This article discusses the cost of YouTube ads. Whether you’re budgeting or attempting to get a high return on investment, initial costs are the main factor in determining whether you’ll complete it.
We’ll analyze the cost of YouTube ads, what determines them, and all of the different ads you can use for your campaigns. In this post, we’re focusing on YouTube ads cost from an advertiser’s point of view.
YouTube ads have an average cost-per-view of $0.010 – $0.030, and the views that you generate will count towards your overall YouTube viewer count.
The average cost of reaching 100,000 viewers is around $2,000.
Now let’s break it down by the different types of YouTube ads and see how they vary.
These Are the 6 Different Types of YouTube Ads
Now that you know YouTube is a viable option for advertising, let’s discuss the ad options. Whether it’s an overlay or a non-skippable ad, many can be tailored to the right campaign.
1. Sponsored cards
These display information that might be relevant to your videos. Advertisers can run ads to feature products that appear in videos.
This previews the product for a few seconds, promoting better engagement.
2. Bumper ads
These ads only last up to six seconds usually used when you want to deliver a short, memorable message to potential customers. They are set up to create brand awareness and extend reach. Bumper ads are direct, and communicate the company’s message more efficiently.
You pay for bumper ads by cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Therefore, you pay for a bumper ad each time your ad receives 1,000 impressions.
3. Long, non-skippable ads
Source: YouTube
These ads can last more than 30 seconds, with no option to be skipped.
4. Skippable ads
Source: YouTube
Unlike non-skippable ads, these ads can be skipped. The videos normally only last for a few seconds, so the key is getting to the point quickly.
You only pay for those skippable videos that viewers watch for 30 seconds or more (unless your ad is shorter than that). So, you do not have to worry about paying for all those people who skip through your video as soon as they can.
5. Overlay ads
What’s cool about these ads is that they are translucent, and are used as an overlay on a video. They appear on the lower 20% of the video, and viewers have the option to close them.
These ads are significant ways to drive traffic to your own YouTube channel or website. For this to work on your YouTube channel, you first need to populate it with engaging, and entertaining videos. You would also want to create a compelling welcome video to encourage people to stay the moment they clicked through to your channel.
6. Display ads
Source: YouTube
These ads usually appear to the right of the featured video, over the video suggestions list. While they can be less popular with advertisers because they do not encroach on the videos people watch, they can still generate positive results for your advertising campaign.
Usually, you could end up paying a rate as low as 3 cents per view for videos promoted in this ad format. However, it is ideal to create videos that meet the needs of the searchers and then promote them with display ads.
By further classification, the video ads are sometimes called TrueView video ads. YouTube has recently simplified their ad naming and they have been split into TrueView in-stream ads and TrueView video discovery ads.
As the name suggests, the in-stream ads are those that appear as part of videos, i.e., the skippable and non-skippable video ads, and bumper ads. On the other hand, the video discovery ads, as the name suggests, are those ads that you use to help people discover your videos, mainly display and overlay ads.
To ascertain your billing, while you pay for a TrueView in-stream ad when your ad is watches at least 30 seconds (unless it is shorter), you pay for a TrueView video discovery ad when your ad thumbnail is clicked.
By assessment and observation, the most popular ad is the Skippable video ad. Although non-skippable ads may seem lucrative to advertisers, they are unpopular with users or viewers.
What Influences YouTube Prices?
Ad pricing varies, as there is no set amount creators are charged based on the types of advertisements selected for a campaign. In fact, these following factors impact the price of YouTube ads:
- Ad type
- Your bid
- The bidding selection
- Your targeting options
Each campaign and type of ad will be different. You’re in control of the costs you’re willing based upon your budget.
Tips on How to Bid on YouTube Campaigns
Since you are not given any set price for advertising on YouTube, to the level on your YouTube ads costs, there is the need to bid on ad placement. Here are a few important tips to note.
- You set yourself a daily budget of what you are prepared to pay for your YouTube advertising. Most businesses allow at least $10 per day for their YouTube advertising campaigns, and then raise this once they have experimented with various options. You only pay when somebody engages with your ad in some way. Perhaps they watch your skippable ad for 30 seconds, or they click on a Call to Action on a display ad.
- Ensure that you do your targeting before you set your bidding options. The bidding suggestions that YouTube makes change as you alter your targeting.
- In most cases, bid by cost-per-view (CPV). This means that you are willing to pay up to your bid figure for each view (of 30 seconds or longer).
- Set a maximum figure you are willing to pay per day. This ensures that you do not receive any nasty surprises should you find that more people watch your ads than you anticipated.
- If you click on “Customize Bids Per Format,” you can split your bids separately for “In-Display” or “In-stream”. If you are more interested in “In-stream” advertising, bid more for this statistics than you do for “In-Display.”
- YouTube gives you a projection of your predicted views/day for in-search, in-display, and in-stream. If these numbers do not match your intentions, you need to go back to your bids and adjust accordingly. It will give you a predicted average CPV.
Optimize Your Campaigns
It’s important to not concern yourself so much with how much YouTube ads cost. Instead, consider how you’re optimizing the ads. The best way is to look at the different ads and adapt them to perform better as results become clear.
Make sure to do the necessary research and review the campaign statistics to understand the information being presented.
Source: YouTube
Reviewing your campaign statistics and understanding their implications is key in the optimization of your YouTube campaign. While there are many stats to consider during the review, the most important stats are the View Rate and the Click-through Rate of your ads. These stats show whether people find your ads engaging enough, and whether they are performing well as a campaign.
In cases where your ad is underperforming due to
- ads not engaging and compelling
- lack of exposure
There’s need to revamp your videos to make more compelling contents. Alternatively, you could employ services of suitable influencers to work with, allowing them to create compelling content that highlights your product.
Because opposition companies have outbid you for the best advertising positions, you could experiment by bidding higher, and then observing how your ads perform with a higher exposure.
How Do YouTube Costs Compare to Other Platforms?
YouTube has a huge following, with over 1.5 million daily logins. It’s always worth tapping into the platform’s worldwide audience to gain exposure. Many of these users engage with videos for more than an hour per day.
YouTube is second to Google when it comes to search use.
Advertisers must predetermine campaign budgets to see how they fit into the various types of video advertisements. When it comes to YouTube advertising and bidding, the highest bidder is normally accepted and can run their campaign in the way that’s desired.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know that the official cost of YouTube ads relies on a variety of factors, how do you feel about using the platform for your advertising needs? We find that YouTube instantly grants access to many people looking for new target markets, plus it extends brand awareness and reach.
Let us know how you decide to use YouTube ads. We find that controlling the cost and bidding for the right slot gives advertisers a chance to invest more wisely and establish a positive return on investment.
