Playbook for Creative Advertising

Extend your visibility. Create an ad, set your budget, and use promotional tools to reach customers looking for you as well as people who might not have found you otherwise. Use search ads, display banners, and video units to increase your brand’s consideration and drive sales.

Measure the moments that matter. Look beyond impressions and views to find out if people intend to buy your product after seeing your video. Get feedback from surveys and search data to find out how your brand is being perceived within days, so you can optimize mid-flight.

Manage your channel on the go. Interact with your community, change details on the fly, and see how your videos are doing—all from your phone.

Get help from the pros. Spend $150 advertising on YouTube and we’ll hook you up with an in-person professional to help you write a script, shoot and edit your video, and upload it to your channel when it’s done.

Connect with YouTube Creators. Find, hire, and collaborate with stars and influencers who are in tune with your brand goals and the tone of your messaging. Create videos that will help you build buzz and grow your audience.

Understand your audience. Find out how people are reacting to—and interacting with—your videos. Break down complex data sets into digestible portions, and create reports that tell you exactly what you want to know about your video’s performance.

The complete picture. Use these tools in conjunction for a better understanding of who, exactly, is watching your videos—and how they found them. Get deep insights into your audience with surveys, data management tools, and more.

Find out what people really think—fast. Choose your target audience, ask questions, and watch the answers roll in within hours. Use real-time insights to help you make decisions on the fly.

What’s trending on YouTube? Subscribe to this newsletter and get a weekly digest of the videos everyone’s watching, along with an ads leaderboard, top trending videos by month and region, and deeper dives into marketing insights.

Put Google research and insights to work for you. Find articles that spark your creativity and in-depth analyses of everything from digital campaigns to consumer behavior. Stay up-to-date on trends and learn how to use planning tools.

Are people searching for your brand and products? Gauge the behaviors of your audience with search data over time. Drill down to specific regions for a closer look and compare search terms side-by-side.

Your channel’s pulse. Monitor the performance of your videos with up-to-date reports to help you organize a ton of data. Find out who’s watching what, and for how long.

Connect with the right people. Use Google's affinity audiences to reach users who are passionate about a certain topic and in-market audiences to reach users with specific purchase intent. Put your own data to work with Customer Match, Similar Audiences, or Remarketing.

Say it in six seconds. Capture short attention spans and mobile viewers with quick, snackable ads to keep your message top-of-mind.

Advertise among the top 5% of YouTube’s most popular channels. Choose a lineup that helps you connect with your target audience—Beauty and Fashion, Entertainment and Pop Culture, Foods and Recipes, and more—and reach your customers where they’re most engaged.

Give your brand the star treatment. Feature your video on the homepage of the world's #1 video site on both desktop and mobile. Create a custom interactive display or make a video masthead.

Integrate your message. YouTube’s massive reach can get your product in front of the millions of viewers who subscribe to top channels. Own exclusive share-of-voice media and reach a massive built-in audience.

Target your audience and pay per click. Ads for your videos appear alongside other videos, in YouTube search pages, or websites on the Google Display Network. You only pay if a viewer chooses to watch.

Define your audience with ads. They appear before or during a video on YouTube, and viewers have five seconds to decide to watch or skip. You only pay if people keep watching for at least 30 seconds or until the end of the ad—whichever comes first.

Give your audience an active role. Tell an immersive story with 360° video or virtual reality content that brings viewers inside your world and gives them the tools to move around and control the experience. Take it to the next level with Google Cardboard or a device enabled with Google Daydream.

Feed your target audience. Bite’s the quick-hit messaging, Snack’s the traditional ad length, and Meal’s the kind of long-form content that’s not possible on TV.

Make effective ads with four key concepts (ABCD): Attract by opening with impact, Brand by integrating your product effectively, Connect through emotions and storytelling, and Direct by giving people clear CTAs.

Serve up the right mix of content. Hero videos are your brand’s “go big” moments. Hub videos are multi-part pieces of content designed to keep your audience coming back. Help videos are evergreen and designed to answer questions your consumers are asking.

Give your audience a reason to watch and share your content. Create videos that help people learn, foster deep connections, and create a sense of community. And don’t forget to be entertaining. 

Engage your audience in real time. Host a high-quality event from your desktop or go live from anywhere. Get people talking with a chat running alongside your livestream, and keep an eye on your viewership during the event in the Live Control Room and afterward in YouTube Analytics.

Don’t let go of the people you’ve reached. Use TrueView ads to stay connected with people who have watched your ads, browsed your channel, or visited your website.

Orchestrate big moments for maximum impact. Tease your product launch with quick-hit videos, Amplify with your hero content, and Echo with bumpers to keep the conversation going. 

Tap into video’s unique capabilities. Combine sight, sound, and motion in a way that benefits Watchtime, Audibility, Viewability, and Engaged users.

Expand your brand’s reach and influence. Collaborate with a YouTube creator whose audience overlaps with your target, build a proposal, and decide on a distribution plan to get your video seen.