How can you advertise on YouTube?

How to advertise on YouTube? Let's get into it. In Episode 54 of Inside Google Ads, host Jyll Saskin Gales discusses the ins and outs of YouTube as a powerful tool in Google Ads, addressing common questions about video campaigns, including how to effectively use in-feed ads and leverage your ecommerce product catalog.

Key Takeaways include:

• YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.
• YouTube serves as a database of intent and interest data.
• Video campaigns in Google Ads require selecting a campaign subtype.
• In-feed ads can be used for brand awareness and mid-funnel engagement.
• Skippable video ads can be linked with product catalogs through Google Merchant Center.
• Ad creative is crucial in capturing viewer attention in the first few seconds.
• Automation in Google Ads can lead to better performance.
• Conversion tracking is essential for achieving CPA goals.

Tune in to Inside Google Ads Episode 54 now for your YouTube Ads 101 crash course with Google Ads Coach Jyll Saskin Gales!

You can get episode transcripts delivered to your inbox each week by signing up for free at https://free.jyll.ca/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode54

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Transcript

You probably know that Google is the world's largest search engine, but do you You probably know that Google is the world's largest search engine, but do you know what the second largest is? 

It's YouTube. 

We often loop YouTube in with the social media platforms in our brains, thinking of it as analogous to Instagram or TikTok, and it kind of is. I mean, Shorts is a TikTok knockoff, but YouTube is the database of intent just as much as Google Search is. And that combination, powerful intent data and powerful interest data, makes YouTube a vastly underrated tool in your Google Ads arsenal. 

Let's change that right now. I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you. 

This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 54: Video.

Our first question comes from Shaiq Habib on YouTube and they say, I'm interested in running a Video ad campaign on Google Ads. I tried it but the campaign was not spending at all on YouTube Search or YouTube Video Network. Is there any way we can make a campaign specifically for YouTube ads? 

Yes.

Just like in a Search campaign, you can turn “search partners” on or off. In most YouTube campaign types, you can turn “video partners” on or off. And I usually recommend turning them off.

By the way, that's why they're technically called video campaigns in Google Ads and not YouTube campaigns, because they don't only serve on YouTube. But me and many people out there, we just call them YouTube ads or YouTube campaigns. 

Now, Video campaigns in Google Ads are unique from other campaign types because you need to choose a campaign subtype before you can create your campaign. These subtypes are always changing, but as of right now, your choices are video views, efficient reach, target frequency, non-skippable reach, ad sequence, and audio. 

There used to be another subtype called drive conversions, and understandably, it was really popular. Don't we all want to drive conversions? But it had two major restrictions and I think that's what Shaiq was referring to here. 

First, you could only use audience targeting with drive conversions campaigns, not content targeting. And second, you could not opt out of video partners.

Now, as I said, drive conversions Video campaigns are gone. Video campaigns now are exclusively for reach and engagement objectives. So if you want to run video ads on a conversion objective, you can do that in a Demand Gen campaign.

That means you still have audience targeting, no content targeting, but in Demand Gen, you can opt out of video partners now. 

Woohoo!

And you also get access to cool things in Demand Gen, like Lookalike segments, Discover inventory, image and video ads together, et cetera. Episode 32 of this podcast was all about Demand Gen campaigns, by the way, if you need a refresher.

Coming back to Shaiq's question, is there any way we can make a campaign specifically for YouTube ads? 

Yes. Create a new campaign, choose video, and then choose any video campaign subtype. In the campaign settings, you want to make sure you uncheck the box for “video partners,” which will keep your ads running exclusively on YouTube. For most use cases, you're going to want to go with a video views campaign.

Now, if you want me to show you how to set up a video views campaign from start to finish, or what the key differences are between all those different subtypes, then yes, we cover that in my membership course Inside Google Ads. In fact, all of my Video campaign lessons were just updated for 2025 because that's one of the benefits of membership - you know you're getting the latest and greatest Google Ads training from me because I consistently update it as the platform changes, which is like, all the time.

Right now is the perfect time to join Inside Google Ads, the course, because it is your last chance to join at the current price. I'm not going to say the price out loud since these podcast episodes live on for years and years, but as of March 1st, 2025, I will be increasing both the monthly and annual membership price for new members only. So if you want to lock in today's pricing forever, this month is your last chance. Join Inside Google Ads at learn.jyll.ca. That's J-Y-L-L dot C-A or follow the link in the episode description.

Our second question comes from Jordan Brunelle on LinkedIn, and he asks, what's your typical use case for In-feed brand awareness? 

First of all, what is In-feed? In-feed is a YouTube placement that supports video ads, image ads, and carousel ads. Unlike your skippable in-stream ad, which is the one we think of when we think of YouTube ads, you know, just hovering, waiting to press that skip ad button at the six-second mark… yeah, In-feed is different.

In-feed is an ad type that uses the thumbnail of your video and then presents your video ad as an option for the user to watch next, either on the YouTube homepage as a recommendation, in YouTube Search results, or as the watch next recommendations after the user completes a video. 

Image ads can also run In-feed, but our focus right now is video In-feed. Someone will be presented with your video ad as an option to watch. And if they click to watch it and the video loads successfully for them, you're charged for a view and you get a highly engaged viewer for your ad.

So to Jordan's question, how can you use this? 

Let's first look at where you can use this. In-feed is a placement for just two video campaign subtypes, video views and efficient reach. Think of efficient reach as your brand awareness campaign type, since the goal is to get as wide a reach as possible, efficiently as possible; efficient reach. And think of video views as your mid-funnel, engagement focused campaign type, since the goal is to get as many views as possible as efficiently as possible. This tells us our use cases right there. 

You can use In-feed for brand awareness as long as you have a very appealing thumbnail, because unlike a skippable ad, someone has to actually choose to watch by clicking on your thumbnail to watch your video.

You can also use In-feed for mid-funnel consideration, which is how I usually think about In-feed. In-market segments, custom interests, custom search terms, YouTube placements, that kind of very specific audience and content targeting.

And then in Demand Gen rather than a Video campaign, you can also use In-feed for a click or conversion objective, perhaps targeting a remarketing segment.

Have you noticed yet that Video campaigns and Google Ads have a whole other set of jargon? Skippable in-stream, In-feed, bumper, Shorts, Target CPM, Target CPV… yeah. Whoever designed the Video campaign strategy for Google definitely did not have user friendliness in mind. That's why I have a YouTube Ads cheat sheet exclusively for Inside Google Ads course members. Just one more of the many benefits you get when you join.

And fun fact, this cheat sheet has actually been through four different versions since I first launched it in 2022, because this stuff changes multiple times a year. And of course, I update my cheat sheets and my lessons for you every time that happens. Join Inside Google Ads today at learn.jyll.ca, that's J-Y-L-L dot C-A, or follow the link in the episode description.

Our final question today comes from phaniindra on YouTube, and they ask how to run a skippable video ad with a product catalog? 

If you want a skippable video ad, you can do that with any of the following video campaign subtypes: 

• Video views
• Efficient reach
• Target frequency
• Ad sequence

Okay, those are your choices. And then within one of those, if you want to add your product catalog, you first need to have a product catalog, which means a product feed in Google Merchant Center. Google Merchant Center must be linked to your store to have that product feed, and then Google Merchant Center must also be linked to your Google Ads account. And then when you set up your Video campaign, in the step where you choose all your campaign settings but before creating an ad group, you'll choose your budget, locations, languages, et cetera, and then there's an option called “product feed.” Expand that option, select your product feed, and there you go. You can run skippable video ads with your product catalog.

About 8 minutes ago, I said that YouTube is a vastly underrated tool in your Google Ads arsenal, and we were going to change that right now. I hope you walk away from this Inside Google Ads episode with new ideas, inspiration, and understanding of how you can make YouTube an effective part of your Google Ads strategy. 

Today's Insider Challenge is this, and it's a little different than our usual Insider Challenge. Over the next few days, I want you to NOT skip the next three video ads you see on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok, wherever you consume video content. And I want you to pay attention to two things for me. 

First, the ad creative. What happens in the first two seconds? What happens in the first six seconds? How does the creative try to grab your attention? And does it successfully keep your attention through the first 30 seconds or so? 

Second, the targeting. Why do you think you got this ad? How might the ad have been targeted to you?

This is the best way to start to acclimate ourselves to running video ads. It's to start paying attention to the ads that are served to us so we can see what we like, what we don't like, and get inspiration for our own ad strategies.

It is kind of like how you never notice strollers until you're going to have a baby and then you notice strollers everywhere. Start paying attention to video ads around you so you can use those learnings to inform your own ad strategies.

As always, the beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real life Google Ads problem solving. Or in today's case, stretch your brain on real life video ads analysis. 

Last Episode's Challenge was this. You're auditing a Google Ads account that uses Broad Match keywords. The Search Terms Report shows mostly relevant stuff, but more than 50% of the budget is going to other search terms, which you can't see. Performance is good from a volume perspective, but not as efficient as your client would like. They want their CPAs to be about 20% lower than they are now. What steps might you take to try to achieve that?

Now, I will be a broken record on this: Automation is end game.

And what I mean by that here is if we can get Broad Match working well for us, that is a thousand times better than reverting to Exact Match, applying a negative keyword script, and fighting tooth and nail to rein in this beast, all right?

So that's the mentality I'm going to take here. Broad Match is close to doing the job well. Visible search terms are mostly relevant. We're getting good volume. And we need to be about 20% more efficient. So I'm going to laundry list a whole bunch of things I would look into / try.

Let's start from the ground up. Conversion tracking. Do we have accurate conversion tracking? Are we hitting 30 conversions in 30 days in the campaign? If not, let's test micro-conversions to feed the Smart Bidding more data. 

Which brings us to Smart Bidding. Since our goal is CPA based, are we using Target CPA? How does our target relate to actual performance? What does Search Impression Share look like at the current bid and budget levels? 

Which brings us to budget. Do we have sufficient budget? I've seen quite a few Google Ads accounts where the solution to a performance challenge like this is simply raising the budget. And I know we make so much fun of Google for always asking us to raise the budget. Is raising the budget always the answer? No. But in a situation like this where we're close to achieving our goal? Yeah, campaigns that are limited by budget cannot perform as well as campaigns that aren't. So if we are limited, raising the budget could actually help improve our CPA. 

Structure. Are we oversegmented into too many ad groups? Do we have a lot of keyword duplication going on? We're using Broad Match. We don't actually need that many different keywords to ensure query coverage. 

Ad copy. Because better ad copy means a higher click through rate, which means better Quality Score, which means lower CPCs, which means lower CPA. I would probably spend more time on ad copy than on negative keyword lists because again, I want to address the root cause of the problem, not play whack-a-mole.

But then, negative keywords, we have a whole bunch of non-visible search terms and negative keywords will impact those. So is there something we're missing from a negative keyword perspective? 

From this whole laundry list, I will say that the most important components in my opinion are the ones I said first, conversion tracking, Target CPA bidding and budget. If we have those in place, and it's possible to hit our CPA goals, we will hit our CPA goals. And if it's not possible, then it's not possible and we need to adjust the offer, landing page optimization, et cetera. 

What about you? What would you do to try to bring down CPA in this Broad Match campaign?

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.