YouTube Video ads were formally known as in-stream and they are practically ads that are booked based on a reservation and appear on YouTube channel pages that have featured videos or on watch page videos. The ads can run on mobile apps, game consoles, YouTube desktop, or even on YouTube players that are embedded on some other websites. Advertisers provide the video ad and can include a banner to appear on the side if the video is seen on a desktop PC.
Nowadays, YouTube video ads are very popular because of the importance of video for online branding and how efficient they can be to promote businesses, products, and services.
YouTube Video Ads – Types
Video ads on YouTube can appear when:
- The user starts to play the video – Pre-roll
- At various points during the video – Mid-roll
- After the video is over – Post-roll
The ads can be non-skippable or skippable. They can also be served as a video hosted on YouTube (The recommended version) or through a video hosted on a third-party website.
Skippable YouTube Video Ads
The viewer is allowed to skip the ad after 5 seconds passed. If the ad is not skipped, it will increment in view count after 30 seconds or after it was completely watched (the limit for video duration is 12 seconds).
Non-Skippable YouTube Video Ads
In this case, the video cannot skip the ad. These videos will not increment YouTube view count and can be a maximum of fifteen seconds long, except in Singapore, EMEA, Mexico, Malaysia, and India, where the video can be 20 seconds long.
What Makes Up The Video Ad?
- Skip button – Can only appear on skippable ads and the Skip Button activates after 5 seconds.
- Channel engagement panel – Only relevant for site-served ads that are hosted on YouTube. This automatically pulls information in regards to the channel that hosts the ad, like channel icon, video name, and channel name. This is meant to boost channel engagement.
- Companion banner – This is only for site-served options. They are optional banner ads that will appear on the page where the YouTube ad is served, in the top right corner. As long as the content video runs, the banner is displayed and it will remain while the user stays on the page. Users can click on the banners whenever they want. The banner does not appear in embedded players, on mobile devices, on game consoles, or on connected TVs.
- 300X250 companion banner – This is auto-generated when the companion created image is not provided and the ad is run through a hosted video that is public. In this case, there will be a video wall companion that will be generated. This banner includes data about the channel that is hosting the ad, including channel name, icon, a link to the site of the advertiser, and thumbnails for the most recent 3 videos uploaded.
Are These Ads Effective?
Video marketing is nowadays much more effective than what many believe. It is very important to understand the fact that video is the type of content that is the best option available for basically all online marketing campaigns run these days.
YouTube stands out as the most popular video-based website on the internet. It is visited by over 30 million people every single day. These are statistics that simply cannot be neglected.
On the whole, we can say that YouTube video ads are very effective and should be seriously considered whenever creating a digital marketing campaign. Obviously, this is only true in the event that the video ad created is very good and that it is offering value to the viewer.
