How Much Do YouTube Ads Cost

YouTube has become an integral part of the buying process for many shoppers. From product reviews and tutorials to shopping and video extraction, 68% of YouTube users seek out valuable information about the platform before making a purchase decision. There is no better time for brands and businesses to advertise their products and services and attract highly intentional leads on the channel.

Digital strategy can maximize your investment returns due to these main reasons:

• With 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second largest search engine, next only to Google, its parent company.
• YouTube Ads belong to the Google Ads network, so you get access to the latter’s hyper-targeting features. Also, Google feeds information about user activity to YouTube to show more relevant ads to users. For instance, if a person typed “healthy, quarantine meals” on Search and then went to YouTube to watch a video, they could be shown ads related to “healthy quarantine meals.”
• The cost of YouTube ads is generally cheaper than Google pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

 How Much Do YouTube Ads Cost: Five Factors To Consider

 Your Goal

To answer the question “How much do YouTube ads cost?” You must first ask yourself, “What is the specific business goal you want to achieve with this campaign?” To respond, choose one of these default Google Ads options:

• Drive sales
  • Generate leads and conversions
  • Send traffic to your site
  • Boost product or service discovery – great with video!
  • Broaden reach and build awareness

 You also have the option to “Create a campaign without goal targeting”, but this is an advanced setting and is best handled by campaign personalization experts such as a YouTube video marketing company.

Your Budget

 A daily budget of $ 10 is a good starting point for local campaigns. Multiply this amount by the number of days you want to run your campaign. Experts recommend giving it at least two weeks to gain traction before making any changes.

So let’s assume you’re a beginner and want to start with the most basic pricing for YouTube ads. How much does YouTube advertising cost at this stage?

$10 x 14 days (2 weeks) = $140

Which Targeting Methods to Use

Now we come to the exciting part. Strategic targeting helps you reach the right audience, so you don’t want to go too far or too far. Consider the demographic targeting options in the image below.

While checking all items results in a higher impressions volume (e.g., 1.5 billion impressions), it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll hit your business goal, whether it’s product or service consideration or conversion. Impressions refer to the number of times your ad is displayed

Meanwhile, selecting only the demographics that apply to your prospective customers, just like in the image, helps maximize the price of YouTube ads. Your ads will be shown to people who fit your buyer persona

Which Ad Type Is Appropriate

This is one of the most important factors to consider when asked, “How much does it cost to advertise on YouTube?” Find out the type and combination of YouTube ad pricing that works best for your brand in the “5 Ad Types You Should Know and YouTube Video Ad Cost for Each” section below.

1. Skippable In-Stream Ads

These are the ads that roll before, during or after other videos. After five seconds, viewers have the option to skip the ad.

2. Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads

These ads also play before, during or after other videos, but they run for 15 seconds and do not provide viewers with the option to skip it.

3. Video Discovery Ads

Your video’s thumbnail image with text appears next to a related video, the YouTube search results page or the YouTube mobile homepage.

4. Bumper Ads

   This type of ad lasts six seconds. It is non-skippable and shown before, during or after another video.

5. Outstream Ads

Outstream ads are less intrusive in the sense that they start playing without sound and users can choose to unmute them.

Which Bidding Type to Use

When it comes to the cost of YouTube advertising, every dollar counts. That’s why you need to understand how the bidding on the platform works. Typically, as an advertiser, you set bids for specific keywords. Taking into account other targeting characteristics such as location, Google Ads will show your ad to a search engine for a particular keyword. But if other brands bid on the same keyword, Google will show the highest bidder ad.

 

There are several ways to bid on YouTube. The challenge is to choose one that maximizes the cost of YouTube ads. Here are the basics:

• YouTube Advertising Cost per View (CPV): With YouTube cost per view, you pay when someone views or interacts with your ads. A view is counted when a user watches 30 seconds or the whole duration of your video ad (if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or clicks on a call-to-action (CTA) overlay, card and companion banner (Source: Google, 2021).
•  Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): You can set the highest amount you’re willing to pay for your ad to appear 1,000 times on the platform.
• Cost per Action (CPA): This refers to the payment you make when a user clicks on your ad and fulfills a desired action, such as purchasing a product or filling out a form. Like CPV, the average price of YouTube ads in CPA is $0.10 to $0.30.

Reach out to one of our video marketing agency Urban Arts to learn more about and start leveraging YouTube advertising benefits now.