YouTube remains a powerhouse in the world of video-orientated advertising, with first-quarter earnings through ad revenue being $6.87 billion in 2022! This falls a little short of some of the more optimistic market predictions, but it’s understandable when another major player is rising in the scene in the form of TikTok.
One thing TikTok lacks, though, is the quality mid-from to long-form content that YouTube delivers. It’s clear that users are searching for specific kinds of content that fit within these brackets, and this is where YouTube bumper ads and skippable ads come into play.
One of the major decisions YouTube advertisers face is whether they should choose bumper, skippable, or both types of ads for their campaigns. In this guide, let’s check out the differences between the two. Read on to learn which form of YouTube ads might work best for you.
Different Types of YouTube Ads
There are six types of YouTube ad formats, as Google explains in-depth here. They include:
- Bumper ads
- Skippable ads
- Masthead ads
- Outstream ads
- In-feed video ads
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
While all of these ad formats can be very effective, we’re going to focus on two of the most popular options:
Bumper Ads vs. Skippable Ads
So let’s first contend with the question: what are YouTube bumper ads? Put simply, these are six-second adverts (or less) that you can set to play before, during, or after your video. A user can’t skip them, but since they are so short, the idea is that the user will wait it out for the “video reward,” or will be enticed by what’s on offer in the ad.
Skippable ads are ones where the user sees a countdown timer when the video starts. It will countdown from 5 to 0, yet the “0” is represented by a “Skip Ad” button.
In that five seconds, you can show the first part of the video. Then the user can decide whether they want to watch your video ad in full or skip it to watch the main content.
Which Is Best?
Advertising on YouTube is an art form in many respects. Even though there are some apparent pros and cons for bumper ads and skippable ads, sometimes they don’t matter if an advertiser has a killer strategy up their sleeve!
It pays to have an in-depth understanding of what works best for the different ad formats. For instance, you can check out these bumper ads examples to realize how a professional ad team can generate impressive results with this particular YouTube ad format.
Pros and Cons for YouTube Bumper Ads
The first pro we can consider for bumper ads is that a user can’t skip them. This means the user is obliged to watch the ad if they want to watch the main content. Yet, with bumper ads being so short, it takes a lot of thought and skill for advertisers to put their message across.
With bumper ads, most advertisers will choose a voice-over or on-screen person to slam the message across in the six seconds or less that they use. This translates as a single sentence!
So, using bumper ads alone isn’t a great tactic. However, if you use bumper ads in conjunction with other ads in a campaign, they can be extremely effective.
How? Well, bumper ads act as excellent reinforcers of other ads in a campaign that users might have already seen. They keep your product or service fresh in the user’s mind.
Pros and Cons for YouTube Skippable Ads
The main pro of a skippable ad is that an advertiser has a chance to draw the user into watching their ad for longer. There will always be a hefty skip rate for these ads. The reason being many users now have become automatic in their response to skip these ads as soon as they can.
If an advertiser can keep a user for longer than five seconds, then they have a real chance to put a proper message across, unlike with bumper ads. A decent retention rate might be around 30%, where users will watch the advertiser’s video right through to the end. Though keep in mind, that part of that percentage will be users who couldn’t skip for some reason or other and aren’t interested in the message being put across.
Running Both YouTube Ad Formats
If you have the means, a solid approach to YouTube advertising is to run both bumper and skippable ads simultaneously. You can use your skippable ads as the basis for putting across a clear marketing message to potential leads. Then, you can utilize bumper ads to reinforce your message with an aim for conversions.
These days, advertisers have combined these two ad formats in very innovative ways to suit the uniqueness of their business and the industry they are in. For instance, an advertiser may begin their marketing campaign with a flurry of skippable ads with a link at the end to a landing page on their website. They then might run many bumper ads to remind the potential lead about the website they checked out before.
Advice on Targeting YouTube Ads Effectively
It pays to spend time researching your target demographics for YouTube ads or you’ll end up wasting money on ineffective ad campaigns. Also, if you rely on local customers for your business, make sure to use the targeting function which lets you set a geographical radius where your ads will show.
For example, if you have a local butcher’s shop, you might run one ad campaign with a heavy focus on people situated within a 3-mile radius of your shop. You could then run a less prominent secondary campaign for a wider radius.
The combination of approaches you can take is many. It’s up to you, or the professional marketing team you hire, to decide what will work best for your specific business.
Bolster Your Campaigns With YouTube Bumper Ads
To conclude, YouTube bumper ads can play a vital part in your overall advertising strategy. A mixture of bumper ads, non-skippable ads, and other formats can work very well when you know what you’re doing.
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