When it comes to video advertising, we at CY Digital have been involved in this sector way before others.
CY digital were pioneers back in the UK as one of the first agencies that truly saw and appreciated the upcoming (back in 2007) convergence of digital advertising, website design, mobile uptake and the exciting new advertising territory that this media mix would create.
That said, it has taken YouTube (the worlds second biggest search engine) a long time in our opinion to really start to deliver the kind of advertising options that the platform always held latently.
This is not to say that video advertising has just arrived, far from it, but it now feels way more mature and we feel now necessary to explain options to our existing clients both large and small and your good-selves.
The difference between TrueView in-display ads and true view in-stream ads:
In a nut shell in-display is best run using a CTA type overlay within a video you are promoting (a full video often).
In-stream is a small advert type of video that you can ‘force’ people to watch or at least watch some of within existing content, the metrics and data on who has watched etc are explained below.
So let’s dissect this a little further:
*Information currently true as of early 2016
How TrueView in-display ads work
In-display ads can run across YouTube and Google Display Network. On YouTube they can run on the search and watch pages for both desktop and m.youtube.com, as well as the home pages for desktop and YouTube mobile apps. The ad unit consists of an image thumbnail and up to three lines of text. Clicking the ad will deliver a user to the YouTube watch or channel page to view the video rather than playing the video within the ad unit itself. It’s recommended to use CTA overlays on the videos to drive the users to the advertiser site.
YouTube video watch page
In-display ad can appear on watch pages in these different positions:
As an overlay on the video. Overlays look the same on the YT watch page and on embedded players.
As an overlay on the video with an additional 300×250 companion
In the related video section as a unit that contains a thumbnail, headline, channel name and video view count
In the related video section as a 300×250 unit that contains a large thumbnail, channel avatar name, headline, description and video length
YouTube search results
TrueView in-display ads appear on YouTube search results in the related video section. The ad contains a thumbnail, headline, channel name and video view count.
YouTube Mobile Web search and watch pages
In-display ads can appear on the YouTube mobile search and watch pages as a promoted video in the top related video slot for high end devices.
YouTube mobile apps home page
In-display ads can appear in the home page of the Android and iOS YT App on days when the mobile video masthead is not sold.
YouTube home page
In-display ads can appear on the YouTube home page when there is no Masthead running.
TrueView in-display: Assets overview
Asset name: Description
Video URL: Video must be uploaded to YouTube
Image: Choose from 4 auto-generated thumbnails
*To implement custom thumbnails, contact your Google representative
Headline text: 25 characters max
Description: Two lines 35 characters max each
Description is not shown in suggestions.
In order to create an in-display ad, videos must be public or unlisted.
*All ads must must comply with the YouTube Advertising Policies.
Reporting metrics:
Impressions and Clicks
In summary you can gain a lot of clicks on your video asset by using this form of video advertising.
How TrueView in-stream ads work
TrueView in-stream ads run on videos served on YouTube or on a collection of sites and apps in the Google Display Network (GDN).
These ads may also run on YouTube videos that are embedded on other sites or apps. They can also appear on Android and iOS YouTube apps, m.youtube.com (on iPad and Android), and on connected TVs.
Viewers can choose to skip the video ad after 5 seconds. If they choose not to skip the video ad, the YouTube video view count will be incremented when the viewer watches 30 seconds of the video ad (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or engages with your video, whichever comes first. Video interactions include clicks to visit your website, call-to-action overlays (CTAs), cards, and companion banners. If view counts on YouTube are a concern, it’s a good idea to make videos at least 12 seconds long. YouTube analytics doesn’t track views less than 10 seconds.
How CTA overlays work
The CTA overlay appears as soon as the video starts playing, and then collapses to show just the thumbnail image after 15 seconds. On desktop browsers, viewers can hover to expand the CTA. On mobile browsers, viewers can click the thumbnail image or arrow to expand it.
