Do You Need a YouTube Channel to Run YouTube Ads?

Do you need a YouTube channel to run ads?

You need a channel, but it doesn't need to be active. This is probably the single biggest misconception in YouTube marketing: people assume they need a channel that's constantly putting out content with lots of subscribers and viewers. You don't. You need a channel and one video to get going.

Is YouTube actually effective for marketing?

Vince's view is that YouTube is probably the best platform right now, because it's a search engine platform. When people go there they're actively looking for a solution to their problem, unlike Facebook, where you're interrupting someone who may or may not be interested. If you're neglecting YouTube, you're missing out in a big way. YouTube content is also there forever, working almost like a permanent mini webinar rather than a one-off interruption.

How do you promote a YouTube channel?

Ranking videos to the top of search is one of the most useful things you can do, something Vince has been instrumental in for us. The biggest challenge people hit is getting a few videos out, seeing underwhelming view counts a couple of months later after putting in a lot of effort, and getting disheartened.

The advice here is consistency, and making the content fit your actual, specific audience. People often get too precious about content, spend ages making it, and then don't like what they've produced. The better approach is to get yourself out there, be your own personality, and be genuinely true to your message, while staying focused on who the content is actually for rather than being too broad. Sharing that content across other social platforms then helps people find it in the first place.

How much does a YouTube ad cost?

Simon's answer: a lot less than people think. You can get ads running for under a penny a view, and because in-stream ads are free if someone skips before 30 seconds, you can afford to be broader with your targeting early on. Once someone actually views your ad, it's typically a penny or two, rising if you're bidding for genuinely competitive placements, and we tend to run campaigns that slowly raise bids to find where the conversions live.

There's a common misconception that once you hit 30 seconds you're being charged like a taxi meter running by the second. You're not. An ad could run for ten minutes and you'd still only pay a penny for someone watching all ten.

How do you make a good YouTube advert, and can anyone make one?

The starting point is understanding your customers and what will actually engage and retain them, not trying to imitate a TV commercial. YouTube is a more authentic platform, so people expect real, helpful content rather than cinema-grade production values. Understand your customers, understand what you're trying to communicate, and build the content around that rather than around what you personally think looks impressive. Production can be as simple as a mobile phone or as polished as you like, but either way it's far cheaper than television.

One structure the team likes for building an advert is called GTI, standing for grab, teach and invite: grab attention in the first thirty seconds (the first five matter most), teach by sharing genuinely useful strategies and tips, then invite the viewer to take action with a clear call to click through. This particular structure suits coaches especially well, though it may not fit every brand.

As for who can make an ad, there's no real barrier to entry. Google is even launching its own video tool that lets you pull together slides, stock footage, graphics and text without a camera at all. The only real requirement is having some kind of video content to put on your channel.

What budget and timeline should you expect for results?

On budget, you can start with just a few pounds a day: some clients have run on as little as £2.50 a day. The real objective is to gain conversions, and Google will try to optimise towards that over time, so you need enough budget to properly test your audiences. It does depend on how competitive your market is, but when we work with clients we tend to suggest around £50 to £100 per day per campaign, which works out at roughly £1,500 to £3,000 a month if you're serious about driving conversions. For clients purely focused on growing channel views rather than direct conversions, ads can also be used simply to support ranking a video, adding a bit of extra watch time to keep it near the top of search.

On timing, Andy's guidance to clients is a learning phase of one to two months for the data to settle and for us to understand and refine the audiences. Even so, we've run campaigns that have delivered genuinely good results within four weeks, and campaigns typically wash their face, if not deliver strong ROI, within that time. Every sector, client and customer base is different, but on the whole, after about three months of running a campaign, we're able to start scaling it up and delivering exceptional ROI. One of our clients who started YouTube ads before Christmas had 120 enquiries (calls, form fills and brochure downloads) and £900,000 worth of orders from a £10,000 spend within a single month, which is about as good an ROI example as you'll see. You will see views, impressions and click-throughs from day one; what happens after that depends on whether the audience and the landing page experience actually convert, which is why we sometimes run a readiness-for-ads audit for clients before sending traffic.

Is it still worth starting a YouTube channel now?

There's arguably never been a better time to start. People will never stop looking for solutions to their problems, and the two biggest search engines are Google and YouTube, which Google owns, so when you rank at the top of YouTube search you tend to end up ranking on Google too. Facebook's dominance looks set to decrease over time, with more people and businesses moving towards YouTube, so the sooner you start, the sooner you see the rewards.

The barrier to entry has really just been people themselves, and it isn't as difficult as it feels. None of us particularly enjoy watching ourselves back on video and cringing, but as Simon puts it, while Vince and Andy might be the good-looking ones who enjoy seeing themselves on screen, "us mere mortals" just have to grin and bear it. If you're struggling, ask for help: often the hardest part isn't the filming, it's deciding what content to make in the first place, so having a strategy in place to work back from makes it easier to allocate your time, whether that's one video a week or one a month. The important thing is to get going, because the massive opportunity is ranking in traditional Google search, since that's exactly the fresh, engaging video content Google wants right now as it moves towards answer engines.

How long does it take to get adverts running once you start a channel?

The only thing stopping you running ads is needing a Google Ads account. Once you've opened your YouTube channel, got a Google Ads account, and created an ad linking to your uploaded video, which can take as little as ten minutes, the only remaining step is waiting for Google's approval. Bots check the wording, since certain things can't be advertised, and once approved, an ad can be up and running in as little as two or three hours.