How to promote your YouTube video with Google Ads

How can you effectively promote your YouTube videos or even increase your YouTube subscriber count legitimately, without breaking the bank? In episode 78 of the Inside Google Ads podcast, host Jyll Saskin Gales welcomes Cory Henke, founder and CEO of Variable Media, to explore powerful and surprisingly affordable strategies for YouTube promotion using Google Ads.

Cory and Jyll dive into a recent test she conducted with her own money, comparing YouTube's built-in "Promote" feature with different Google Ads Demand Gen campaign setups. The results were quite astonishing, revealing incredibly low CPMs and subscriber acquisition costs. They discuss the nuances of each approach, why certain methods yield better results, and how to interpret the data to make informed decisions for your own YouTube ads strategy. Jyll and Cory also touch on key considerations like the quality of subscribers, the impact on organic reach, and aligning your campaign objectives with your overall business goals.

Whether you're an aspiring creator, a business looking to expand your reach on YouTube, or a Google Ads practitioner, this episode offers invaluable insights into maximizing your video promotions.

Key topics discussed in this episode:
- Understanding the "Promote" feature within YouTube Studio and how it utilizes Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns.
- A head-to-head comparison of YouTube promotions, Demand Gen with optimized targeting, and Demand Gen with custom segments.
- Analyzing cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) and cost per subscriber across different campaign types.
- The role of view rate and its relationship to subscriber acquisition.
- Considering the long-term value of subscribers versus immediate website clicks.
- Advice for businesses and Google Ads practitioners looking to get started with YouTube advertising.

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Read more about this topic on Jyll's Google Ads Blog
- YouTube In-Feed Ads: A Complete Guide for Beginners: https://learn.jyll.ca/blog/youtube-in-feed-ads-a-complete-guide-for-beginners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode78
- Video Advertising Trends Now: A Comprehensive Guide: https://learn.jyll.ca/blog/video-advertising-trends?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode78
- All About Demand Gen Campaigns in Google Ads: https://learn.jyll.ca/blog/all-about-demand-gen-campaigns-in-google-ads?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode78

Find Jyll on social media
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Transcript

If you want to learn how to promote your YouTube videos using Google Ads, or even how to buy YouTube subscribers legitimately, you have come to the right place.

In this episode, I welcome the founder and CEO of Variable Media, Cory Henke, to join me so we can share all of the different ways you can promote your videos, get views, gain subscribers, and it's actually way cheaper than you think.

Now, why are we even talking about this today? It's a little different from what we usually do here on the Inside Google Ads podcast. When I was at the SMX Advanced conference in Boston last month, I had the opportunity to hang out with my friend, Cory Henke. Cory and I have been interviewed on podcasts together, speak at the same conferences, write for the same publications. He's spoken at my PPC Zone event and, of course, been a guest for my Inside Google Ads members.

And whenever I see Cory speak, I learn something new. For example, at HeroConf last year, he spoke about the in-feed placement on YouTube. I've spoken about that on the podcast. And then he came on to my Inside Google Ads course to give a nice in-depth tutorial for my members.

Now, I saw him mention something about YouTube and specifically how you can get really cheap reach by essentially boosting a YouTube video rather than running a Google Ads campaign.

I was skeptical, I was intrigued, I knew I had to test it out.

In this conversation, Cory and I will share with you what your different options are to promote your YouTube videos through YouTube promotions or Google Ads. Then we're going to share the actual results of a test I ran with my own money.

And finally, we'll recommend when you may or may not want to use this and how to test it properly.

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 78: Promote Your YouTube Video.

Jyll: So when I saw Cory again at SMX Advanced in Boston, he shared some really interesting tips and insights as he always does. And immediately before you were even off the stage, Cory, I formulated in my mind a test I was gonna run and then went and started spending my money to run this test, which we're gonna talk about today. So before we dive into the test, I would love for you to share just a little bit, obviously we don't have a full 30-minutes for the amazing insights you shared at SMX Advanced, but specifically what you shared about YouTube promotions and this sort of hack you found there.

Cory: We always got to start on where this kind of started from. And I believe the first platform that allowed the spending and the boosting of media was Facebook. Being able to use an organic ad and put ad spend behind it, was a very interesting and special tool. And so in understanding it for Meta, I thought, hey, you know, like, why not test this out on YouTube. And while we could always take a YouTube video that was on the YouTube channel and put money behind it inside the Google Ads user interface, what I found was different. This time for YouTube was the fact that you were able to actually press the promotion button from inside of YouTube Studio and that was new, but also I’ve seen this before but it was really just a test that I wanted to try based on the experience and the success that I've seen on a different platform, which was Meta. And based on the initial results across, I'd say 10 plus clients, it is something that is a part of, a lot of our clients and their growth, especially in the last like two to three months. 

I don't have a six month window to really look at this, but I think the initial results I am very happy with and I will continue to test it. And I think now is the right time to test this just based on how many people are really taking YouTube seriously, the amount of volume that gets uploaded, and the pricing that's available on this platform. I think we're hitting the right time in terms of brands, influencers, and anybody that wants to really succeed on YouTube or succeed with their brand. YouTube is a very, I think, ripe place to drive performance and see success.

Jyll: It absolutely is. I know earlier this year you were a guest for my Inside Google Ads course members. You shared a lot of your in-platform tips for those who want to check that out at learn.jyll.ca. But with this YouTube promotion specifically, you shared that you were able to get super cheap CPMs and really cheap subscribers. And so when I ran a test with my own money, I found the same thing. By running a YouTube promotion for a little over a week, I was able to get subscribers for a dollar per subscriber which is I think a CPA of a dollar. And again, these are all real signed-in YouTube users. And my CPMs were $3. Now I don't advertise on Meta, but what kind of CPMs can you expect on Meta these days, Cory? What do you sort of see?

Cory: I'd say 3 times. You know, you're an average of about like $15 CPM if you want to run a traffic campaign, which is not necessarily a conversion campaign, you're looking towards maybe $10, if you want to run a conversion campaign that is roughly around $18, and if you're selling something expensive, like a bed upwards of like $30. Right. But even in talking about CPMs, as you know, it's not necessarily as accurate as the cost per reach, which gets even higher, something like Meta to $60 or $70, which I think, becomes very inefficient. Whereas YouTube frequencies are low, CPMs are low, cost per reach is low, and so there is an awesome opportunity to reach a new audience that could love your brand, service or product.

Jyll: Absolutely. And so when you set up a YouTube promotion within YouTube Studio, what actually happens behind the scenes is that Google Ads creates a Demand Gen campaign on optimized targeting. And it's interesting because when I created my YouTube channel, I did it from my personal Gmail account. It didn't connect to my existing Google Ads account. Without me seeing anything, it automatically created a brand new Google Ads account from my personal Gmail. When I went in, it looks like it's empty. But then you go over to the report editor for campaign performance and all of a sudden, you see these Demand Gen campaigns. And you see all these stats. And thankfully, they do match the stats you see in the YouTube interface. Though there are some other things you see as well. So I'm going to just put my stats up on screen now for those who are watching rather than listening. And I'd love for us to go through these together.

When I set up my test, there were three different things I wanted to test here based on what you had shared, Cory. So first was running a YouTube promotion. I chose a video, which was an Inside Google Ads podcast episode about Target CPA that had done pretty well organically. Then I also set up a Demand Gen campaign on optimized targeting. So trying to basically do what YouTube was doing automatically on my own to see if there was any difference. And then the third thing I did is what I would typically do if I were advertising one of my videos. I did a Demand Gen campaign with that video, but I created a custom segment of what I consider to be a very high value audience. So this custom segment was people who had searched for things like “learn Google Ads,” “Google Ads course,” “Google Ads training,” et cetera. And I ran this at the same time with the same creative across all three to try to do a fair head to head test. 

What I found here was quite astonishing. So even just starting from an impression perspective, my Demand Gen campaign with the custom segment was less than a thousand impressions. I spent $52 for less than a thousand impressions. They were $70 CPMs, which, it's expensive. 

Whereas the Demand Gen on optimized targeting and the YouTube promotion each got tens of thousands of impressions, and a $3 CPM. And that was what I found so interesting is whether I let YouTube run it or whether I created it myself. Creating my own Demand Gen campaign, CPM was basically the same, $3 CPMs. Does that surprise you as well or is that something you would have expected or that you've seen?

Cory: I think this is so new. I love the fact that you're showing your data and then we get to evaluate it. This is where our experience comes into play. And so, when we look at this, it's like, are you surprised? No, I'm not surprised that the way this human made system works, right? Like I'm going to charge you the most for a custom segment where you're trying to dial in, and then I'm going to charge you a lot less for something that, it's a little bit more broad in terms of what you're trying to reach. And this is why, like I've always said, CPM is one of my most important and most valuable metrics because it's the beginning. What are you paying for a thousand impressions? Now, a $70 CPM or a $100 CPM or a thousand dollars CPM might not be bad. If it comes with a level of intent and a click through rate and a conversion rate that matches. And in this case, it doesn't. So, when you're paying a $70 CPM, it's something that might be in something like Search or like an “add to cart” audience inside Facebook, where there's some level of like, you know, that this person is completely like in-market. And I think for this test it didn't have a lot of history or a lot of understanding. And so it almost charged that high rate based on an audience, not based on like history or a confirmation of some level of intent like an “added to cart.” So that's what I also find interesting. then when you look at optimized targeting versus YouTube promotion and begin to see that, your cost per subscriber was 50% lower, for the YouTube promotion. That stands out.

Jyll: Just for the benefit of those listening or reading. For the YouTube promotion, I got 35 subscribers at a $1 cost per subscriber. For the Demand Gen Optimized Targeting, which theoretically should be the same thing, I got 24 subscribers for $2.19 cost per subscriber. So still quite cheap, but twice as much as the YouTube promotion. And then for my Demand Gen Customs segment, ouch, I got 2 whole subscribers, $26 per subscriber. So not terribly valuable for me. 

And what's interesting is when you look at the behind the scenes Demand Gen reporting, you can also see clicks, click through rate and CPC. Like these aren't things YouTube will tell you, but obviously a Demand Gen Campaign has these things. And so when I set it up, I had to put a final URL. So I just put my coaching landing page just to see. And it wasn't just about subscribers. With the Demand Gen custom segment, one person chose to click on my ad and go through. For Optimized targeting, I ended up getting 25 clicks to my website. So about $2 CPC on optimized targeting, $52 CPC on custom segment. 

Again, not the goal of the campaign, but really interesting to see regardless that I thought I knew who my best audience was by choosing this very specific thing. But Google's optimized targeting where we're optimizing for subscribers seemed to know better, as shown by just a much higher engagement rate. Like with the YouTube promotion, almost half of the people who watch my video chose to subscribe. That is incredibly high. But I will admit, Cory, when I see something that high, my hackles go up a little bit. I'm sort of like, well, are they just showing my ads to people who subscribe? Is that what's going on here? I don't know. What do you think?

Cory: I think it's so, so, so fascinating because that is the ultimate question. Of these 35 subscribers that came through YouTube promotion, how many of those stay is the YouTube promotion actually quality, right? What if those two custom segment subscribers actually become paid members, right?

That's the most interesting part. But I think you can also look at it the other way where it's just like, no, the CPMs are so cheap and the reach is so important to a brand like yours, which is still, you know, very young. That's most important. It's something that I've always called the double dip. It’s like I want the CPM low, I want the click through rate high, I want the CPC low, and I also want all the conversions. You want all of it.

And I think it's tough to evaluate the quality of a subscriber. But I think the most interesting data point that I see here is the conversion rate between that custom segment and the Demand Gen optimized targeting. At 9.5% and 13.3%, it's not that far off.

The 13.3% versus 43% is completely far so it's a pretty big chunk. But what I think is the bigger impact is the CPM. Why would I pay such a high CPM for this type of targeting? And this is where I think Demand Gen as a product is going to run into some interesting analysis. Should I be paying $80 CPMs, $40 CPMs inside of Demand Gen? Maybe I can do that inside of PMax where I know it's more down the funnel, where I know it's more of a demand capture of product. But with Demand Gen, maybe I should be between the $10 and $15 CPM range. Maybe that makes the most sense. I think every brand has to figure this out.

But I think this is the beauty of what you were talking about at the conference. The beauty of the test is I'm gonna test this in three different areas and we're gonna figure it out. I love that, I love that. And I think we got a real good understanding of what's going on with very minimal dollars. So again, kudos to you for testing this. I think so many people that are watching this should potentially take the same route.

Jyll: I think so too. Now, one more thing is that before I heard you speaking the gospel of YouTube promotion, the last gospel I always heard you talk about is the gospel of in-feed and how much you love the in-feed placement in YouTube. And so just to clarify for those who aren't familiar, in-feed is the placement where YouTube is recommending a video for you to watch. It's the thumbnail and you have to choose to watch it. And so something else that I didn't quite realize until I ran this test is that with the YouTube promotion it only ran as in-feed. There was no In-stream and then my video wasn't shorts. 

With my Demand Gen optimized targeting it could have done either. It chose to put it all into in-feed where I know as you've talked about Cory CPMs are way lower with the Demand Gen custom segment. Most of it was also an in-feed, but it did play a little bit of In-stream as well. A little bit of that pre roll and it's interesting that the view rate which tells us a combination of how well our audience is targeted and then how well the beginning of our video, you know, or the thumbnail engages them. For my custom segment, I had a 36% in-stream view rate, which I would consider good, and a 1.8% in-feed view rate, which I would consider average to above average. For the Demand Gen, optimized targeting, about a 1% view rate in-feed, which is okay. The YouTube promotion was lower, 0.7%. So like, fewer people did choose to watch it on the YouTube promotion versus Demand Gen optimized targeting, which again, these should be the same thing. There has to be something different under the hood here because these are both the same campaign type with the same creative and the same targeting. And yet they get these very different results.

Cory: The view rate is so interesting. It's so interesting because you're almost telling the system like, hey, I want subscribers, right? But then we're evaluating a view rate as if like, does it really matter? You really matter. I mean, if I really want subscribers, do I want them like really viewing my content and maybe not subscribing or viewing my content for a very little time and then going to subscribe. And this is kind of like the conundrum I've always had with YouTube with brands where when I talk to them, like, can't believe in YouTube. I'm not seeing the conversions. How do I know it's working? And it's like, well, what do you want? Do you want somebody to come to your website for 35 seconds or watch your video for six minutes? What do you think is more important to you? You know, like at the end of the day. And so I think every brand has to figure out what is most important. 

I've always tried to look at the YouTube subscribers of something that was special. It's a sign of health of a brand. Nobody just becomes a subscriber unless they're serious. I'll watch any video content that you push out there. I think that's a pretty big statement. I usually find sometimes with brands that have like a little bit lower view rates or a little bit lower completion rates. The click through rates are usually higher. Sometimes you end up seeing conversions. And so there is this difference of If I really want subscribers in that month, that's my focus. I got to give the view rate. It's kind of like, okay, they might not be staying with the video as long, right? I think maybe I might look at the view rate more of like a creative test, more of like an intro, variation test, like what is causing somebody to stay through, even though this data is so good to see, especially at the in-feed comparison across like all three, because the lower the view rate, the better the cost per subscriber is, and that is so interesting. Well, I think the tough part is quality. I keep looking at those two that came from the custom segment. And I wish I knew which of those two those were.

Jyll: Raise your hands if… you know I'm joking. They wouldn't know, right? Everyone was served the same ad.

Cory: That'd be great. Raise your hand if you came from the custom segment. 

Jyll: But what you said about the YouTube subscribers, I would rather have someone watch a YouTube video of mine for six minutes than be on my website for 30 seconds. And I've been in business for about four and a half years now. And a really big change I've noticed in my business over the last year is virtually all of my coaching clients now tell me that they came to me from YouTube, from my podcast, which I post on YouTube, or that ChatGPT recommended my podcast or my YouTube, and that's how they came to me. So even though I have like 60,000 TikTok subscribers, 15,000 LinkedIn followers, and 4,000 YouTube subscribers. You know, YouTube is what really drives the money of my business, at least from a coaching perspective. And as a Google Ads coach, that's my main business. 

So that's also what I find really interesting about this is I built this custom segment around what I thought was the right audience. But you know what? Maybe someone searching “Learn Google Ads,” “Google Ads Course,” “Google Ads Training,” et cetera, on YouTube is looking for a free video, which I do offer. And that's actually not what my ideal Google Ads coaching client or ideal Inside Google Ads course member would search for. And the optimized targeting kind of picks up on that a little better. Who's likely to be interested in my content? I don't know.

Cory: It gets into an interesting space. What this is reminding me of is that if we look at one of their biggest competitors that is Meta and you look at the objectives that they provide, conversion, traffic, video views, engagement and reach. If you want engagement, you can go pick the engagement audience. You just want clicks, high click through rate, people to your website, should pick the traffic audience. And we're starting to see the same thing now where we can pick a conversion audience. We can pick the conversion we want, right? We can also pick this audience or a subscriber audience. I think the scary thing about this is what if the YouTube promotion is targeting people that just like to subscribe, but maybe do not want to view. So does it become just something that I'm paying for in terms of the vanity metric? I don't know.

Jyll: Now to some people that might be worth it, like if you're brand new to YouTube and you're like, look, I just want to get, you know, 5,000 subscribers to juice things up, go for it. And after this, I'm like, I would bet a good amount of my money. There are people out there juicing this because look, there's opportunities and brand deals and cache and most influential and all this stuff that comes with that. I get if you can buy subscribers for $1, why wouldn't you, if that's something that you really want to achieve is inflating that subscriber number.

Cory: Yeah. And you know, always one of the biggest questions when it comes to doing these types of tactics, specifically YouTube promotion that I get from every influencer and every channel that's got some subscribers next to it is like, wait a second, Cory, if I start paying for YouTube promotion, do they end up cutting my organic? That is the interesting test. I have no way to prove that. Yes or no. I think it's going to take some time to understand it, but that is also like the next thing. You're willing to pay for it. Do they begin to start to say like wait a second. We don't need to give this channel that much organic. I don't know. I don't know

Jyll: I can say with my own experience that looking through this whole test, I spent what like $140 and I got like 60 new YouTube subscribers from it. I finished this test about two weeks ago and my subscriber growth is what it normally is. So I didn't see a follow on impact, but something you mentioned about the objective on Meta, like if you want to engage, middle, find people who engage. If you want clicks, find people's clicks. I'd love to repeat this test instead of trying to get subscribers, trying to get viewers. And I wonder about these metrics, because with a YouTube promotion, you can set it up with the goal of subscribers, video views or website clicks. And I wonder if I did like a YouTube promotion for views, and then a Video campaign, not a Demand Gen campaign, for views, open targeting, and then one with a custom segment again, what that might look like. So we may have to do a sequel at some point when I figure that out. 

But you know, Google Ads is really good at doing what you tell it to do. This is what I always say, your bid strategy tells Google what you want it to do. And so for all of these, the bid strategy was Maximize Conversions where a conversion is the subscriber. So spend my money in order to get me subscribers. And it did that. And yet, I don't know if I'm totally happy with it, even though we did a perfect job. It's sort of the challenge lead gen advertisers face. They get a bunch of leads and they're like, ah, but these are spam, ah, but these are low quality. Well, that's what you told Google to do. It did it.

Cory: Yeah. And I'm having the same conversations with brands where I'm beginning to push this and say, hey, this is a really good opportunity. Let's spend a little money here. And they're like, hey, man, how are these website clicks doing? What is the quality of these? And you go through attribution, through GA4, Shopify. It's still really tough to calculate. But I think the thing that I come back to is that if our CPC on Meta is $1.50, and our CPC on this YouTube promotion is $0.15 I'm getting 10 clicks to your website for every one. And so therefore, I only need two out of the 10 to be quality. And I think that's fair. I'm probably getting about five out of 10, you know, that could be quality. And then when you add on the fact that it's at like a $2 CPM or a $3 CPM in this case versus 15 or 20. The additional reach for your brand, I think is the thing that only rolls over in months, in years of putting out this type of volume. And so it's really a true test for us and a lot of brands are running this. And we are seeing some success and like most things, some success over here, not so much over here, majority in between, but I still think it is an amazing opportunity.

I think we don't have a brand yet that I think is taking YouTube completely seriously, long-form, short-form, everyday uploads - you know, this and that. I'm waiting to work with a brand that really wants to do that. Hopefully my own, you know, that can really take it seriously, push out content, have this strategy added to it to see how fast it can go and how well it can do.

Jyll: Yeah, well, if that sounds like you or a brand you know, you should definitely send them to Cory. You can find him on LinkedIn, Cory Henke, founder and CEO of Variable Media. So Cory, before I let you go back to your family for the day, what advice would you have for either business owners or Google Ads practitioners who have not really played in YouTube? They know this is the year they got to get into YouTube and they want to give this a try. Any advice or tips you have for them?

Cory: I would say, I think it's the same advice I gave you, Jyll. It's just do it, just test it. And I think when you look at the screen and you see what Jyll put together, I think anybody that's willing to test YouTube can put that together and to make this test and to have it work. so that's my biggest thing is to just get out there and test this. Look at the results, evaluate them the way that you did it. I just, I love how perfect it is. So thank you for doing this.

Jyll: Cory, thank you again so much for always sharing the best tips, wisdom, advice, strategies. I really appreciate your perspective here today. Thank you for joining me on Inside Google Ads.

Cory: Thank you. I appreciate your time, Jyll. Thank you for everything you do for the community, for me as well. Have a good one.

If you want to see how to set up and optimize your Video or Demand Gen campaign step by step plus grab my Video campaign cheat sheet, then be sure to join my course Inside Google Ads at learn.jyll.ca. That's JYLL dot ca. You'll also be able to catch a recording with more training from Cory on YouTube ads.

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