new to YouTube influencer advertising.

Common Mistakes and Myths in YouTube Influencer Advertising

We get it—YouTube influencer advertising comes with its fair share of doubts, often fueled by misconceptions and misinformation. Whether it’s concerns about costs, effectiveness, or control over messaging, these myths can prevent brands from tapping into a highly effective digital marketing strategy.

Let’s separate fact from fiction and debunk the most common misunderstandings about working with YouTube influencers:

1. “It’s hard to earn ROI from YouTube influencers”

Reality: Nano and micro-influencers offer cost-effective partnerships with a higher YouTube ROI than top-tier creators.

While partnering with top-tier influencers can provide extensive reach, it comes at a steep cost. For instance, Lydia Millen, a top-tier fashion influencer with over 1 million subscribers, averages 200K to 400K views per video. The cost for a single sponsored video from an influencer of this scale can range from $10,000 to $16,000.

However, brands don’t have to rely on mega-influencers to get results. 47% of marketers report better performance from smaller-scale YouTube influencer ads, which often have stronger audience engagement. Nano and micro-influencers not only provide more affordable rates, but their engagement rates can reach up to 8-10%, compared to mega-influencers, whose engagement drops to as low as 0.92%.

Here’s the typical cost of YouTube influencer advertising at different subscriber levels:

2. “YouTube ads are much more expensive than TikTok”

Reality: YouTube’s higher engagement and view rates offset upfront costs, delivering stronger ROAS over time.

At first glance, YouTube advertising costs may seem higher, having higher competition for ad space. However, YouTube’s higher engagement, stable click-through rates (CTR), and stronger audience retention often translate into better long-term ROI compared to its primary video-first competitor, TikTok.

Here’s a 2024 U.S. campaign comparison of action campaign CTRs across YouTube vs. TikTok:

With the introduction of Demand Gen campaigns (formerly Video Action Campaigns), YouTube is further optimizing ad performance for direct response and conversions. These campaigns integrate well with your YouTube influencer marketing strategy, allowing you to:

• Retarget high-intent audiences who have previously interacted with your brand.
• Encourage action with shoppable ads, lead forms, and CTA buttons.
• Utilize Google’s AI-powered targeting to find users ready to convert.

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Further Reading

From VAC to Demand Gen — What You Need To Know

Starting March 2025, Video Action Campaigns (VAC) will evolve into Demand Gen, a more advanced campaign type designed to drive higher clicks and conversions from your YouTube ads. Demand Gen expands your reach by delivering multi-format ads across highly engaged audiences within the Google network, optimizing performance beyond traditional placements.

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How to Maximize ROI with YouTube Influencer Advertising

Now that you understand the benefits of YouTube influencer advertising, it’s time to apply those insights to optimize your campaign strategy. Here are the tips to plan out your campaign accordingly:

Manage your costs by finding the right influencers

It’s not just about follower count—it’s about engagement. A high subscriber count often means higher costs, but engagement rates can drop as influencer size increases. To maximize your YouTube influencer ads ROI, focus on creators whose audience is actively engaged with their content.

Look for YouTube influencers with a track record of successful brand collaborations. Analyze engagement metrics on their sponsored content to assess whether they can deliver the performance you need. Most importantly, their pricing must align with your campaign budget without compromising results.

Take advantage of YouTube’s advertising ecosystem

YouTube’s reach spans multiple devices, including mobile screens, tablets, desktops, and Connected TV (CTV). Your YouTube influencer advertising strategy should be optimized for all viewing experiences, including Shorts for mobile users and horizontal videos for larger screens.

Our 2024 YouTube Ads Benchmark Report shows that 48% of YouTube ad placements land on Connected TV, offering higher viewability and longer watch times. Meanwhile, mobile generates the highest impression share, emphasizing the importance of engaging fast-paced viewers who are more likely to click and take action.

Beyond the YouTube app, Google’s ad ecosystem expands your ads’ reach across multiple platforms through these key campaign formats:

• Video Reach Campaigns – Extends influencer ads to Google TV and YouTube TV.
• Video View Campaigns – Maximizes visibility across YouTube in-feed, in-stream, and Shorts.
• Demand Gen – Expands reach beyond YouTube to Google Discover, Gmail, and Google video partners.

Amplify your performance with an expert YouTube advertising agency

The right influencer and high-quality ad creatives are just part of the equation. To unlock true efficiency, partner with a YouTube advertising agency that specializes in cost-effective, high-performing campaigns.

With over a decade of experience running YouTube campaigns, Strike Social’s proprietary ad tech optimizes costs 24/7 while delivering consistent results. Combined with the expertise of our media buying team, we help brands hit their target views and conversions—all while keeping ad costs under control.

Request a personalized walkthrough from our team today.

The post How YouTube Influencer Advertising Can Deliver Stronger Conversions appeared first on Strike Social.

Complete Guide to Moving TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts Ads

If it’s a short-form domination battle between TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts, the former is the clear winner. According to Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile report, TikTok captures 55% of short-form video watch time in the U.S., while Instagram Reels holds 36% and YouTube Shorts at 26%.

However, TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains highly uncertain. After the app’s brief ban in January, concerns continue to grow among both creators and advertisers.

While U.S. content creators have started shifting to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, advertisers see YouTube as the strongest TikTok alternative—offering a stable platform and a massive audience base.

If you’re considering moving from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads, you’re in the right place. This guide will walk you through the transition, helping you navigate the platform differences, optimize your YouTube Shorts ads, and effectively tap into YouTube’s 200-million+ user base.

Why YouTube Shorts Is the Smart TikTok Alternative for Advertising

While YouTube Shorts may be YouTube’s response to the short-form vertical video trend, the platform as a whole offers far greater opportunities for advertisers. Backed by Google’s ad ecosystem, YouTube had just become the world’s second-largest search engine where audiences look for new products or research new brands.

If you’re only thinking about YouTube Shorts as a TikTok alternative, you might be overlooking the full potential of advertising on YouTube and its broad network. Here’s what you’re missing:

TikTok’s Uncertain Future

TikTok may be back in the app stores for new users to download, but for advertisers, there’s still some turmoil.

As concerns about a potential TikTok ban continue to rise, many brands have considered cross-platform strategies to safeguard their advertising investments. In fact, ad spend forecasts show a significant shift, with 10.7% moving to YouTube and 12.9% shifting to Connected TV (CTV) channels in the near future.

Realistically speaking, YouTube offers a more stable and secure option for U.S. advertisers, both technically and operationally:

• YouTube is owned by Google (Alphabet Inc.) and operates under U.S. jurisdiction, which mitigates concerns about foreign adversary risks—something TikTok can’t fully avoid.
  • Unlike TikTok, YouTube faces no immediate legislative threats, making it a much more reliable long-term platform for ad spend.
  • In response to TikTok’s uncertainties, YouTube has been proactively courting creators, encouraging them to shift to YouTube Shorts and “find your community” on the platform. This is part of YouTube’s strategy to acquire as many creators and advertisers as possible before the looming April 2025 deadline that could impact TikTok’s availability in the U.S.
• As some U.S. advertisers have explored, VPNs were briefly considered as a workaround to access TikTok during the ban. However, this approach is risky, as VPN usage can expose devices to malware, thus is not advisable.
  • YouTube, in turn, has only since expanded its reach, from the original website YouTube.com to the mobile app. Now, it has Connected TV reach as well, with Google TV and YouTube TV placements that advertisers can utilize to increase brand awareness.

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Further Reading

Here’s Why Google TV Ads Expand Your Reach Even Further

Many advertisers wonder, “Should I opt into Google TV?” If you’re running reach-focused campaigns, the answer is yes. Adding Google TV as a placement in your YouTube strategy enhances audience reach, giving your ads greater visibility across connected TV screens.

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YouTube Shorts’ Growth By the Numbers

YouTube Shorts has seen massive growth in the U.S., with monthly active users (MAUs) rising from 118.1 million in 2020 to 164.5 million in 2024. With YouTube’s expansion into Connected TV (CTV), this reach has extended further, adding 8 million users from YouTube TV screens.

As an official ad placement, YouTube Shorts has positioned itself as a strong competitor to TikTok in the short-form video advertising space.

Still mulling over whether YouTube Shorts ads are the way to go? Here’s what the numbers say:

• 5.91% Engagement rate – the highest among short-form platforms (TikTok 5.75%; Instagram Reels 5.53%
• 106.28% More likes than regular video content on YouTube
• 3x Increased ad RPM (revenue for creators)
• 43% U.S. advertisers already leveraging YouTube Shorts ads for promotions

Advantages of Advertising on YouTube Shorts

Transitioning your TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts unlocks a range of benefits, thanks to YouTube’s established presence in video advertising. With years of dominance in the space, YouTube provides a more stable and scalable platform—especially if TikTok is no longer a viable option for your brand.

Strong Creator Ecosystem

If influencer marketing is central to your TikTok ad campaigns, YouTube Shorts offers a powerful alternative. YouTube has its own thriving creator community, and studies show that 59% of content is shared across multiple social platforms—primarily TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Before making the switch, check if your TikTok influencers have a YouTube presence—you may already have an existing audience to tap into.

To make partnerships easier, YouTube offers BrandConnect, a platform designed to connect brands and creators seamlessly. Announced during the Google Marketing Live Update, BrandConnect allows advertisers to:

• Find creators who have already tagged or reviewed your brand
• Propose collaborations for sponsored content
• Promote creator content directly in YouTube Shorts ads

Broader Audience Reach

TikTok’s user base skews younger, with 25% of its audience aged 18-24 and over 30% aged 25-34. While this is great for brands targeting Gen Z and Millennials, YouTube offers a more diverse audience, including older age groups with higher purchasing power.

Here’s a breakdown of YouTube’s U.S. demographic reach:

• Gen Z (25.1%) and Millennials (25.5%) make up the majority of users
• Gen X (19.9%) and Baby Boomers (15%) represent a significant portion of viewers
• YouTube Shorts’ audience mirrors this diversity, with:
  • 18-24 (15.7%)
  • 45-54 (12.9%)

This means that YouTube Shorts ads can reach not only younger audiences but also consumers with greater purchasing intent and spending capacity—a crucial factor for high-value brands and premium products.

By shifting your TikTok ad campaigns to YouTube Shorts, you’re expanding your reach to a wider audience with stronger conversion potential.

Expanding Reach with YouTube (and Google’s) Ecosystem

As part of Google’s extensive ecosystem, YouTube can be integrated with other Google platforms to maximize your campaign reach.

This allows advertisers to expand to multiple touchpoints within a single network, significantly expanding audience reach.

Thus, for advertisers transitioning from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads, this can be challenging and overwhelming. Google offers a wide variety of campaign types, ad formats, and placements, making it easy to feel lost in the options.

While you might be tempted to explore display ads or Performance Max campaigns, YouTube is your best option if your focus is on video advertising.

Let’s break down how your TikTok ad campaign focused on reach can be expanded when shifting to YouTube Shorts or YouTube ads overall:

* For Efficient reach & Target frequency campaign sub-objective (includes bumper)
* For Non-skippable reach & Target frequency campaign sub-objective

TikTok ads are primarily limited to the app, appearing in the For You Feed, Following Feed, and Profile Feed. However, if you’re looking to expand your reach, you can also advertise through Pangle, TikTok’s ad network, which allows you to connect with audiences across 100,000+ global apps.

With YouTube Shorts, you can expand your audience reach and strengthen lower-funnel campaigns, allowing for precise targeting at different stages of the customer journey. Additionally, brand safety remains a top priority on YouTube, to make sure your ads appear alongside safe and suitable content. 

To avoid last-minute scrambling as TikTok’s future remains in flux, future-proofing your ads by transitioning to YouTube Shorts makes sense. While the shift from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts ads may involve several steps, it will undoubtedly offer greater stability and benefits in the long term.

YouTube Shorts vs. TikTok Ads: What You Need to Know

Before making the shift from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts video ads, you must consider key elements such as ad creatives, cost structures, and campaign setup. While both platforms focus on short-form video content, YouTube offers a wider range of placements compared to TikTok. 

This means that your video advertising strategy will need to be adjusted to ensure optimal performance on YouTube Shorts.

Format Considerations

Short-form video content is best viewed in the 9:16 vertical format, but both TikTok and YouTube Shorts offer flexibility in aspect ratios, allowing for a variety of creative approaches. For instance, if you want your audience to focus on a smaller creative, you can easily adjust. However, maximizing screen space with vertical videos remains the optimal choice for capturing attention.

Here’s a quick guide on ad creative specs, safe zones, and how TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts compare:

As shown above, YouTube Shorts supports a broader range of file types. This allows brands and influencer partners to repurpose existing video content more easily and tailor ads to different viewing experiences. Moreover, YouTube Shorts’ structure for headlines and text enables clearer messaging and calls to action (CTA), regardless of where your ad appears.

Ultimately, scaling your advertising from TikTok to YouTube Shorts can enhance your creative flexibility, allowing you to produce more engaging content for your audience.

Cost Comparison

Budget considerations will naturally be a key factor when shifting your advertising strategy from TikTok to YouTube Shorts. While YouTube claims a 6% higher share in ad spend compared to TikTok, you might assume this means higher advertising costs—but that’s not always the case.

We analyzed Strike Social’s U.S. YouTube and TikTok campaigns, focusing on clicks and actions to determine how campaigns would perform if transferred. The reason behind this is simple: YouTube’s diverse campaign formats and objective options allow for greater precision in targeting your goals.

Instead of being limited to just one video view format, such as YouTube Shorts, you can also take advantage of other placements where your ads could perform even better.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the costs for TikTok ads vs. YouTube ads, helping you make a more informed decision:

YouTube’s CPC and CTR, while fluctuating, tend to be more stable and predictable than TikTok’s. This makes budgeting and campaign planning easier, giving advertisers more confidence in their decisions.

While YouTube CPC levels are not immune to the holiday seasons, TikTok also shows a rise, especially during Q4. As seen above, even with YouTube ad costs rising, driving clicks is managed well, as long as brands are partnered with the right YouTube advertising agency. 

Differences in Campaign Setup and Management

If you’ve worked with other ad management platforms like Facebook or Snapchat Ads Manager, you’ll notice some similarities in system navigation.

However, if your experience is primarily with TikTok ads, transitioning to Google Ad Manager for YouTube Shorts may require additional guidance. Here are the key differences to keep in mind:

Campaign Goals

In TikTok Ads Manager, campaign objectives are straightforward and tied to specific goals, with a simple setup process and consistent feed placements.

As for Google Ad Manager, you’ll need to select the appropriate campaign objective and format tailored specifically for YouTube Shorts ads. Here are some of the relevant formats for YouTube Shorts:

• Awareness & Consideration
  • Demand Gen
  • Video (Video views, Efficient reach)
• Conversion Goals
  • Demand Gen
  • Video (selecting Video as a sub-objective would also direct to Demand Gen due to the transition from Video Action Campaigns)

Targeting Options

Apart from the usual audience targeting features such as location, age, and interests, you can create Custom Audiences or Audience Segments. While this feature is also available in TikTok through Saved Audience, you’d have to prepare your audience list in the TikTok Business Center as there’s currently no option to do it within the campaign setup page.

• For YouTube, you can use a previously saved audience list or create a new one immediately without leaving the setup page. 
• YouTube advertising now allows users to target Nielsen DMA regions. TikTok launched this feature in 2021, and Google followed suit in 2023.

Ad Placements

Did you know that with CTV views growing 130%, YouTube has been thriving on both short-form and now bigger screens? Thus, there’s no harm in being flexible with where your ads can appear.

Although there isn’t a specific option to exclusively place ads on YouTube Shorts, with proper optimization, you can focus your efforts on this placement. Achieving this is made easier with the right software and a skilled team to help maximize your performance while staying within budget.

For example, during the Q4 season, we helped an HVAC brand leverage the power of YouTube Shorts ads, achieving 59% cost efficiency and generating up to 5.3 million total video views during the campaign flight.

Shifting Gears From TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts

Transitioning from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts is a significant shift, especially if TikTok has been a primary source of leads or sales, delivering strong results for your brand. However, the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future in the U.S. raises questions about its long-term viability. Marketers and brands must adapt quickly, rather than waiting until it’s too late.

The good news is that your current TikTok ad campaigns can be successfully transitioned to YouTube Shorts, opening up copious opportunities. Ready to take the leap and thrive on a new platform? Send us a message below, and let us help you elevate your ad performance as you move from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads.

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The post Transitioning TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts Effectively appeared first on Strike Social.

YouTube Ads for Traffic and Action Campaigns: Do They Work?

YouTube is well known for brand awareness, and the numbers speak for themselves. Take Pringles’ Super Bowl bumper ad campaign—it generated 120 million impressions, proving the platform’s strength in reach-focused advertising. This is just one of many success stories demonstrating why YouTube ads are effective for awareness campaigns.

And it’s not just major brands that can maximize YouTube ads’ effectiveness. With the right strategy, businesses of all sizes can drive both brand awareness and bottom-funnel actions by using YouTube ads for website clicks, lead generation, and sales.

YouTube Video Campaigns For Every Stage of the Funnel

Indeed, YouTube is widely known for its strength in brand awareness campaigns, but its advertising capabilities go beyond just reach. 

Whether your goal is to drive website traffic, generate leads, or increase conversions, running ads on YouTube can be effective at every stage of the marketing funnel. Let’s break down how YouTube ads work across different campaign objectives.

Awareness – Top of the Funnel

Did you know that over 90% of users worldwide discover new brands or products through YouTube? That’s how effective YouTube ads are in maximizing visibility and brand recall.

YouTube’s Video Reach Campaigns (VRC) deliver ads to the most relevant audiences at scale, generating up to 41% lower CPM than traditional TrueView non-skippable ads. This cost-efficiency ensures that brands get the most out of their paid social media ROI while reaching high-intent users.

Additionally, Connected TV (CTV) has been an effective driver for brand awareness. In one of Strike Social’s YouTube ad campaigns, expanding placements to Google TV and YouTube TV resulted in 12% higher impressions and a 14% reduction in CPM.

Recommended YouTube Campaign for Awareness

• Video Reach Campaigns

Recommended YouTube Ad Formats

• Bumper Ads
• Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
• Masthead Ads (Reservation only)

Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Awareness Campaigns

• 13% cost-efficiency boost with CTV placements for an industrial service brand
• 96% video completion rate (VCR) on CTV for a QSR campaign

Consideration – Middle of the Funnel

Is YouTube advertising effective for traffic campaigns? Absolutely.

YouTube video campaigns excel at keeping users engaged longer than other platforms, making them a powerful tool for nurturing interest and driving brand consideration. By running ads on YouTube that target mid-funnel audiences, brands can stay top of mind when potential customers are ready to make a purchase or choose a service.

Consideration campaigns are strategically placed where targeted audiences have either previously seen your ad or interacted with your brand. This makes engaged views (view-throughs) a critical YouTube advertising metric. Strike Social’s YouTube Video View Campaigns have achieved up to 27% cost-efficiency in CPV on mobile placements—even during peak holiday periods.

Despite increasing competition during high-demand seasons, Video View Campaigns prove to be a strong investment for keeping audiences engaged and moving them closer to conversion.

Recommended YouTube Campaign for Consideration

• Video View Campaigns

Recommended Ad Formats and Placements

• Skippable In-Stream Ads
• In-Feed Video Ads
• YouTube Shorts

Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Consideration Campaigns

• 59% cost-per-view (CPV) efficiency during Q4 peak advertising season for a US HVAC campaign
• 81% video view completion rate, indicating strong viewer engagement for a Canada HVAC campaign

Conversion – Bottom of the Funnel

Are YouTube ads effective for action campaigns? It’s a resounding yes.

When using intent-driven ad formats, YouTube conversion ads can effectively drive direct sales, leads, and store traffic. With the right strategy, you can transform engaged viewers into paying customers.

Formerly known as YouTube Video Action Campaigns, Demand Gen campaigns on YouTube are designed to turn views into high-value actions. These campaigns go beyond YouTube, expanding to Google’s action-driven placements like:

• Gmail
• Discover Feed
• Google Display Network (GDN)

A key feature coming to Demand Gen campaigns is integrated product feeds, allowing users to shop directly within the YouTube app. Similar to Shopping Ads, this feature removes diversion by eliminating the need to leave the platform to purchase or express interest in a product.

Further, advertisers will soon be able to choose preferred placements for better control, brand suitability, and audience alignment, solidifying the way your customers interact with your business and integrating your identity.

Recommended YouTube Campaign for Conversions

• Demand Gen (formerly Video Action Campaigns)

Recommended Ad Formats in YouTube

• Skippable In-Stream Ads
• YouTube Shorts
• Shopping Ads

Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Conversion Campaigns

• 7.8x ROAS through geo-targeted YouTube ads driving in-store foot traffic for a family entertainment brand

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Further Reading

Know the Difference: Demand Gen vs. PMax vs. Display Ads

Video Action Campaigns (VAC) were built to drive key actions like initiating clicks and driving website traffic with YouTube ads. Now transitioning to Demand Gen, how does this new format stack up against Performance Max and Display Ads within Google’s advertising ecosystem?

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Why YouTube Ads Are Effective for Lower-Funnel Campaigns

YouTube stands out in lower-funnel advertising by combining intent-driven user behavior with AI-powered ad delivery, making it a highly effective conversion tool. This unique combination proves YouTube ads’ effectiveness by serving ads to the right audience at the right time, strengthening engagement, and driving conversions.

Here’s how YouTube ads drive results for your traffic and action campaigns:

Leveraging User Intent and Behavior

One of the biggest advantages of YouTube ads for traffic and conversion campaigns is the platform’s ability to align with user intent. Unlike passive social feeds, YouTube users actively search and engage with video content, making them more likely to take action when presented with relevant ads.

For example, if you’re preparing YouTube traffic ads for Amazon Prime Day, positioning your watch brand alongside videos featuring “Best Amazon Prime Day Deals” or “Top Influencer Gift Ideas” makes sure your ad reaches high-intent shoppers at the right moment.

Beyond standard targeting options like location, device, and language, Custom Audiences allow advertisers to build highly specific audience segments that can be used and refined across multiple campaigns. This is particularly valuable for seasonal and holiday-focused YouTube campaigns, where granular audience segmentation can improve ad relevance and engagement.

By building Custom Audiences, you can tap into users’ existing intent to watch and engage with video content, with the ability to link your products or services to relevant user behavior. Even more, Demand Gen campaigns extend this reach beyond YouTube, providing broader brand visibility and higher conversion potential.

Integration with Google and Its Vast Ad Network

Another key factor making YouTube ads effective for traffic and conversion campaigns is its integration with Google’s advertising network. This allows precise targeting through in-market audiences and remarketing, allowing you to expand your reach to individuals who are already familiar with your brand or have profiles similar to your current customer base.

For lower-funnel campaign types like Demand Gen or YouTube video conversions, you can maximize your reach across a broad range of placements, including:

• YouTube (In-stream, In-feed, Shorts)
• Google Discover
• Gmail
• Google Display Network (GDN)

Even for awareness campaigns, YouTube’s reach extends beyond the app itself. For instance, Connected TV (CTV) placements on Google TV and YouTube TV provide even greater exposure with larger screen placements.

By opting into Google’s Display Network video partners, your ads can reach a broader audience, bringing your brand to users in various contexts and increasing the potential for both awareness and conversions.

Designed for Engaged Views Gearing Toward Conversions

YouTube campaigns like Demand Gen and Video View Campaigns are specifically designed to drive conversions, not just views. As highlighted in the full-funnel strategy earlier, YouTube’s closed-loop attribution creates a seamless synergy between each stage of the funnel—from awareness to conversion.

To help illustrate how this works, let’s walk through an example of a full-funnel YouTube ad campaign for a fast-food restaurant (QSR). This will show how initial awareness views can be nurtured into website traffic and ultimately drive purchases.

Full-Funnel YouTube Ad Campaign Strategy: Fast-Food Restaurant (QSR)

The expected outcomes of this full-funnel YouTube ad strategy include increased brand awareness and ad recall among sports audiences and food lovers during key seasonal events, ensuring a strong top-of-mind presence. Engagement rates will rise through interactive ad formats and remarketing efforts, driving users from awareness to consideration.

From here, using optimized bidding strategies and audience targeting, the campaign will maximize online orders, particularly during peak periods like the holidays and the Super Bowl. Ultimately, the strategy ensures cost efficiency while maintaining high performance across all funnel stages, creating a continuous loop of audience engagement, re-engagement, and conversion.

Achieving Your Target ROI with Strategic YouTube Advertising

By now, we hope we’ve shown you just how effective YouTube ads can be—not only for brand awareness but also for traffic and action campaigns. Driving website clicks, online orders, and in-store traffic through YouTube ads is entirely achievable. Many brands have done it successfully, and with the right strategy, you can do it, too.

Partnering with an experienced YouTube ads agency can help you build a full-funnel campaign tailored to your goals and maximize your YouTube ads ROI.

Ready to take your YouTube campaigns to the launching stages? Get in touch with us below, and our team will be happy to reach out and guide you through your YouTube advertising journey.

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The post YouTube Ads for Traffic and Action Campaigns: Do They Work? appeared first on Strike Social.

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When to Use Demand Gen, Performance Max, or Display Ads?

Previously known as Video Action Campaigns (VAC), these YouTube ads were designed to drive actions such as clicks, purchases, and website traffic—primarily through YouTube and Google video partners. With the introduction of Demand Gen, these capabilities are expanding to include placements on Gmail and Google Discover, going beyond the traditional YouTube video ad format.

However, if you’re running multiple Google ads, YouTube, and YouTube TV-centered campaign types, you might notice some overlap in functionality and placements. This guide breaks down the distinct features to differentiate Demand Gen vs. Performance Max vs. Display Ads, helping you determine which one best aligns with your goals in 2025.

Demand Gen vs. Performance Max

As Demand Gen expands the YouTube ads inventory to include placements on Discover and Gmail, it’s easy to see why advertisers might confuse it with Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. Let’s break down the differences to help you distinguish between the two.

What is Demand Gen in Google?

Demand Gen is a Google campaign type designed to drive sales and create demand by reaching audiences at various stages of their customer journey. Replacing Video Action Campaigns (VAC), Demand Gen is an upgrade for YouTube app and YouTube TV advertisers, offering the familiar VAC functionalities while expanding placements and adding more advanced targeting options.

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Further Reading

Advertiser’s Guide to Upgrading Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen

Demand Gen campaigns take the strengths of Video Action Campaigns to the next level, offering advanced tools and features designed to expand your reach and boost performance. Discover how this upgrade can help boost your YouTube and Google ad performance.

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What is a Performance Max (PMax) campaign?

Performance Max (PMax) campaigns prioritize delivering conversions and maximizing results based on the advertiser’s specific goals. Powered by Google’s advanced AI, PMax optimizes performance across various channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and other Google advertising networks, to achieve full-funnel efficiency.

What is the difference between Google Performance Max and Demand Gen?

Here’s an illustration of the key differences between Demand Gen vs. Performance Max to give a better view.

When should you use Performance Max?

Performance Max (PMax) is designed to maximize conversion value by allowing Google’s AI to optimize ad placements across its ecosystem. While this automation may reduce granular control, the trade-off is higher efficiency for lower-funnel goals like conversions or clicks.

Notably, updates from Google Marketing Live 2024 introduced placement reporting and exclusions for YouTube, enhancing brand safety and giving advertisers more transparency over their campaigns. If your primary goal is conversions, PMax is an excellent option for driving results.

When to use Demand Gen?

As an upgrade from Video Action Campaigns (VAC), Demand Gen maintains its ability to prompt actions like website visits or sign-ups but now offers expanded functionality.

• Primarily powered by video ads, Demand Gen has evolved into a broader campaign type that includes image ads and carousel formats, extending placements to Gmail and Discover.
• Though previously centered on the YouTube app and YouTube TV, Demand Gen now supports multiple ad formats while maintaining precise control over targeting, ad placements, and formats.
• You’ll also retain robust brand safety and suitability controls, including content theme exclusions, inventory type selection, and placement filters, ensuring your ads align with your desired contexts and themes.

Demand Gen vs. Display Ads

Another common comparison arises between Demand Gen and Display Ads, as both primarily utilize visual formats like images and videos. Let’s explore the key differences of Demand Gen vs. Display Ads to help clarify when to use each for your 2025 ad strategy.

What is Display Ads in Google?

As the name suggests, Display Ads utilize various methods to display your ads across different placements within the Google Display Network. They have a “native” appearance, blending seamlessly with the design elements of the website or app, making them feel less intrusive and more naturally integrated with user behavior and the platform’s environment.

What is the difference between Demand Gen ads and Display ads?

How do you determine the strategies for using Demand Gen campaigns or Display ads? Each Google ads type serves a different purpose and employs different tactics, as seen below:

How Demand Gen and Display Ads Can Complement Each Other

While Demand Gen and Display Ads serve distinct purposes, they can work together effectively:

• Google Display Ads provide initial exposure, reaching a broad audience to generate awareness.
• Demand Gen campaigns nurture this exposure by targeting specific audiences with tailored ads, focusing on engagement and lead generation.

Further, if your campaign sees higher engagement with video ads, you can better enhance your strategy by implementing Video View Campaigns, which optimize placements within the YouTube app and YouTube TV. During peak seasons, such as holidays, combining these strategies can lead to up to 5.3 million video views, maximizing YouTube ads visibility and engagement when it matters most.

By leveraging the strengths of different Google ad campaign types, you can create a balanced, multi-funnel approach that drives brand visibility and effectively nurtures potential customers.

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Further Reading

Conquering Bigger Screens with YouTube TV and Google TV

YouTube TV and Google TV provide an excellent opportunity to extend your campaign’s reach and amplify brand awareness. Advertisers can connect with broader and more diverse audiences by tapping into premium TV ad inventory, including major networks and specialized channels.

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How to Choose Between Demand Gen, Performance Max, and Display Ads

Your 2025 strategy should not be constrained by just a one-year-long campaign. Throughout the seasons, we provide you with different strategies as the different holidays arrive and different trends change advertising and consumer behavior. 

Each of Google’s campaign types—Demand Gen, Performance Max, and Display Ads—serves unique purposes, making them ideal for different priorities. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide which types of Google ads align best with your goals:

How Does Your 2025 Google and YouTube Ad Strategy Look Like This 2025?

Still pondering how you want to build your 2025 Google and YouTube ads strategy? We invite you to chat with us for a personalized walkthrough. Let us know what ad creatives you have, how you want to leverage them, and what your goals are so we can help you attain them.

With Strike Social’s proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, we’ve powered millions of successful campaigns, delivering measurable results and cost efficiency for our clients. Our unique Software with a Service (SwaS) approach combines advanced machine-learning technology with expert support to ensure your campaigns perform at their peak.

Contact us today and discover how we can help you maximize your 2025 Google and YouTube ads strategy.

The post Demand Gen vs. Performance Max vs. Display Ads: What Works Best in 2025? appeared first on Strike Social.

How to Plan Your Christmas Advertising Strategy on YouTube

The Q4 holiday season is here! For YouTube advertisers, this quarter is one of the busiest times for YouTube app and TV advertising, with Christmas presenting a high-stakes opportunity to boost performance while maintaining cost efficiency. With strategic planning, your Christmas ad campaigns can set the stage for a strong finish to 2024 and an even stronger start to 2025.

Read on to discover how to optimize your YouTube ads strategy for the season’s unique demands and ensure your ads make a memorable impact this Christmas and beyond.

When To Start Your YouTube Christmas Advertising

The final quarter of the year is a peak period for holiday advertising, covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Cyber Five, Christmas, and New Year. For Christmas in particular, the buying season begins early, with many consumers planning purchases over three months in advance, yet a significant wave of last-minute shopping continues right up to Christmas Eve.

Timing is a key piece of your Christmas advertising strategy to effectively capture this demand. According to Numerator’s Q4 Holiday Survey, 70% of holiday ad viewers will use online channels for their Christmas purchases, and 44% plan a blend of online and in-store shopping, making it essential to reach them wherever they are.

Moreover, holiday spending expectations are high: 79% of shoppers plan to spend over $200 on Christmas alone, while the NRF projects an average holiday expenditure exceeding $900 per consumer. This makes the holiday season an even opportunity for YouTube advertisers to drive brand visibility and impact through well-timed and optimized video ads.

Mapping Out Your YouTube Advertising Timeline for the Christmas Rush

With Christmas just around the corner, how should you map out your strategy for the season? Here’s an ideal timeline to guide your Christmas advertising as you finalize your Q4 and look ahead to Q5. And if you’re not starting now, it’s never too early to prepare for 2025!

September: Build Brand Awareness with YouTube Campaigns

We mentioned that customers start looking into holiday purchases three months or more before Christmas. That’s precisely why September is the ideal time for your awareness campaigns for your YouTube Christmas advertising to be riding high.

A prominent YouTube advertising format for reach campaigns is bumper ads, which show consistent, year-round performance based on Campaign Lab data.

Further, we analyzed the performance of bumper ads by month, and the data shows that September offers the most cost-effective opportunity to build awareness before transitioning to your YouTube Shopping campaigns. As awareness campaigns typically increase in cost during October and November, it’s essential to establish a strong presence in September.

October: Engage Audiences with Views Campaigns

October is the perfect time to focus on driving engagement and views through Video View Campaigns. YouTube highlights that 91% of viewers connect with video content on both a technical and emotional level. Thus, aside from effective audience targeting on YouTube, driving views also involves heartwarming ad creative to keep audiences engaged. 

According to Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data, YouTube video view campaigns’ cost per view (CPV) has improved by 10% year over year (2023 vs. 2024). As Halloween advertising wraps up, be ready to transition smoothly into your Thanksgiving and Christmas campaigns.

October stands out as the most cost-efficient month for VVC, with November also showing favorable CPV. This lets you stretch your Video View Campaigns and maintain a consistent, always-on holiday advertising strategy.

Download the YouTube VVC Case Study

By effectively using YouTube Shorts and the AI functions of Video View Campaigns, Strike Social achieved 5M+ total video views and 59% cost efficiency. For an HVAC brand advertising during Thanksgiving week, a peak moment in Q4, this campaign was a total success.

Download the report

November: Target Shoppers with Video Action Campaigns

As November approaches, following the conclusion of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, it’s time to shift focus to sales-driven holiday ads. Target shoppers during the Thanksgiving period and Cyber Five, with 67% of consumers expected to make purchases during Cyber Week. Salesforce projects that online stores will capture 7% of in-store sales on Black Friday, underscoring the need for a more aggressive approach as the month winds down, ahead of the Christmas advertising rush.

YouTube Video Action Campaigns are designed to prompt viewers to take action, such as making a purchase or visiting your website. By linking your ads to your Product Feed and leveraging YouTube’s short-form content with Shorts Ads, you create a powerful combination for driving sales.

CPC trends for YouTube VAC ads show that you can kick off early Christmas campaigns in September at a cost-efficient rate. Although CPCs may peak in October, by November, you’ll be well-positioned to capture conversions again.

December: Boost Conversions and Reignite Reach Campaigns

Alas, the holiday advertising season’s culmination all boils down to how you will end your year. We recommend keeping your conversion campaigns going, and, even better, hitting the budgets harder, especially during the final weekend before Christmas. With only five days between Black Friday and Christmas Eve this year, expect a noticeable increase in YouTube ad views as shoppers ramp up their buying activity.

As highlighted earlier, December’s CPC for YouTube Video Action Campaigns saw a slight 2% increase, which is typical for the busiest time of holiday advertising campaigns. Meanwhile, in preparation for Q5, Reach campaigns focusing on bumper ads see an 8% decrease compared to November and a 6% reduction compared to the overall CPM from 2023.

Best YouTube Placements for Christmas Advertising Videos

As you plan your Q4 holiday advertising strategy, you should focus not only on when to launch your Christmas ads but also on where to place them. Selecting the right YouTube ad placements can make all the difference in driving the views and clicks you need to succeed.

In-stream Skippable and Non-Skippable

With a reach of over 3 billion users, placing your ads within prime YouTube video content is a surefire way to get audiences to stick around and create strong brand recall. Non-skippable ads, in particular, are proving highly effective, especially across YouTube’s mobile and Connected TV (CTV) formats. The combination of mobile and TV screens during Q4 boosts visibility and ad retention, making it an ideal placement for holiday campaigns.

In-Feed

In-feed ads are perfect for capturing the attention of users actively searching for holiday-related content. These ads appear when users are looking for gift ideas or researching Christmas shopping options. By utilizing the right holiday keywords and contextual targeting, you can ensure your Christmas ads appear in front of the right audience, driving traffic directly to your product pages and increasing the chances of conversions.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts, with 50 billion views daily, is one of the most versatile ad placements for your Christmas advertising strategy. Whether you’re running a Video Reach Campaign (VRC) or a Video View Campaign (VVC), YouTube Shorts video ads offers an excellent opportunity to increase visibility and engagement. Its short-form, vertical video format is perfect for delivering festive, attention-grabbing ads that resonate with today’s on-the-go consumers.

YouTube TV

YouTube’s Connected TV (CTV) platform has grown significantly since Q4 2023, and, according to our YouTube benchmark report, it’s become a top placement for high ad retention and view rates. 

According to LG Ad Solutions, 43% of CTV audiences report that ads help them decide on their holiday purchases. Moreover, 72% of viewers will likely scan a QR code featured on CTV ads, further engaging with the brand. With more consumers watching TV through YouTube, this is an essential placement for holiday advertisers seeking to drive both awareness and conversions.

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Further Reading

Introducing Performance Max Ads

As Google TV grows, you may wonder if it’s worth adding to your brand or client’s advertising strategy. Before making a decision, it’s important to weigh the benefits of incorporating Google TV into your advertising mix.

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What is The Best YouTube Advertising Strategy for The Christmas Season

A well-rounded Christmas marketing strategy involves a combination of creative approaches, targeted ad formats, and real-time optimizations to deliver the best possible return. Here’s how to refine your YouTube advertising strategy for your holiday ads this 2024:

Real-Time Optimization with Expert Support

• You must make quick adjustments based on real-time data to stay competitive with your Christmas advertising strategy. Partnering with a specialized YouTube ads agency like Strike Social, allows you to free up your time as our team optimizes campaigns 24/7, ensuring your ads perform at their best throughout the holiday season.
• YouTube CTV ads tend to have higher engagement rates and cost efficiency, as evidenced by our data showing a 6% increase in view rates compared to 2023 benchmarks. By working with a YouTube CTV agency, you can reduce your CPV by up to 18%, improving the overall cost-effectiveness of your Christmas campaigns.

Spreading Holiday Joy with YouTube Ads

A successful YouTube campaign when advertising for Christmas involves optimal timing, placements, and creative strategies. All those combined with the help of an expert YouTube ads agency can bring out the biggest smiles to your brand’s viewers and stakeholders just as Q4 ends and Q5 draws near. 

For expert planning and support in executing a winning YouTube Christmas advertising strategy, get in touch with our team today. We’ll help you with a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech solutions to help you through your 2024 holiday ads to a prosperous beginning for 2025.

The post Planning a Winning YouTube Christmas Advertising Strategy appeared first on Strike Social.

The Beginner’s Guide to YouTube Ads

Aside from the usual video content, one thing that’s probably more common is the amount of YouTube ads you see. While they may seem interruptive to some viewers, these ads actually introduce audiences to your brand and can even encourage them to visit your website or watch your ads in full. With an average of 48 minutes spent daily by users on the YouTube app, there are multiple ways to reach them across various formats and ad types.

Learn the basics of YouTube advertising, from targeting strategies to optimization techniques, to see how this platform can help you get your brand out there.

YouTube Ads Explained

As part of the Google ecosystem, YouTube has more reach than ever, with ads appearing not only on the YouTube app but also on YouTube TV and across the Google Display Network (GDN). 

If you’re familiar with YouTube ads at a surface level, we’ll guide you through every aspect of utilizing YouTube as an advertising platform for your business.

What Are YouTube Ads?

YouTube ads are video or animated ads that promote a brand through engaging content on YouTube and across Google’s Display Network. They can introduce audiences to your products, highlight services, or feature current promotions in a way that captures attention and drives action. 

When done right, a well-crafted YouTube ad strategy can reach up to 11 million views, achieve 2,000 conversions, and deliver as much as 7x ROAS.

YouTube Advertising Formats, Specs, and Safe Zones

YouTube offers a variety of ad formats that help you reach audiences across different screens and contexts. Whether you want to make a quick impact or engage viewers with a longer story, here’s a breakdown of the main YouTube ad formats:

• In-stream ads
  • YouTube in-stream ads play before, during, or after a YouTube video, often aligning with the viewer’s current video content or viewing habits.
  • Types of in-stream ads on YouTube:
    • Skippable In-Stream Ads
    • Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
    • Bumper Ads
• In-feed ads
  • When browsing through the app or related videos of the current video you are watching, YouTube in-feed ads are inserted as you scroll through. These may auto-play without sound as viewers scroll, encouraging them to stop and engage.
  • Types of YouTube in-feed ads:
    • YouTube app in-feed
    • YouTube watch feed
    • Masthead ads (by reservation only)
• YouTube Shorts ads
  • Ads on YouTube Shorts appear in between videos as you scroll through the Shorts feed. For example, while enjoying a quick video on a new dance trend, an ad might pop up as you swipe to the next clip, offering a brief interlude before you continue browsing more Shorts content.
• Outstream ads
  • Your ads can reach audiences beyond YouTube through “outstream” placements on Google Video Partners (GVP) and the Google Display Network (GDN). These ads are shown on both mobile devices and desktops, allowing you to engage viewers who may not be actively browsing the YouTube app.
• Other formats
  • Mid-roll ads: Shown within videos longer than 8 minutes.
  • Back-to-back ads/ad pods: Two consecutive ads shown before or during a video.

The YouTube ad specs vary based on your campaign objectives and chosen formats. Whether targeting placements within the YouTube app or looking to advertise on YouTube TV and Google TV, ads can appear in either 16:9 or 9:16 formats. 

Here’s a quick overview of the essential YouTube ad video specs and technical requirements:

• File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
  • Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
  • Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
• Resolution:
  • 1080p (Full HD)
    • Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal), 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
  • 720p (Standard HD)
    • Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal), 720 x 1280px (vertical)
  • SD
    • 640 x 480px (horizontal), 480 x 640px (vertical)
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio:
  • Horizontal — 16:9 (HD), 4:3 (SD)
  • Vertical — 9:16 (HD), 2:3 (SD)
• Maximum file size: 1GB to ≤256 GB
• Length: Best video length for YouTube ads is between 12 seconds to 3 minutes
  • 6 seconds (YouTube bumper ads)
  • <60 seconds (YouTube Shorts)
  • 15-20 seconds (up to 30 seconds for YouTube TV ads) (non-skippable in-stream)
  • No max length for in-feed and skippable YouTube ads

* For optimal quality, we recommend using HD resolutions whenever possible (vs. SD).

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Further Reading

The Complete List of YouTube Ad Specs

If you’re looking for non-skippable YouTube ads specs, in-stream, or YouTube Shorts video requirements, you can find them all in this comprehensive blog. See the detailed requirements on video length, resolution, file format, and aspect ratios to ensure your ads meet YouTube’s guidelines.

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When complying with the YouTube ad sizes, take note that your entire ad might not be fully visible. Both the YouTube app and YouTube TV interface feature elements like the Skip Ad button and engagement options (like, share), which can obscure portions of your video.

To help with this, we’ve created YouTube ad safe zone guides to show you where to avoid placing text or CTAs, ensuring your ad remains fully visible within the safe zone.

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Further Reading

Safe Zone Guide for Vertical Video Ads

As a YouTube advertiser, the Shorts placement must already be on your radar. Don’t limit your vertical video ads to just one platform—find the optimal safe zones to promote across other short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

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Types of YouTube Advertising Campaigns

With a wide range of options for both organic and paid marketing on YouTube, it’s essential to choose the right type of paid ad campaign that aligns with your specific goals.

No matter your video advertising objective, there’s a YouTube ad campaign type designed to help you succeed—here’s a breakdown of your options:

Video Reach Campaigns (VRC)

• By its name, VRC is perfect for Awareness and Reach objectives. In addition to broad visibility across the YouTube app, VRC now also allows advertisers to extend their reach to Google TV and YouTube TV channels. Available YouTube ad formats for VRC include in-stream (bumper and skippable), in-feed, and Shorts. 
• VRC campaign types:
  • Efficient reach
  • Non-skippable reach
  • Target frequency
• With on-point creatives, precise targeting, and the right social media advertising agency, Strike Social’s 2024 data shows a 41% lower CPM for VRC than YouTube Trueview.

Video View Campaigns (VVC)

• Designed to maximize views, Video View Campaigns uses Google’s AI to strategically place YouTube ads where they are most likely to be watched and engaged. Placements include in-stream (skippable ads), in-feed, and YouTube Shorts feed.
• Since its launch in Q3 2023, VVC has shown significant cost efficiency, with our campaigns demonstrating up to 56% savings.
• For brands looking to tell their story through YouTube video advertising, our data on Video View Campaigns show great view-through rates (VTR), particularly on Connected TV and mobile devices, where audience engagement and viewer retention are highest.

Video Action Campaigns (VAC)

• Video advertising on the YouTube platform prompts viewers to take action by purchasing, visiting the website, or subscribing to a service. Video Action Campaigns (VAC) can be used to promote YouTube shopping ads through your Google Product Feed or generate leads and sign-ups from engaged viewers.
• VAC will be upgraded to Demand Gen by Q2 2025, and we recommend that advertisers begin transitioning early to take full advantage of the enhanced capabilities it will offer.

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Further Reading

Video View Campaigns vs. Video Action Campaigns

Is VVC or VAC the right choice for your brand? Each campaign type offers unique advantages, and choosing the right one depends on your brand’s specific goals. Explore the benefits of each to determine which YouTube ad campaign best suits your objectives.

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Performance Max

• Another way to promote through YouTube ads and expand across the Google Search Network, Gmail, Display Network, and Discover channels is to use Performance Max campaigns (commonly known as PMax). 
• Previously, Google PMax ads have caused some turmoil with brand safety and ad suitability due to appearing on unauthorized websites and YouTube Kids videos. It takes scrutiny and making sure ad placements are visible to make sure you are fully aware of when and where your PMax campaigns show up. 
• Since then, significant improvements have been made to enhance transparency for YouTube advertisers. During the Google Marketing Live 2024 announcements, it was announced that YouTube placements and exclusions will now be visible to brands running Performance Max campaigns.
• Moreover, YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, has been enhancing the AI capabilities of PMax ads. This includes innovations such as a text-to-image model for creative assets and ‘page-specific assets’ that help better align ads with placement websites and improve engagement with audiences.
  

YouTube Ad Placements

When advertising on YouTube, you can be seen on more than just the mobile app or the website itself. Your YouTube video ads can conquer everything from small smartphones to bigger Connected TV screens. 

Here in our YouTube ads guide, we show you the platforms and placements available for your YouTube campaigns:

• YouTube app: Users can download the YouTube app from their smartphones, tablets, or desktop devices. The same ad placements when users visit the YouTube website across their devices. 
• Connected TV: Yes, your YouTube paid ads can also appear on TV! Through Connected TV advertising, you can tap into an audience of over 300 million monthly users. CTV ads have proven highly effective, with some campaigns achieving up to 65% video ad completion, even with skippable ads.
  • YouTube TV: YouTube TV is a subscription-based service that provides live television channels and content such as shows, sports, and events. It currently boasts over 8 million subscribers and continues to grow. Yet another way to reach audiences on YouTube TV is through Pause Ads, which allows your ads to appear on viewers’ screens while they pause content.
  • Google TV: Similar to YouTube TV, Google TV is also a streaming platform accessible through devices like Chromecast, smart TVs, mobile devices, or the new Google TV Streamer. As of September 2024, Google TV’s network already offers 150 channels, with more to come.
• Google video partners (GVP): Google video partners are trusted, high-quality websites and apps where your YouTube ads can be displayed outside of the YouTube platform. Partnering with Google has advantages, as YouTube can use Google’s inventory to get more video views and impressions even when the intended audience is not using YouTube itself.

What You Need to Know Before Launching Your YouTube Ad Campaigns

As we move forward in this YouTube advertising guide, it may seem that running ads on YouTube sounds easy. But before anything else, you must iron out your YouTube ad strategy before going to Ads Manager to start running your campaigns.

Audience Targeting

YouTube ad targeting can take many forms: device, location, gender, age, interests, etc. There are two primary audience segments within Google Ads where you can define your target audience for YouTube campaigns:

• Audience: Targeting the who, when, where, and what—gender, age, parental status, household income*, interests, locations
  • In simpler terms, YouTube audience targeting is simply targeting your target market. With a potential audience base of 238 million unique users in the US, the key here is being specific about who you want your YouTube ads to be viewed by.
  • For instance, an HVAC brand trying to take advantage of the demographic’s interest in sports using YouTube Custom Intent audiences can effectively acquire 11 million views through its campaign despite being a non-sports-related brand.

*Targeting by household income (HHI) is only available in Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States.

• Content: Targeting the YouTube content your audiences are engaged with—keywords and topics they are searching for, devices and platforms they are browsing or seeing content on
  • YouTube contextual targeting allows your video ads to appear on your chosen relevant content so it blends better with the user’s viewing experience. 
  • For example, during a holiday advertising campaign, retail brands can target shoppers looking for product reviews. YouTube is the top social media platform for researching holiday purchases, and 76% of shoppers say product review videos help them make better purchases. Contextual ad targeting is the way to go to make sure you get into audiences’ YouTube screens. 
  • In this example, a gaming brand can select these options under Topics so their YouTube ads can appear within these contexts and related videos:

The key is refining the scope of your audience to ensure you are paying for impressions and views from engaged audiences only, but not so narrowly that you inflate costs or harm campaign performance.

To find out how you can analyze and take advantage of each YouTube ad targeting method, here’s a quick guide:

Optimizing YouTube Ads Cost

YouTube advertising costs will vary based on numerous factors, but the hard part is ensuring you’re only paying for engaged views while keeping your budget under control.

How to optimize the cost of ads on YouTube?

• Know the prevailing YouTube ad costs by industry
  • According to our Q3 YouTube Ad Benchmarks Report, costs in industries such as finance and travel have been 13% and 9% lower than in Q3 2023, despite the busy holiday season and the U.S. elections.
• Continuous monitoring and optimizations
  • Launching your YouTube video ads is not a one-and-done process. It needs to be checked constantly to ensure that your ads are delivering and that costs are not going over.
  • For video reach or awareness campaigns, keep CPM costs in check. For campaigns with Views objectives, watch CPV and YouTube ad view rates closely.
• Utilize optimal creatives and YouTube ad placements
  • As YouTube evolved with its advertising enhancements, advertisers must adapt as well. Skippable YouTube ads leveraging on reach are doing really well on Connected TV placements, outperforming mobile and other devices by 10-20% based on our 2024 Q1 report. 
  • Depending on the cost and performance of your YouTube ads during your campaign flight, study the data for the best insights to make an informed decision on how you can lean on better costs by utilizing your outperforming creatives and placements.

Performance and Cost Benchmarks

Along with setting your goals for what you want to achieve with your YouTube ads, such as views or conversions, you should set a criterion for the range to which you want your campaign results to match or even exceed. 

Using our successful campaigns on YouTube advertising, here are the key YouTube ad metrics to set your sights on:

• YouTube ad cost benchmarks
  • Cost Per Mille (CPM): $5.70 to $12.36 ¹; $2.87 to $8.02 ⁴
    • CPM for CTV Skippable Ads: $7.39 to $10.01 ⁵ 
    • CPM for CTV Non-Skippable Ads: $4.74 to $7.09 ⁵ 
  • Cost Per View (CPV): $0.01 to $0.03 ²
    • CPM for CTV Skippable Ads: $0.0128 to $0.0220 ⁵ 
  • Cost Per Click (CPC): $0.34 and $1.42 ³
• YouTube ad views and performance benchmarks
  • Click-through Rate (CTR): 0.07% to 0.17% ¹; 0.11% to 1.22% ³; 0.01% to 0.11% ⁴
  • View Rate (VR): 43% to 57% ²

¹ Based on 2023 US YouTube TrueView InStream Non-skippable Campaigns
² Based on 2023 US YouTube TrueView InStream Skippable Campaigns
³ Based on 2023 US Video Action Campaigns
⁴ Based on 2023 US YouTube Bumper Ads
⁵ Based on Connected TV ad rates, 2024 US YouTube TrueView Ads Campaigns

Brand Safety and Suitability in YouTube Advertising

Even major brands with YouTube video ads can be criticized if they are displayed with inappropriate, unsuitable content that gives the brand a negative perspective. Thus, ad suitability and brand safety on YouTube are key to making sure your ads are shown with related content and away from the explicit content that may be lurking within the platform.

What brand safety features does YouTube have?

• YouTube inventory types: Choose from expanded, standard, or limited inventory. The recommended setting is “Standard”. “Expanded” extends your reach across more inventory, while “Limited” ensures your ads avoid more suggestive or explicit content.
• Third-party brand safety technology: With the help of carefully vetted third-party providers, YouTube continues to develop brand safety measures to maintain integrity in impressions and views generated through YouTube ads. These providers include Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, VuePlanner, and more.

How to ensure YouTube ad suitability with my campaigns?

• The difference between brand safety and brand suitability is that the latter focuses more on aligning your brand values with your target audience to strengthen the connection. Brand safety starts the process, and ad suitability fortifies it.
• YouTube has developed many tools for content suitability, which include the following:
  • Negative keywords
  • Topic exclusions
  • Category exclusions
  • Trending negative keywords
  • Video and channel placement exclusion
  • Content theme exclusions
• One key concern is appearing on YouTube Kids videos, as these are primarily viewed by children who do not have purchasing power. This means that clicks or views from these videos do not contribute to YouTube ads’ ROI. Ad suitability is achieved by excluding Kids channel placements and reallocating these views to more relevant audiences who can make a purchase or remember your ad for future decisions.

Step-by-step Guide to Publishing Your YouTube Campaign

Feel like you have everything you need and are ready to start video advertising on YouTube? Here are the basic steps to follow:

1. Set up your Google Ads account. You can use your existing Gmail account or use your business account. If you need to add access for your social media advertising manager or media buyer, you can do so by adding and editing Google Ads users to allow your team to help you manage your ads.