A successful YouTube campaign starts with understanding your audience. Create buyer personas that you can use to build a profile of the people who are most likely to respond to your videos. This information will inform your bid strategy, targeting settings and video creative.

Then, How YouTube ads function that works well with your message and budget. Skippable in-stream ads—sometimes referred to as pre-roll—play before, during, or after a video on YouTube and across Google Display Network (GDN). These ads are 15 seconds long and are viewable only by people who are already watching a video on YouTube. You only pay for the ad if it’s watched in its entirety, so it makes sense to include a call to action (CTA) that encourages viewers to click on your website or take another desired action.

Understanding Functionality: How YouTube Ads Work

Non-skippable in-stream ads—sometimes referred as mid-roll or post-roll—are 15 to 20 seconds long and are inserted into videos that are 10 minutes or longer. This is a great place to include a high-impact, hard-selling CTA.

Overlay ads—sometimes referred to as banners—are image or text ads that appear in the lower 20% of a video window. These ads are a good complement to other video ad types, and they can lead people out of YouTube onto your website or social media channels.