Last Christmas I have been privileged to assist the production of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsRznrnwr8" target="_blank">Christmas music video</a>, together with <a href="http://hanscs.com/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#christmas-video-credits">a bunch of talented people</a>. As the festive season was only a week away, we wanted to reach more people with our YouTube video. Along with continuous promotion on social media, we also tried out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/" target="_blank">Google AdWords for Video</a> with the hope of <strong>gaining online exposure on a short budget</strong> (SGD 40).
<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WEsRznrnwr8" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
<ol>
	<li><a href="/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#how-much-youtube-ad-formats">Introducing YouTube Ad Formats</a></li>
	<li><a href="/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#how-youtube-charges">How Does YouTube Charge for Advertising?</a></li>
	<li><a href="/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#youtube-ad-auction">How Much Does Advertising in YouTube Cost?</a></li>
	<li><a href="/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#setting-up-youtube-ads">Setting Up YouTube Ads / Google AdWords For Video</a></li>
	<li><a href="/digital-marketing/promote-youtube-video-google-adwords#targeting-your-youtube-ads">Targeting Your YouTube Ads</a></li>
</ol>
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<a id="how-much-youtube-ad-formats" name="youtube-ad-formats"></a>
<h2>Introducing YouTube Ad Formats</h2>
If you are an avid YouTube watcher, you must have noticed sometimes YouTube does not directly load the video of your choosing. Instead it presents you with another video — which you can 'Skip' only after a good five seconds have passed. That is a YouTube <em>TrueView in-stream</em> ad. There are two types of video ad formats available in YouTube: <em>TrueView in-stream</em> and <em>TrueView in-display</em>.

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_trueview_in_stream_in_display1.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-44" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_trueview_in_stream_in_display1.jpg" alt="YouTube Ad Trueview In-Stream In-Display Format" width="858" height="545" /></a>
<a id="how-youtube-charges" name="how-youtube-charges"></a>
<h2>How Does YouTube Charge for Advertising?</h2>
YouTube / Google AdWords for video uses a CPV (cost-per-view) model to charge for its advertising. <strong>You pay only when someone decides to view your video</strong>. What counts as a 'view'? For <em>in-stream ad</em>, you will be charged when the user watches 30 seconds or sees the end of the ad. You pay nothing if they don't initiate the video or drop off from the video before the minimum amount of time passes. For an <em>in-display ad</em>, you will be charged after users click — and begin watching your video.
<a id="youtube-ad-auction" name="youtube-ad-auction"></a>
<h2>How Much Does Advertising in YouTube Cost?</h2>
YouTube ads / Google AdWords uses an <strong>ad auction system</strong> to determine the actual CPV (cost-per-view) you need to pay. Each time an ad is eligible to appear for a search, it goes through the ad auction. Think of it as a traditional auction house. After deciding on a target market, you decide the maximum bid amount you are willing to spend for a video view (<strong>max CPV bid</strong>).

<strong>Your competitors are ads which are aiming for the same target market</strong>. They will also input the max CPV bid they are willing to spend. Obviously high-profile target markets will face fiercer competition.

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/google_adwords_auction.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-148" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/google_adwords_auction.jpg" alt="Google AdWords Auction" width="858" height="290" /></a>The system will then assess each ad's max CPV bid and <strong>Quality Score</strong>.

<strong>What is Quality Score?</strong> Quality score is how Google automatically measures effectiveness of the ads you are showing. The more relevant your ad is to your target audience, Google will reward you with higher Quality Score. Quality Score is measured based on your ad's performance, such as View Rate (<em>how many video views you get</em>) and Click-Through Rate (<em>how many clicks you get</em>). <strong>So if your video is cool, your Quality Score will be high</strong>.

<strong>How do you see your ad's Quality Score?</strong> Unfortunately for video ads and ads on Google Display Network, Google does not disclose Quality Score.

Once the system determined your Quality Score, it's multiplied by your max CPV bid to rank your ads among other advertisers. That's called Ad Rank. <strong>The ad with highest Ad Rank wins the auction, and will be shown to the viewer</strong>.

<a id="youtube-ad-auction-overcharge" name="youtube-ad-auction-overcharge"></a><a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/google_adwords_auction2.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-149" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/google_adwords_auction2.jpg" alt="Google AdWords Auction" width="858" height="326" /></a>Sometimes you may be charged cheaper than your max CPV bid, because <strong>the actual CPV you are paying is the minimum sum needed to beat the ad with 2nd highest Ad Rank</strong>.

Your Actual CPV = ( Ad Rank of the ad below you / your Quality Score ) + $0.01

Example: Let's say the maximum bid I am willing to pay is $0.06 per view — if I only needed $0.03 to beat the ad below me, the system will only charge me $0.03 for that view. <strong>So you need not worry about Google overcharging your account if you are bidding too much.</strong>

<strong>The average rate for CPV highly varies based on target market and competition</strong>. For my Christmas video campaign, I targeted people who are searching for Christmas songs in YouTube. For this target market, my average CPV is SGD 0.02 — I am paying 2 cents every time someone watches my video (<em>I found this out after seeing my ad performance report after a week</em>).
<a id="setting-up-youtube-ads" name="setting-up-youtube-ads"></a>
<h2>Setting Up YouTube Ads / Google AdWords For Video</h2>
If you would like to advertise using YouTube ads, you can visit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/" target="_blank">this page</a> and click '<em>Get Started</em>'. Follow the instructions provided on that page.

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-157" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords.jpg" alt="Getting Started with Video Ads AdWords" width="858" height="419" /></a>For my Christmas video campaign, these were the initial settings we started up with:

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords_settings.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-160" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords_settings.jpg" alt="Youtube AdWords Settings" width="858" height="521" /></a>
<table style="margin-bottom: 20px;" width="100%">
<tbody style="vertical-align: top;">
<tr>
<td width="20%"><strong>Campaign Name:</strong></td>
<td width="80%">We set the campaign name to <em>Steffi Vica Xmas video</em>. This will not be shown to public, so you can name it anything.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Budget:</strong></td>
<td>We set the budget to SGD 5 daily.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Delivery Method:</strong></td>
<td>We chose the default option (Standard: Show ads evenly over time).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Networks:</strong></td>
<td>We excluded <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2404190?hl=en" target="_blank">Google Display Network</a> because we wanted the ad to be served on YouTube only. Ticking this will make your ad appear on various Google partner websites as well.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Locations:</strong></td>
<td>We started off with Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United States.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Languages:</strong></td>
<td>We set the languages to English and Indonesian.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Video ad formats:</strong></td>
<td>For the URL, we put in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsRznrnwr8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsRznrnwr8</a>. For the ad format, we kept the default option (Use default video ad formats) with both in-stream and in-display options ticked. Please refer to screenshot below.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/adwords_in-stream_in-display.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-191" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/adwords_in-stream_in-display.jpg" alt="AdWords in-Stream in-Display Settings" width="858" height="862" /></a>For the <em>in-display ad's landing page URL</em>, we used <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/aurallion" target="_blank">our channel page</a>. To greet visitors who visit this page, we also set the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsRznrnwr8" target="_blank">Christmas video</a> to be auto-played as the channel's featured video.

And for <em>in-stream ad's destination URL</em>, we used our channel's subscription link <a href="http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=aurallion" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=aurallion</a>. People clicking on this link will be automatically asked if they want to subscribe to Aurallion YouTube channel. You can use this URL to get your channel's subscription link <strong>http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=<em>[INSERT YOUR CHANNEL USERNAME HERE]</em></strong>

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords_frequency-capping.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-209" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/youtube_ads_adwords_frequency-capping.jpg" alt="YouTube AdWords Ads Frequency Capping" width="858" height="495" /></a>
<table style="margin-bottom: 20px;" width="100%">
<tbody style="vertical-align: top;">
<tr>
<td width="20%"><strong>Mobile bid adj.:</strong></td>
<td width="80%">Increase your mobile bid if you want your ad focus more on phone users. Decrease it if you want to less focus on mobile phone users. I suggest to adjust this later after you received data on your ad performance report, e.g. <em>if your view rate is higher on mobile, you should consider increasing the bid adjustment for mobile.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Ad rotation:</strong></td>
<td>The system will deliver your ad based on which goal you want to optimize - do you want to get more clicks, or would you like more views? For us we wanted to focus on views.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Frequency capping:</strong></td>
<td>We capped the ad impression to only 2 times per week per each unique user, because we wanted the video to reach as many different people as possible before our daily budget ran out. We wouldn't want the video to be served to the same person too many times.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<a id="targeting-your-youtube-ads" name="targeting-your-youtube-ads"></a>
<h2>Targeting Your YouTube Ads</h2>
In the next page, you will be asked to input your CPV bid. You can start using the recommended bid from the system. Don't worry you can amend this anytime later. Also don't worry about <a href="#youtube-ad-auction-overcharge">bidding too much CPV</a>.

Then you will be asked to choose your targeting method. There are many targeting methods to narrow down your <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454017?hl=en" target="_blank">audience targeting</a> (demographics, interests, topics, remarketing, keywords, placements), which you can combine to aim for the particular market you want. For this campaign, <strong>we wanted to target specifically people who are looking for Christmas songs</strong>. So we used keywords targeting to target Christmas-like keywords:

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/christmas_songs_keyword_targeting.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-219" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/christmas_songs_keyword_targeting.jpg" alt="Christmas Songs Keyword Targeting" width="404" height="423" /></a>

Keep in mind that keywords targeting for video by is set to <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2407779?hl=en" target="_blank">broad match</a> (<em>details <a href="https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/AdWords-for-Video/Does-Adwords-for-Video-Accept-Keyword-Match-Types/td-p/261241" target="_blank">here</a></em>). So my ad will be eligible to appear on searches for that phrase, similar phrases, singular or plural forms, misspellings, synonyms, stemmings (such as floor and flooring), related searches, and other relevant variations (e.g. my ad may appear if user searched for <em>Xmas</em> instead of <em>Christmas</em>).

After your ad has been created, the status will automatically be set to <em>Under review</em> until Google team has finished reviewing your ad. This process may take several hours to a day. After approval, your ad will begin running.

<a href="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/adwords_ad_pending.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-225" src="http://hanscs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/adwords_ad_pending.jpg" alt="AdWords Ad Pending" width="858" height="232" /></a>

Our Christmas ad was set to run from 19 December to 26 December 2014, with a budget of SGD 5 daily (total SGD 40). Can you guess how it will perform?

In my next post, I will be posting <strong>some data results and lessons learned from running this campaign</strong>. So, stay tuned!

Do you have any questions or comments? Let's discuss in the comments section.

<hr />

<a id="christmas-video-credits" name="christmas-video-credits"></a><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsRznrnwr8" target="_blank">Video</a> Credits:</strong>
<ol>
	<li>Music arrangement and video production by <a href="http://www.aurallion.com/" target="_blank">Stefanus Wayanartha</a></li>
	<li>Vocals by <a href="https://soundcloud.com/steffi-tanim" target="_blank">Steffi Tanim</a> and Veronica Marcella</li>
	<li>Guitarist and logistics by Hans Christian Sulistio</li>
</ol>