By Moumita Mondal, Senior Paid Media Executive, Launch
The massive potential of video advertising on Youtube
Have you ever used YouTube before? I’m sure the resounding answer to that question would be “yes”. Starting out in 2005, YouTube has established itself as the world’s most loved video platform. After Google, it’s the search engine second with a huge user base of 2.7 billion monthly active users as of May 2025.
In the UK the number of YouTube users is projected to reach 44.38 million in 2025 out of a population of 68.35 million. All this is super impressive right?
Now the big question is, with access to such a vast audience, how you can make the most out of YouTube marketing tools?
It is crucial to understand how digital advertising in one platform is different from another. While YouTube and Google are both search engines, they greatly differ from each other in the type of content they spit out in the search results page and also how users engage with each platform. In this post I’ll walk you through different types of video ad formats on Youtube, and how to craft a Youtube ads strategy which makes the most of them.
The 3 Pillars of Effective YouTube Marketing Strategies
YouTube advertising doesn’t have to be overwhelming for beginners.
Success for marketers comes down to three key pillars:
- Choosing the right ad format for your goals – check in with your performance marketing agency about this and don’t rule out experimentation
- Crafting messaging that engages viewers in those crucial first seconds – make sure that your creative briefs are tailored towards this. Without engaging videos, your chances of maximising on that huge YouTube audience are virtually zero.
- Leveraging Google’s powerful targeting capabilities with solid data – get that marketing measurement
Essentially it’s about combining content, experimentation, media and measurement. At Launch we call this our connected approach to performance marketing, and we use it because it works not just in the short term, but as a strategy for long-term growth.
Now we’ve got the strategic side out of the way, let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts of different ad formats, messaging, and what to do about audience targeting settings.
Youtube Ad Formats
There are various ad formats to suit everyone’s needs and business goals. Let’s take a look:
| Feature | Skippable In Stream video ads | In-Feed | Non-Skippable In Stream YouTube ads | Bumper | Youtube ads – shorts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selling Point | Users can skip so that you can understand attention | Shows to highly engaged users in the discovery and searching phase | Users can’t skip so that they can view your whole message | Quick message that can’t be skipped to raise awareness or reinforce other ads | Shows to highly engaged users in a mobile-optimised experience |
| Where it serves | Youtube Videos, GVP IN-stream*, GVP App* | YouTube Homefeed, YouTube Search | YouTube videos, GVP In-stream*, GVP App* | YouTube videos, GVP In-stream*, GVP App* | Youtube Shorts |
| Max video ad length | No max length (<3 min recommended) | No max length | 15 seconds | 6 seconds | <60 seconds recommended |
| Views reported in Google Ads? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Can increment public view count? | Yes (videos less than 10 seconds will not) | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Can remarket to viewers | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Compatible video campaign types |
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Skippable In Stream ads
We’re all familiar with skippable ads. You’re watching your favourite YouTube content channel and an ad appears which you can skip after five seconds. If you use a Cost Per View (CPV) bid strategy, you’ll only pay when a user watches the full video and not if they skip it. This skippable in stream ad offers a nice opportunity for doing some brand awareness activity which doesn’t cost anything.
The most important thing for marketers to keep in mind is to nail your primary messaging the first five seconds, so that even if someone skips the ad, the brand name is heard loud and clear.
In-Feed Youtube ads
In-feed video ads appear in places of discovery, usually the search results page or next to related videos as a thumbnail with a play button and CTAs. This is where people can click to watch your video or they may click to visit the website, or follow other CTAs. It pays to be strategic with your CTAs and think about the whole user journey – e.g. if they click on a video about a sale, do they land on the sales page of your site?
Non-Skippable In Stream Youtube video ads
As the name suggests, these non skippable ads mean users have to watch them if they want to continue watching video where the ad appears. YouTube is a good medium to show such ads, because users on YouTube are highly engaged with the content they watch and are likely to watch the Youtube ads that appear in their content.
Bumper Youtube video ads
Bumper ads are super short 6 second ads. These ads are not skippable and if used correctly, can be very good for brand awareness. Given their short length, the messaging in bumper ads need to be very specific.
YouTube video ads – shorts
Finally, an ad format for YouTube shorts specifically! This type of video ad shows in the shorts feed between organic short posts. Users may skip the ad by scrolling past but if they scroll up again the ad will still be there, like a part of the natural feed.
You can explore more about ad formats by checking out the details direct from Google via this link.
How to nail the messaging for your Youtube Ad campaigns
So you’re decided on your ad format. Great! Let’s now turn our attention to messaging. Every second counts, quite literally, in a video ad. People are likely not going to have the patience to decipher a long or critical message.
You need to get to the point from the first word. Think about how quickly and clearly you can get the following messaging across:
- What is your business?
- What problem are you solving?
- What is your USP?
You’ll soon realise how difficult it is to fit this in six seconds or ten seconds or fifteen seconds of video content! However, if you get it right, your target audience is much more likely to understand and engage with your brand.
Making relatable creatives for your Youtube ads
You don’t always need to have top-notch, studio executed video content to make the best ads.
On the contrary, ads which feel personal, relatable, and human get higher engagement. It makes sense to craft your video strategy and Youtube strategy around that.
You can also tell a story with a series of video ads which will show to users in a specific order. This kind of quality Youtube video content is great for getting the brand’s story out in the world.
How to master the targeting for your Youtube ads
Now comes the most important part of an effective youtube advertising strategy – the targeting.
The magic of Google Ads is how specific we can get with targeting. Since YouTube is a part of Google and we are essentially creating these ads in your Google ads account, your performance marketing agency can make use of all the incredible audience segments. Starting from demographics, they can add their interests and even their recent life events to make targeting more specific.
Worth mentioning here, data plays a crucial role in targeting as well. The stronger your marketing measurement protocols, the more likely you are to have accurate audience data and for your targeting to hit home. Give your agency as much information about your target audience as you can and they can be razor sharp with the targeting.
A strong data set means your agency can create audience segments from how people have interacted with your website. You could go for recent purchasers, people who have abandoned their carts, or people who purchased from you six months back but haven’t made a purchase since then etc.
We go a long way at Launch to ensure we have incredible data tracking to help you navigate through the complicated world of digital media and reach the right audiences, while also tracking the right conversions and metrics that help your campaigns gain the widest exposure.
A final word on your Youtube ads strategy
A final reminder: authenticity often trumps production value – your audience wants to connect with real, relatable video content.
With 44 million UK users actively engaging on the platform, YouTube presents an incredible opportunity to reach your ideal customers and increase your website traffic.
Start simple, test different approaches, refine your video content and let the data guide your optimisation. Your perfect YouTube ads strategy is just a few campaigns away.
Can we help?
Launch is part of the Google Video Expert Partner Agency programme, meaning our knowledge and expertise of Youtube ads is continuously updated. As Google video partners, our team of paid media experts accept nothing at face value – they’ll be genuinely curious about your business goals and through honest, open collaboration will find new routes to getting there. Get in touch and start a conversation that really matters.
About the author
Mo is a Senior Paid Media Executive with ten years’ of experience in digital marketing. Connect with her on LinkedIn here.