Video ads
YouTube advertising services
Nobody opens YouTube to watch an ad. You get five seconds before the skip button appears. We write and buy for those five seconds, then follow what viewers do afterwards.
Where YouTube fits in your advertising
YouTube sits between social and search. People watch with the sound on, often on a TV screen, and many of them search Google afterwards for what they saw. It creates demand that shows up later in your search data.
It suits businesses with something worth showing. A procedure explained by the doctor who performs it. A flat filmed from its balcony at sunset. A product in a customer’s hands. It suits nobody as a place to rerun a static banner as a slideshow.
Formats we use, and what each one is for
Skippable in-stream
Plays before or during a video and can be skipped after five seconds. The main format for both reach and conversions.
Bumper ads
Six seconds, no skip. Cheap reach for a single message, usually run beside a longer ad.
Shorts ads
Vertical ads between Shorts. The same edits often run on TikTok and Instagram Reels.
In-feed video
Shown in YouTube search results and next to related videos. The viewer chooses to click, so watch time is high.
Demand Gen
Video and image ads across YouTube, Discover and Gmail, built for conversions, with lookalike audiences seeded from your customer lists.
How we run a YouTube campaign
Write for the first five seconds
Your name, the problem and a reason to keep watching come before the skip button. We cut several openings of the same video and test them.
Build audiences from intent
Custom segments built from terms people searched on Google, plus customer lists and site visitors. Broad topics come later, if at all.
Choose the bidding goal
Reach campaigns pay for impressions. Conversion campaigns bid on leads, and only make sense once qualified leads flow back from the CRM as offline conversions.
Measure what follows
Branded searches, direct visits and bookings in the weeks after viewing, compared with areas or periods where the ads did not run.
What we measure
Hook and view rate
How many viewers got past five seconds, and how many reached the end. It tells you whether the creative holds attention, and nothing more.
Branded search lift
The change in searches for your name where and when ads ran, read from Google Ads and Search Console data.
Cost per qualified lead
For Demand Gen and conversion campaigns, using CRM stages sent back to Google.
Leads and bookings from YouTube
Every lead that arrived from a YouTube click, tied to its campaign in revenue attribution.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need an expensive video?
No. A clear video of the doctor or the founder, filmed on a good phone, often does better than a polished brand film. What decides is the first five seconds and a clear next step. When you need a shoot and edit, our video production team handles it.
Can YouTube ads bring leads directly?
Yes, through Demand Gen or conversion campaigns, though these leads tend to be colder than search leads. We send them to a form that asks a qualifying question and judge them on bookings.
Can we target one city or one language?
Yes. Location, language and device targeting work as they do in Google Ads. Where a market needs both, we run separate ads for French and Arabic speakers.
Are YouTube ads shown on TV screens?
Yes, and you can include or target TV screens as a device. Our page on connected TV advertising explains how we plan and measure those impressions.
How long should a YouTube ad be?
As long as it holds attention. Bumpers are six seconds; skippable ads can run longer, but viewers decide in the first five. We usually produce a short cut and a longer cut of the same message, then let the data choose.
Last updated · By the Napexy team
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