How Much Does It Cost To Advertise On YouTube In 2021

YouTube is owned by Google, which means that you use Google AdWords to advertise on YouTube. As with other Google AdWords campaigns, the price of your ad is determined by your bidding for placement. This means that it’s almost impossible to determine exactly how much it costs to advertise on YouTube. 

On average, YouTube ads cost $0.01 to $0.03. The views generated are added to your overall YouTube view count. You can expect to pay around $2000 to reach 100,000 viewers. In this article, we’ll explain more about advertising on YouTube. 

Why Advertise on YouTube? 

On average, YouTube has more than 2 million people logged in each month and those people are watching more than 1 hour of video each day on average. In addition, due to the availability of smart TVs, there has been an increase in YouTube views on televisions. 

Since YouTube is powered by Google AdWords, its no surprise that it’s a favorite platform for advertisers around the world. 

The only problem is, there’s not really a set price rate for YouTube ads. However, this really isn’t different than every other type of online advertising. In general, you bid for space in online advertising, and the highest bidder wins. 

YouTube Ad Formats 

There are several types of ad formats on YouTube, including: 

• Display ads
• Overlay ads
• Skippable ads 
• Non-skippable ads 
• Bumper ads
• Sponsored card ads

TrueView

Video ads are also known as TrueView ads- but recently that has been split into two types: TrueView In-stream and TrueView Discovery.  

In-stream ads appear as part of a video. They are the skippable, non-skippable, and bumper ads. Discovery ads are the ads that help people discover your videos, typically overlay and display ads. 

You pay for an in-stream ad when someone watches at least 30 seconds of it- unless the ad is shorter than that. you pay for the discovery ad when someone clicks on the ad thumbnail. 

The non-skippable ads are most lucrative for advertisers but are quite unpopular with users. The most popular type of ad is the skippable. 

Display Ads 

These are not that popular with advertisers because they don’t interfere with the videos that people are watching. However, you can still get positive results. Since YouTube is the second largest search engine, if you are in a competitive niche, these ads are a great alternative to Google ads. When you promote here, you can pay as little as $0.03 per view. 

Take the time to research the phrases that are commonly used and searched for in your niche and create a video. Then, your ad will appear relevant to those who are searching for that word/phrase. The point is to create videos that meet the needs of your searchers and use display ads to promote them. 

Overlay Ads 

This type of ad is a great way to drive traffic to your channel or website. Of course, if you want this to work on your YouTube channel, you need to add a variety of entertaining videos. Additionally, create a welcome video to encourage people to hang out from the moment they click through to your channel. 

Of course, overlay image ads can be created and set to appear on anyone’s videos.

Skippable Ads 

The only time you pay for a skippable ad is if your viewers watch it for 30 seconds or more- unless it’s shorter than that. You don’t have to worry that you’ll have to pay for those ads that people immediately skip through as soon as they can. 

This does keep your cost down, but you don’t gain any benefit unless people watch your ad and click through to buy the product. Targeting is very important for this type of ad. 

Bumper Ads

If you want to deliver a short message that potential customers will remember, you should try bumper ads. These are 6 seconds or less and get straight to the point. Bumper ads are charged based on CPM, which is cost per 1,000 impressions. Therefore, you pay for the ad every time it reaches 1,000 views. 

Tips for Targeting Your Ads 

For each of your ad campaigns, you’ll see a “Targets” tab. This is a lot like targeting different types of people with AdWords campaigns. The Targets tab is used to narrow down who will see your ad on YouTube. 

Of course, you want to keep your costs down, but you also want to ensure that you get enough clicks to make it worth your time and money. Therefore, you need to make sure that you’re targeting the appropriate people for your products/services. 

The more options you choose, the smaller your target will be. For most target groups, 2-3 options is plenty. You want to think about what keywords your target audience will be using when they search for videos. You want to include positive keywords and avoid negative ones. 

Additionally, consider targeting other demographics. If you only sell your products/services in the USA, there’s no reason to be advertising to the rest of the world- or you might wish to only target countries where English is the primary language. 

Sure, you may have entertaining content, but there’s no reason to show it to people that are not likely to purchase. 

Creating Your Ads 

Businesses often figure out that creating videos is the majority of the cost of YouTube videos. Of course, this depends on the professionalism and sophistication you’re aiming for.

Most people will skip a low quality ad after about 5 seconds. Additionally, low quality videos do not reflect well on your brand. Of course, it really does depend on your target audience’s expectations. You might be able to get away with a $5,000 homemade video, while other brands need to spend $100,000 or more in order to gain attention. 

The more creative your ad, he less likely the viewer will rush to skip it. 

Bidding for Placement 

The cost of your YouTube ads depend on your bids for ad placement. There is no set pricing for advertising on YouTube. Therefore, take the time to decide what you are willing to pay each day for advertising on YouTube. Many businesses allow at least $10 per day and go up from there. Once they have experimented with the various options, they may increase this because you only pay if someone engages with your ad somehow. 

Be sure that you take the time to consider your targets before you start bidding. As you make adjustments to your targeting, the bid suggestions offered by YouTube will change. 

Most of the time, you’ll be bidding based on CPC, or cost per view. This means that you will pay up to your bid figure for each view. A view has to last for at least 30 seconds. You will also set a maximum budget that you’re willing to spend for the day. This will be your insurance against having more people watch your ad than you expected. 

YouTube will provide you with typical bid ranges, depending how tight you have made your targeting. 

Optimizing Your YouTube Campaigns 

When it’s all said and done, your primary concern should not be how much it costs to advertise on YouTube, but what ROI (return on investment) you can expect from your advertising costs. This means that you’ll need to pay attention to your campaigns and make adjustments to them on a regular basis to optimize them. 

The secret to optimizing your YouTube advertising campaign is to review your stats and understand what you are reading. The two most important stats are the View Rate and the Click-Through Rate. These will tell you whether people find your ads interesting and whether they are working or not. 

Often, the issue is that your ads are not powerful enough. Though some businesses will give up at this point and abandon YouTube as an option for marketing, the better option would be to revamp your ads to make them more enticing. Or, you might consider working with some relevant influencers and allow them to create content that brings attention to your products. 

In some cases, it’s lack of exposure. This could be because your competitors have outbid you for the premium advertising positions. You might want to consider bidding a bit higher and then seeing how your ads perform with increased exposure. 

Often, your best results will be obtained when you’re wiling to spend more for advertising on YouTube than your competitors. If you skimp on costs, you may end up hurting your ROI and your overall bottom line.

Conclusion

YouTube is a very popular platform, so it only stands to reason that you’d want to advertise there to reach more people. However, there’s really no clear definition on how much it costs to advertise on YouTube in 2021. Hopefully this article has helped you to understand a bit more about advertising on YouTube and how to maximize your results.