Launching a video ad campaign online is one of the best things that you can do to promote your business. Sure, it might be expensive and time-consuming to execute, but with the right kind of resources at hand, it certainly pays off in the long run. This is especially true for video ad placements on YouTube that garner a fair amount of traffic.

While you could always create static display ads to increase brand awareness among users online, this isn’t the most effective way to put your point across if you’ve got a lot to say. Video ads are your best bet if you want a campaign that’s both arresting and educational for viewers. However, there are a few things that you’d need to bear in mind before you go ahead and chalk out a video ad strategy for your company.

Let’s discuss some of these below:

  •  Decide On A Budget

It would be impractical to design an entire video ad strategy before you decide on a budget for it first. Think of it this way, you spend days and weeks with your marketing team ironing out the details of how and where you’re going to feature your video ads only to discover later on that your plans don’t fit into your budget. What then? What of all the time, energy, and money that you spent on a strategy that you cannot possibly execute due to budgetary constraints?

This is why it’s always better to decide on a budget first and weigh your options later. Remember, you’d need to consider how much each aspect of such a campaign is going to cost you. For instance, you might need to hire a PPC expert or other full-time employees, you might need to feature your ads on different platforms that charge different rates, etc. When it comes to YouTube placements, these don’t always come cheap depending on the views that your ads generate.

So, in this way, the more views your ads get on YouTube, the more money you’ll end up paying to feature your ads here. However, it’s worth noting here that a higher number of views could mean a higher click-through rate (CTR) and consequently a higher conversion rate. Therefore, even though the cost of advertising on YouTube may well be variable, the returns that you could generate on your investment here are variable as well.

  • Video Length And Type

Now, anyone that has used YouTube and other similar video streaming platforms is sure to know that there are different kinds of ads featured here. These ads differ from each other based on several factors such as duration, placement within the video, and more. The most important factor to consider here is the duration of your ads on YouTube. Reliable stats have shown that video ads should be at least 12 seconds long to hold a viewer’s attention and get your point across.

Anything more than 60 seconds is sure to leave viewers scrambling for the ‘Skip’ button (and imagine their frustration when your ad is unskippable!). The 60-second rule applies to your video regardless of how interesting or otherwise it might be. After all, let’s face it, no one’s on YouTube for the sole purpose of watching ads. So, if viewers find your ads are distracting or disruptive to their viewing experience, it’s more than likely that they’ll view your brand unfavorably, even if your ad is well-crafted and effective.

Also, it might be useful to note that the placement of your ad within a video matters as well. On YouTube, you could either place your ads in the beginning, middle, or end of a video. It might be least effective to feature your ad at the end simply because no one wants to stick around and watch ads after they’re done watching a video. Alternatively, if you’re going to feature your ads at the start of a video, then you’d need to choose between skippable and unskippable ads, both of which offer their set of advantages.

  • Long-Term Goals

The final step in creating a marketing strategy for your video ads is asking yourself what your long-term goals are regarding this campaign. Have you set certain targets that you’d like to achieve with your ads or are you going to feature them for a certain period of time and then stop regardless of how many sales you’ve made? In other words, how do you define success with your video marketing campaign and what would you like to achieve with it?

In most cases, companies measure the success of their ad campaign in terms of the conversion rate that it has produced and the kind of engagement that it has received from audiences. If engagement has been mostly positive and increased brand awareness online, then these can be taken as indicators of considerable success. Also, it would be more than useful to keep an eye on the conversion rate that these ads have generated and how these compare to the investment that you put into them.

 There are other factors that you’d need to take into account before planning a video ad marketing strategy such as identifying your target audience and narrowing down on the resources you’d need for the same. However, we’ve elaborated on the most important factors above to help you get started with your video ad campaign and execute it successfully.