Tips for creating effective video ads

In-stream video ads allow you to insert your ad into the beginning or middle of other video content. While this method is a great branding medium, it often has lower conversion rates than other online formats. Here are a few suggestions for ways to get the most out of your campaign:

• Direct traffic from your ads to your brand's YouTube channel or website with additional video content. By continuing a customer's video experience, you're more likely to get more viewer engagement.
• Make sure that your landing page is relevant to the content of your ad. For YouTube landing pages, consider directing customers to a page or brand channel tagged with a Google Ads remarketing code to increase your brand exposure and how often your message is shown to viewers.
• Have a clear call-to-action within your ad, and select colours and fonts to match your brand.
• Avoid using keyword targeting for your campaign, as this could significantly limit how often your ads are shown.

Make sure the video that you create for your ad is engaging. Remember, you don't have a captive audience because viewers can skip a video after 5 seconds. To keep viewers' attention during the video, try these tips:

• Keep your video short and sweet. Deliver your most important messages early in the video, in case viewers stop watching before it's over. Play rates drop off significantly after 45 seconds.
• Be clear about what your business offers, since the video may be your sole communication with a site's viewers.
• Provide clear next steps for customers to take after finishing the video. That could be making a purchase, or visiting your website or shop.

Before creating your promotion, make sure that you review YouTube's advertising policies. You should feature engaging content with a real story. A video that is just an advertisement is less likely to keep viewers happy and coming back for more.

• Avoid using general themes in your ad text and focus instead on why a person who sees your promotion should click it and watch the content that you're featuring. For example: what kind of language is used in a film trailer versus an advert on television? Film trailers use taglines and scripts that encourage the audience to be intrigued by a story and to follow up to see more. Try to encourage people to learn or see more through your video instead of heavily pitching the sale of a product or service.
• Choosing relevant keywords and promotion text can help you get your video content in front of interested viewers for a reasonable price. It's a good idea to test different keywords and promotion text in order to reach your goals.
• If you want people to perform an action, have them perform an action that's possible on YouTube, such as: 'Subscribe', 'Watch', 'Record a Video Response' or "Comment".
• Do some market research to see what people are saying about related content. Have a look at comments for similar videos and channel pages.
• Use YouTube Analytics to see which parts of videos keep your viewers most engaged. This can help you come up with more ideas.

When you create your in-feed video ad, you'll see a number of video stills or 'thumbnail images' to choose from. These stills are the first thing that YouTube users see before they click your promotion. Choose the video still that highlights your content best. You can also try to match this image to the content in your promotional text or keywords.

For example, if your video features someone surfing, choose the video still that actually has this moment captured. When you create your promotional text and choose your keywords, you should mention surfing. That way, you'll have a well-packaged promotion that makes sense to anyone who searches for surfing-related videos, sees your corresponding promotion and clicks it to watch your surfing video.