Advertising and targeting
What Makes a Good YouTube Ad?
A good YouTube ad grabs attention in the first 15 seconds, keeps returning to a clear call to action, and can run far longer than a TV ad because the aim is simply to hold attention for as long as possible.
Watch it
What does this video cover?
- 01The first 15 seconds are critical for grabbing the audience and encouraging them to keep watching.
- 02A skip within the first five seconds is not a concern financially, since that viewer is not paid for, but the priority is still to hold genuinely interested viewers longer.
- 03The longer someone watches, the greater the opportunity to convert them and to remarket to them later.
- 04Calls to action should be repeated regularly throughout the ad, whether that means visiting a website, buying a product or hitting a registration link, so the viewer always knows what they are expected to do next.
- 05A typical TV ad runs 40 to 50 seconds, but a YouTube ad can comfortably run three, four, five or six minutes and beyond.
- 06Longer running times let you extract more data from viewers, which makes later remarketing more sophisticated.
Full transcript
Sinead of s.media sets out a few core tips for building a good YouTube advert. The first is to focus on the opening 15 seconds, since that is where you need to grab the audience and give them a reason to keep watching. A skip within the first five seconds costs nothing, but the real goal is to keep watching that customer for longer, since a longer watch shows real intent to purchase, gives a greater opportunity to convert them, and creates a better opportunity to remarket to them afterwards.
The second tip is to keep including calls to action regularly throughout the ad rather than saving one for the end, and to be clear and consistent about what the viewer is expected to do, whether that is visiting a website, buying a product or clicking a registration link.
On running time, a typical TV ad is 40 to 50 seconds, but YouTube works very differently: the longer you can hold an audience's attention, comfortably three or four minutes and beyond, the more data you can extract from that engagement, which in turn makes any later remarketing more sophisticated.
Where does this fit?
For the bigger picture, read what answer engine optimisation is.
More from the library
- Advertising and targetingHow Do You Advertise a Video? (Archive, 2021)Published
- Advertising and targetingHow Do You Audit Your Paid Media Spend? (Archive, 2020)Published
- Advertising and targetingThe Peel and Stick Method | Building YouTube AudiencesPublished
- Advertising and targetingWhere Does Advertising Budget Get Wasted? (Archive, 2020)Published
This entry is part of a dated archive, what we said, when we said it. For what works in AI search today, start with AEO at Question.Marketing. For why the dates matter, see the receipts.
Where next?
The library holds every video we have published. The AEO pages explain the method behind them, what it costs and what the evidence actually supports.