YouTube is the second most popular search engine behind Google and comes with its own ad services. Despite the massive potential, YouTube Ads are often underutilized due to their complexity compared to Google Ads (or Facebook ads, for that matter). But in truth, they’re packed with many benefits and can be used for promoting both your own products as well as affiliate offers.

In this article, we’re showing you how to promote on YouTube, and make money using YouTube Ads.

Introduction to YouTube Ads

Before getting into the YouTube Ads setup, it’s important to first learn about the available types of ads.

There are four types of ads on YouTube:

Skippable in-stream ads

Non-skippable in-stream ads

Video discovery or in-display ads

Non-video ads such as banner ads

Skippable in-stream ads play before or in the middle of watching a YouTube video and users can skip the ads after five seconds.

Non-skippable ads are beneficial for advertisers who want to keep users watching until the end. Advertisers pay by impression for these types of ads (per 1,000 views, for example).

Discovery ads are similar to the ads on Google’s search results pages. They show up among organic search results and send people to the video page or channel.

Non-video ads are best for advertisers on a smaller budget. They show at the sidebar on the right (when watching a video on a desktop) or on top of the video in the form of a banner.

Now let’s have a look at how to set up a YouTube Ads campaign.

How to Set Up a YouTube Ads Campaign

Create a Campaign

Create a Google Ads account and click on “New Campaign”

Select the campaign goal (sales, leads, traffic, brand awareness etc.)

Choose the campaign type (display or video)

For video, select the campaign subtype

Name your campaign

Set Up Campaign Parameters

Start by selecting your bid strategy. YouTube Ads’ default bidding strategy is cost per view (CPW), where you only pay for views (defined as watching an ad for over 30 seconds).

Follow the instructions to set your budget, where to display the ads, the audience language, and safety guidelines.

Target an Audience

It’s best to target your audience by creating a buyer persona of your ideal client.

Define their demographics (age, location, income, gender etc.), interests, and remarketing status (for those who have had previous contact).

Go Live

Start your campaign by clicking the “Create Campaign” button after entering the link to your ad.

For more tips, check out Google’s Ad Creation Guidelines.

Optimize and Scale Your YouTube Advertising

Now that you know how to launch an ad campaign on YouTube, you’ll still want to optimize it.

The key metrics to track include view rates, average CPV, CTR, engagement rates, unique viewers, average impression frequency, subscribers, likes, views, and shares.

The best practice is to review these metrics and test diligently. You can run multiple campaigns and keep the best-performing ones.

After you’ve identified your best-performing ads, you may want to scale up and increase your ad spend. You can keep scaling up to 20% per day.

Re-evaluate if you notice a reduction in clicks or a steep increase in CPAs.

Level Up Your YouTube Ad Campaign

Thanks to YouTube's vast reach and advanced targeting features, it’s a precious resource for marketers - including affiliate marketers. And hopefully, the tips you’ve learned today will help you kickstart a successful YouTube Ad campaign!