Youtube banners in a PPC strategy

Youtube attracts billions of users ‘ visits eager to consume video content. That’s why this channel is shaping up as a favorite for advertisers to reach their target audience directly.

Thousands of users upload their videos to this platform but, contrary to what many think, it is possible to show ads on YouTube beyond the typical video ad. One of the options that are usually more profitable is by inserting the Youtube banner.

Youtube Banner for Display campaigns

I’m sure you’ve ever surfed Youtube. Either to watch the fashion video, to look for a tutorial or, face, just to watch videos of funny puppies. Well, surely in that journey you have encountered banners on top of the video or on the side of them. Specifically, this type of banners is what we are talking about.

Types of Youtube banners in campaigns

Within the Banners for Youtube we can find different types:

• Standard Banner during video playback: They are the most common and appear in the upper right strip of the video with measures of 300 × 250 or in superimposed format at the bottom of the same with measures of 728 x 90. With this last format you get a great visibility, but its use should be cautious because the user can find it abusive. This type of banners is only seen on computers and is supported in JPG, GIF or HTML5 format.
• Standard Banner on the search page:This type of banners is very similar to the previous. The only difference is that your viewing is not done in the videos but on the search page.
• Standard Mobile Banner:As you know the vast majority of traffic to Youtube comes from mobile devices and, with the two types of banner described above we would only impact users who access the platform from the computer. To be able to access this type of banners and that are visible from mobile devices you only have to activate this option. This will make the banners visible on the home page in the search results. In terms of dimensions there are several formats, the only thing to note is that only accept JPG and static GIFs.

These are the three most popular types of Youtube banners. However, since a few years ago Youtube implemented a new modality focused on giving more visibility to brands, yes, you have to bear in mind that this type of advertising banners is not available to all users for economic reasons, as they need a big initial investment to be able to rent the spaces itself. This type of new banners are known as Masthead, banners with special and enriched formats that offer the advertiser many more possibilities.

Its cost, as we have commented, is high, but ensures direct visibility. Usually the space is rented for days and the price is negotiated directly with the commercials of Youtube. As with standard banners there are several types:

• Masthead for Main Page:It appears on the main page of Youtube, at the top and you can rent the space for 24 hours. Its visibility is only from computers and the format used is 300 x 250 px.
• Expandable Masthead. Similar to the previous one but when passing the mouse the banner is deployed arriving occupying an area of 970 x 500 px.
• Masthead Lite. It is a reduced version of the main Masthead. Its size is 760 x 150 px.

Tips for designing a banner for Youtube

When designing the banner, the first thing to think is what you want to get with it: for example, we may look for visibility in the case of announcing an opening of a new place, or on the contrary, we may want to get clicks to redirect to our website. Once we have clear this, we recommend browsing banners of the competition to catch inspiration (both in design and in copy) and see how they are promoted. Remember that you have little room to get the visitor’s attention, so be straightforward, witty and offer a value for the customer to do the action you want.

There are tools, like the Ad Builder Of SEMrush, that help you to see ads by themes, so get inspiration and see what your competitors are doing in this matter.  In this case the search can be done either by themes or by domain if you want to study what a competitor does in particular.

Choosing the Youtube Audience

Once you have clear the type of banner you are going to do, both in message and in form, it is time to move to analyze the audience of Youtube. This channel gives us multiple ways to segment your ads to really impact your target audience. The variables you should always consider are the following:

• Keywords: the most common thing while doing SEM campaigns is the choice of keywords related to the topic to be advertised. Make a list of words you want the users to find you.
• Topics: Depending on the type of video or the channel, Youtube catalogs the same in themes. For example, if you talk about clothes, Youtube will catalog it as a fashion theme or, if you talk about recipes, like food theme. In this Link You can see some of the best known categories to support you when it comes to capturing your audience.
• Locations: You can choose which channel or videos you want your ad to appear directly. You just have to copy the destination URL and include it in the creation of the ad. It is advisable to do this practice if you have a video or channel that defines perfectly what you want to show in the banner and also has a lot of visits.  
• Audiences: Within audiences we can segment by affinity, intention and remarketing.
• Demographic Data: Finally, you can also define an age range and the sex of the users you want to impact.

Creating the YouTube Banners campaign

Once you have clear creativity and well-defined audience, comes the most automated part, because it is only set the account and create the set of ads that are going to be put into circulation.

Contrary to another type of advertising on Youtube that should be done via video network, if we want to advertise through a banner we will have to raise the campaign as a Display Ad from AdWords.

Finally make sure your campaign is mobile-friendly, as more and more users recognize that they do their searches from mobile devices. This will get more conversion.

Reasons to make a banner for Youtube

In addition to the multiple visitors who receive Youtube on a daily basis, there are many other reasons to make a banner for Youtube and carry out a PPC strategy.

The first one is the possibility of selecting very specific videos to show your ads. YouTube hosts a large number of themes to give taste to virtually all audiences. That’s why it’s very easy to find a video theme that fits perfectly with your company’s values, thus achieving a good contextual and conceptual framework for your PPC strategy.

Another strong point of advertising on Youtube is that overlapping banners are very visible to users. The reason is that they appear above Youtube videos. As against, it is possible that many users feel annoyed with advertising when they are looking for video content, so the ideal is not to abuse much of this type of publicity to not be intrusive.

On the other hand he thinks that users spend half a 40 minutes a day consuming video content on the platform, which is why contact with that target audience is much simpler because of the amount of time they spend navigating this platform.

On a more strategic level, the bids on this channel are more economical, so with a better budget you will be able to reach a part of your wider audience. And, of course, it is worth mentioning that all the actions that are made on YouTube are measurable, so you will be able to know through data IF your PPC strategy on the YouTube banner is being really profitable.

As you see, Youtube opens the door to a world beyond entertainment, a world in which advertisers and visitors can connect forging good business relationships in a more relaxed environment. In short, Youtube will help you to connect in a simpler way with your target audience.

Have you ever tried Youtube banners within your PPC strategy? How was the action? Tell us your experiences in our comments. We’ll be delighted to read you!