Getting Started with YouTube Ads: Why They Matter and How to Approach Them!

In 2020, with the arrival of the untact era brought on by COVID, looking back now -- the surge in mobile usage, the explosive growth of video content consumption across all age groups driven by Gen MZ (who have become the core consumers), and YouTube's massive growth that followed -- these have all become facts so obvious they barely need mentioning.

Seeing people in their 60s and beyond using smartphones on the subway or on the street, even watching YouTube, has become a completely normal sight. With these shifts in the mobile landscape, digital media consumption has risen across all demographics, and video content consumption -- especially on YouTube -- has skyrocketed.

Naturally, as video content has grown, so has the share of video-based advertising. It goes without saying that the importance of video ads, meaning YouTube ads, has been receiving enormous attention.

YouTube Ads -- Where Do You Even Begin?

So, these YouTube ads everyone says are so great -- where do you start if you want to give them a try?

If you've never run YouTube ads, or Google ads more broadly, the reality is that while you know perfectly well that YouTube advertising is important and trending, figuring out where to actually begin feels overwhelming.

That's why, starting with this post, I plan to write a total of four articles covering everything I learned about running YouTube ads as a junior marketer -- an A-to-Z guide on getting started.

Wait, What About the Ad Creatives?

One of the biggest reasons people give up on YouTube advertising before even seriously considering it is the vague uncertainty around "creatives." It starts with thoughts like, "YouTube? I've never even filmed anything, let alone made a video..." and quickly spirals into "Doesn't YouTube advertising require a massive budget...?" -- and that very first layer of hesitation stems from the creative side.

Of course, you can't run ads with just any random footage, so some initial production is necessary. And depending on your budget, production costs can certainly be a concern. However, YouTube video ad creatives don't need to be long -- you can run effective ads with short, simple videos. Rather than worrying in the abstract, I'd say that knowing there are actually many more paths and approaches available to you is the real first step toward YouTube advertising.

(Since creatives are such an essential component of YouTube ads, I won't go deeper into the how-to of production here and will move on to the operational side. But it's worth noting that the video production industry has become quite active recently, with various options available -- agencies, freelancers, and different price points -- so do explore those.)

As for other creative specs you'll need for operations -- things like video length and format -- these vary depending on the ad product type you choose, so I'll cover those details later.

What Do I Need to Learn First?

This post serves as an overview of "Getting Started with YouTube Ads." It's written for marketers who are vaguely considering YouTube advertising, to help explain where to start thinking, how to plan and study, and how to actually get to the point of running ads. Think of it as a blueprint for the road ahead.

We'll tackle YouTube advertising in the following order:

1. Understanding YouTube Ad Products

The very first thing you need before starting YouTube ads -- even before ad creatives -- is undoubtedly a clear purpose for your YouTube advertising. If you start from the most important question -- "Why am I considering YouTube ads, and what do I want to achieve through them?" -- then the first thing to decide is what kind of ad you'll run. YouTube offers a wide variety of ad types, and choosing the right one is a critical consideration depending on your advertising goals. So we'll begin by taking a close look at the different YouTube ad products and understanding the characteristics of each.

2. YouTube Ad Bidding Strategies and Targeting

Once you've familiarized yourself with the different ad products, bidding strategies can start to get confusing. (Speaking from the perspective of a newbie -- that is, my own experience.) Since bidding strategies and targeting are crucial elements of ad operations, covering them right after learning about ad products -- all the way through setting things up and actually running campaigns -- makes the learning process much smoother. I'll draw on my own experience to break this section down in detail.

3. The Structure of YouTube Ads

If the first two steps form the big-picture foundation for setting up YouTube ads, this is where we zoom in on the actual structure and get familiar with it. By understanding what YouTube ad campaigns look like structurally and what role each component plays, we can start to concretize the strategies and methods we'll use when actually running ads.

4. Setting Up YouTube Ads

If you've made it this far, all the preparation is done. We'll walk through the actual setup process step by step, complete with screenshots, applying everything we've learned.

Starting with the next post, let's dive right into what types of YouTube ad products exist and which advertising goals each one is best suited for.