Google Ads – How to Increase Your YouTube Views with Advertising – What is Google Ads & How it Work

How to Increase Your YouTube Views with Advertising

If you’re looking to increase the views of a YouTube video, the best place to advertise your video is on YouTube itself in order to achieve the lowest cost-per-views. Depending on your specific goals, there are different ad types and targeting methods from which to choose.

First, you need to determine your goal – are you looking to drive views among a qualified audience that is likely to engage with your brand or do you want to get the most cost-efficient views in order to increase the view count as much as possible within your budget? Depending on your answer, there are different types of ads that we’d recommend.

Highest Quality Views with TrueView Video Discovery
When quality views are the goal, we recommend an ad type called TrueView video discovery. These ads run on YouTube search results and watch pages, as well as the mobile app homepage. Clicking the ad will deliver users to your video’s watch page on YouTube, where they can then view your video, as well as like, comment and share.

TrueView Video Discovery Ad on Search Page
TrueView Video Discovery Ad on Search Page
We recommend video discovery ads when your goal is to drive quality views since users are actively choosing to click the ad and watch your video. We find that this ad type typically delivers cost-per-views ranging from five cents to as low as one cent.

TrueView Video Discovery Ad on Watch Page
TrueView Video Discovery Ad on Watch Page
YouTube Targeting Options
In order to drive quality views, it is important to reach a relevant audience that will take an interest in your video. YouTube has several targeting options to help you reach the right audience.

Keyword Targeting
Keyword targeting allows you to enter any terms that are relevant to your video, and YouTube’s algorithm will find people who are searching for or watching videos that are related to your keywords. To ensure you’re reaching a qualified audience, avoid keywords that are too broad.

YouTube Channel Targeting
YouTube channel targeting is another effective way to find your audience since you can reach people watching videos on specific YouTube channels that you choose to target. Impressions on these channels aren’t guaranteed, so it’s best to include several channels to ensure your campaign will have enough reach.

Topic Targeting
We also recommend YouTube’s topic targeting when you want to further increase your reach but keep the audience qualified. YouTube has an expansive list of topics to choose from, so chances are there will be a topic that is relevant to your video.

Lowest Cost Views with TrueView In-Stream
When your goal is to boost your YouTube video’s view count without concern for the engagement level of the audience, we recommend an ad type called TrueView in-stream. These ads run on YouTube videos, and viewers can choose to skip the video ad after 5 seconds. If they do not skip the ad, the YouTube video view count will be incremented when the viewer watches 30 seconds of the ad or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds.

TrueView In-Stream
TrueView In-Stream
In-stream ad views are typically much cheaper than video discovery ads; however, the quality of the view can be lower, since your video is being passively served to users, and it’s unknown how engaged viewers are when watching an ad.

In order to get cost-per-views as low as possible, we recommend using broad targeting, with the broadest being everyone on YouTube worldwide. In worldwide campaigns that we’ve managed, we’ve been able to get cost-per-views as low as a fifth of a penny.

In addition to building your channel organically, another way you can reach and engage more viewers is by investing in advertising on YouTube.
Promote your channel with Google Ads. …
Target your audience. …
Make the most of ad formats. …
Create ads that work. …
Apply a relevant strategy.

With marketing, in general, becoming more pay-to-play, you always have the option to get more visibility through paid YouTube ads. YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to choose from:

Display ads: These ads show up on the right-hand sidebar of videos, and are only available on desktop.
Overlay ads: These are semi-transparent ads that are displayed on the bottom part of a video. They’re only available on the desktop.
Skippable and non-skippable video ads: These ads show up before, during, or after a video. Skippable ads can be skipped after five seconds, but non-skippable ads have to be watched all the way through before the viewer can watch their video.
Bumper ads: These are non-skippable ads that have to be watched before the viewer can watch their video. They can be a maximum of six seconds.
Sponsored cards: These are cards that get displayed within relevant videos. You can use them to promote your products or other content.
YouTube’s pre-roll ads are quite literally “must-see”
For your ad creatives, you can either use an existing video or create something new for a specific campaign. The advantage of using an existing video is you can choose a clip you know has been effective in the past. If a video has already gotten a lot of views and engagement organically, running paid ads can amplify your results.

On the flip side, creating a new video for your ads will allow you to create a more targeted piece of content that you have more control over. For instance, you can create an ad with a specific call-to-action at the end to direct viewers to a landing page or another video. You can learn more about YouTube’s video ad formats here.