6 Best Practices to Create Engaging YouTube Video Ads

2.56 billion users. That’s how many people you can potentially reach with YouTube video ads.

YouTube is a goldmine for businesses and marketers to build brand awareness, scale traffic numbers, and maximize conversions. So, if you want to kick-start your first YouTube ad campaign or re-launch your previous ones, there’s no better time than now.

But here’s the catch: planning a YouTube ad strategy requires time, creativity, and research. Thanks to the influx of advertisers and marketers on YouTube, viewers are more habituated to hitting that “Skip Ad” button than they are to paying attention to the ad.

With so much competition, it’s possible to wonder—what’s the best way to plan your YouTube ad strategy?

This article will walk you through six proven tips to create killer YouTube video ads that entice your viewers and nudge them to take action.

Let’s look at some proven tips to create high-impact video ads that get clicks and conversions and give your YouTube ad strategy a much-needed facelift.

1. Create A Narrative Around Your Brand And Product For Better Relatability

The world of marketing is noisier than ever before. Your ads compete against millions like it to win your customers’ attention. What if there was a way to cut through all this noise and bring more attention to your ads? 

The good news is: there is.

An ad narrating your brand story has the power to create a strong bond with your audience. It communicates your brand’s identity and taps into human emotions to create a positive influence.

This video ad by Grammarly is a case in point. They selected two target audiences—college students and job seekers, and their ad catered to both of them by dividing it into two segments. This made the video more appealing to a broader audience while still being straightforward and crisp.

Here are a few tips for mastering the art of creative storytelling for your next YouTube ad:

• Hook them with a controversial story or a fact within the first few seconds.

• Zero in on the problem you're solving with your product/service and highlight them in the narrative using the PAS formula (Problem, Agitation, and Solution).

This ad from Homepod does precisely that with a gripping narrative that spotlights how the device can be your companion after a long and tiring day.

• Combine visual storytelling with impactful music or, better yet—an empowering voiceover to deliver a powerful viewing experience.

• Create a persona or character to portray your customers’ experiences when choosing your brand. 

Here’s an impressive piece from Deliveroo that creates an immediate impact. The brand combined humor with persona storytelling to set itself apart from the endless pool of ads all around.

There’s nothing better than your story to capture people’s attention and persuade them to take action. Translating your brand story into a YouTube ad gives you the advantage of building brand awareness and maximizing clicks.

WATCH: How to design a YouTube banner that fits all devices

2. Keep Your Ad Between 15-60 Seconds

Every ad is an interruption. It disrupts a users’ usual scrolling or viewing experience. So, the shorter you keep your ads, the better they perform. 

Besides, people’s constantly decreasing attention spans don’t make your job any easier. Your customers don’t want to spend even a few seconds of their time watching something that doesn't interest them.

The key here is to make your ad appealing with the right amount of information. Short, punchy sentences in your ad copies can do the trick for you—and pack everything in less than 60 seconds. But figuring out what information to convey in this short duration is tricky. 

The easiest way to do this is to jot down your unique selling propositions (USPs) and condense them into a creative narrative. Think of what will amuse your audience and look at examples of how other brands are doing it. 

Here’s one by Slack—a 15-second crisp and clear ad. The copy is just two sentences long yet creates a relatable scenario for the viewers.

If you’re on the quest to find a secret recipe to produce such eye-catchy ads, here’s a four-ingredient formula that’ll help:

• Simplicity: Instead of complicating your ad’s idea or copy, look at the simpler things that your product/service solves—and sell it.

• Clarity: You don’t want your audience to be puzzled or clueless after watching your ads. Prioritize clarity over everything else to get your message across effortlessly. 

• Elegance: Add a dash of elegant language to your ad copy and watch it thrive in just 20 seconds. Your choice of words goes a long way to creating the impact you want.

• Evocativeness: A good ad is nothing if it doesn’t tap into people’s emotions. Create vivid images through audio or video and persuade your viewers to take the desired action.

The key to making a good ad lies in brevity. That being said, making short ads is no easy feat. So, use these tips to produce a stellar ad that makes your viewers hit that CTA button.

3. Hook The Viewers In The First 5 Seconds

When brainstorming for an ad, remember that your viewers are always on the run—busy and distracted. So, you have five seconds to catch their attention or lose them forever. 

So, what’s the best way to capture their attention while they’re juggling between tens of different windows or apps? An immaculate hook.

Picture this: you’re huddled in a crowded public place and trying to watch some clips. An ad pops up and disrupts your viewing. But the ad starts on such an intriguing note that you pay attention first and end up watching the entire video.

That’s what a perfect hook can do for your YouTube video ads—compel your viewers into watching your ads for a lot longer than usual.

Simply put, a hook makes you sit up and pay attention. It offers detail that is both unexpected and promising. Consider it an attention-getting device placed at the beginning of a sentence that leaves readers wanting to learn more. So, let’s look at some tried-and-tested tips to create the perfect hook for any ad:

• Begin your ad with a series of questions or a startling revelation

• Introduce a problem or a surprise to catch viewers off-guard

• Talk about a threat or a warning that relates to the viewers’ daily lives

• Focus on something that your viewers face and validate their beliefs

• Tap into the fear of missing out and show them something that everyone is doing

People will willingly stop scrolling and give their thumb rest when they see there’s value in what your ad has to say. So, spend some extra time thinking about your unique hook and refine it till it hits the right chord.

You can also make your visuals more vibrant using tools like Picmaker and design some amazing YouTube banners and layouts from the start instead of saving the best for the last.

4. Segue Your CTA Into A Narrative Rather Than Blatantly Flashing It

One crucial detail to remember while running YouTube ads is that your audience isn’t necessarily looking to buy things here, unlike social media. So, instead of placing direct offers and discounts in your ads, give your viewers a chance to warm up and get attached to your brand.

Create an enticing script that indirectly encourages viewers to act instead of blatantly asking them to do it. Emphasize the value of what you’re selling and incorporate your CTAs within this narrative.

Not every ad you make has to be a hard sell. Even subtle branding and product placement can generate interest, drive traffic, and skyrocket sales if your ad is persuasive enough.

5. Use Retargeting To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck

There will always be some users who visited your website after watching an ad, downloaded a resource, or put some products into a cart but failed to make a purchase. Retargeting allows you to remind these viewers of what they’re missing subtly. 

You’d be surprised to know that the average click-through rate of a retargeting ad is 10x more than that of a display ad.

Retargeting ad campaigns on YouTube can potentially blow up your sales. Leverage these best practices to seamlessly run your retargeting campaigns:

• Use multiple ad formats on YouTube in different ratio sizes for both mobile and desktop viewers.

• Create different audience segments and name them according to YouTube’s listing options. 

• Customize audiences for your retargeting campaigns based on their viewing behavior for your ads.

• Measure your campaign performance and optimize your retargeting practices.

YouTube’s ad manager gives you more control and customization for running retargeting campaigns. So, make the best use of this platform to maximize your ROI from YouTube ads.

LEARN: How To Integrate Your Social Media Pages With Picmaker

6. Leverage Analytics To Optimize Your Performance

Like every other tactic in your marketing strategy, only implementation is not enough. You have to measure the results and track your performance too.

Enter—YouTube Analytics.

One of the most critical features in your YouTube control panel, YouTube’s native analytics platform offers access to crucial metrics about video performance—like watch time, viewer demographics, traffic sources, impressions, and more. You can use this data to understand what’s working and not to iterate your YouTube video ads strategy.

The best part: you don't have to be a seasoned marketer to make sense of these numbers. On any YouTube stats page, you'll see four tabs for Reach, Engagement, Audience, and Revenue that segment all the data into meaningful metrics.

You can view a lot of information on your YouTube Analytics dashboard as well. Just choose the report you’re interested in and analyze your data with the metrics that best help you make decisions. If you want to try out these insights, you should also look at:

• Demographic breakdown of your videos

• Traffic sources they drew from

• How long people watched them for on average

• Which videos have the highest number of subscribers 

Pay extra attention to the headings which read- demographics, traffic sources, watch time, subscribers, top video by end screen, top cards, and well, revenue. 

Here are the five most important metrics to assess the success of your YouTube videos ads:

Real-Time Engagement (& Reaction)

The comments, likes, and dislikes on your ads can tell you if an ad was a hit or a flop. Likes, dislikes, comments, shares, subscribers provide you with insights on the quality and effectiveness of your video content. Use this information to figure out what kinds of videos your audience is into.

These data points paint a clear picture of whether your video was successful or failed. More likes and shares mean people enjoyed your video. You can easily find the interaction numbers in YouTube's Interactions Report and analyze your progress accordingly. 

Click-Through Rate

Your ad’s performance also depends on how well it nudges viewers to hit the CTA and take the desired action. If your videos hit the right spot, viewers are more likely to visit your website and learn more about the offer. 

So, your ad’s click-through rate (CTR) essentially tells you if your ads are actually creating any results. CTR is an impression-based metric that calculates the percentage of users who click on your ads after viewing them. If, for instance, 100 people view your ad and 10 of them click, then your CTA is 10%.

Conversion Rate

Conversion is the ultimate objective of any ad. YouTube allows you to measure your conversion rate and optimize your campaigns for more sales or subscribers. YouTube shows you how many impressions turned into a conversion and calculates your conversion rate accordingly. 

Your conversion rate will depend on what qualifies as a conversion—liking a video, subscribing to the channel, visiting your website, or making a purchase. Define your terms for conversion, and the YouTube ad manager will give you accurate results.

Demographics

YouTube will tell you which age groups, genders, and locations you've reached with your ads. This demographic data can show you what subcultures are watching your ads and indicate whether they are your target audience. 

In other words, if you aren't getting the expected results from selected demographics, shuffle up your strategies and focus on ideas that would appeal to your viewers.

This data tells you who your target audience should be and who your engaged audience actually is. You can also use this data to discover new topics to cover in your videos, attracting a new audience for you.
There’s your treasure chest for YouTube channel metrics waiting for you to work upon. Use it to achieve the results you've been missing out on.

Multiple brands have seen impressive growth on YouTube and racked up millions of views on their ads. The strategies detailed in this article can take you a step closer to these big-ticket brands with a vast subscriber base on YouTube.

So, let’s look at these strategies in action and learn how big brands leveraged these best practices to fuel their success:

1. Grammarly

Grammarly’s free YouTube channel covers multiple topics revolving around the world of writing. Its YouTube library includes 41 how-to videos, tips for writers and business owners, testimonials from happy customers, and advertisements for paid products.

If there’s one secret to Grammarly’s success, it’s the realistic portrayals of workplace challenges, college scenarios, and cases where writing is involved. Its solutions feel tailored just for you and make it easy for you to use the tool with a quick plugin button or call-to-action (CTA) in each ad. 
Go ahead and check out Grammarly's creative ads and add them to your video ad swipe file!

2. Nike

Nike has produced advertising gems to inspire generations to come. Their iconic ads always deliver meaningful messages and encourage viewers to aspire to succeed. 

But the real measure of Nike’s innovation and creativity lies in the unique ways they place their products into these ads. For instance, this 2008 ad for the Beijing Olympic games focused on athletes’ sacrifices and inspired people worldwide to do everything it takes to reach their goals.

3. Sephora

As a leading creator in the beauty industry, Sephora has finally unlocked the secret to what women want: honesty.

The brand knows how to blend power with beauty. Their biggest USP is their unapologetic and raw approach to beauty. They don't use cliched terms or make fancy promises about being fair because they know that's not what their customers need.

Simply put, Sephora gives its community the content that speaks back to them in their own language. Their goal is to create beautiful and empowering products that are both playful and high-quality—just like their ads.

4. Hennes & Mauritz (H&M)

H&M is a clothing icon. The brand’s ad game speaks true to its name with its classy and chic videos portraying its message. Their emphasis on creating message-oriented ads focusing on topical subjects sets them apart from several competitors in the fashion industry. 

The brand uses playful visuals and impactful voiceovers for advertising its products. Almost every H&M ad you find will feature multiple people fashioning its clothing and an audio track communicating the right message. 

H&M ads also capitalize on creative cinematography to add more energy and appeal to their videos.

5. IKEA

Ikea—the Swedish home-furnishing company—is creative and clever in its way. Ikea’s advertising is consistently wacky yet never overdoing it. Their punny copy, quirky visuals, and funky settings are right on point with their brand image.

The brand relies heavily on resources like Augmented Reality (AR), negative space, and humor to spark curiosity and sustain the viewers’ attention.

Ikea makes its products feel fun, effortless, and affordable for the common folks. They know how to use videos and images with sound and color to drive your attention towards what they want you to see.

Video is a great way to humanize your brand. And video ads can help your business build trust, deepen customer relationships, and fully express your brand's personality. 

But let’s be honest: creating an actionable YouTube ad strategy is no cakewalk.

You need the right roadmap to plan and implement, and incorporating roadmap templates is essential. This roadmap will also help in measuring your ads’ performance. So, use the crucial tips listed in this guide and make a flawless roadmap that takes you to soaring success.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and keep assessing what’s working for you. You can eventually perfect your ad tactics with a bit of trial and error.

About The Author:

Adela Belin is a content marketer and blogger at Writers Per Hour. She is passionate about sharing stories with the hope to make a difference in people's lives and contribute to their personal and professional growth. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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