YouTube Ad Formats and How to Set Up a YouTube Ad Campaign

YouTube ads are bought through Google Ads. You upload your ad video to YouTube, choose a goal in Google Ads and set up the campaign: a video campaign for brand awareness and views, or a Demand Gen campaign when you want an action such as a sale or a form submission. Depending on the format you pick, your ad appears before or during videos, in search results, in the Shorts feed or on the YouTube home page.

What are the YouTube ad formats?

According to the Google Ads Help Center, there are six video ad formats:

• Skippable in-stream ads: play before, during or after a video; viewers can skip after 5 seconds. There is no length limit, but under 3 minutes is recommended. With cost-per-view (CPV) bidding, you pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds (or the whole ad if it is shorter) or interacts with the ad.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: between 15 and 60 seconds depending on the campaign subtype, and they cannot be skipped. You pay per impression (target CPM).
• Bumper ads: short, non-skippable ads of up to 6 seconds. They suit repeating one strong message; you pay per impression.
• In-feed video ads: appear with a thumbnail and text in YouTube search results, among the next videos to watch and in the home feed. You are charged when a user clicks and watches.
• YouTube Shorts ads: shown between videos in the Shorts feed; viewers can swipe past right away. Under 60 seconds is recommended.
• Masthead ads: a high-reach format at the top of the YouTube home page. They are bought on a CPM or cost-per-hour basis and are usually used for major launches.

Skippable, non-skippable and bumper ads can run not only on YouTube but also on the sites and apps of Google video partners. Once the campaign is live, check in the reports where your ad was shown; you can limit content types and placements that do not suit your brand with exclusion settings.

Which campaign fits which goal?

When you create a video campaign in Google Ads, you choose a goal first. Under the YouTube reach, views and engagements goal, these subtypes are available:

• Video reach: to reach as many people as possible with your budget. Options include efficient reach, non-skippable reach and target frequency.
• Video views: to get people who are considering your product to watch your video.
• Ad sequence: to tell a story with several videos in a set order.
• More specialized subtypes such as YouTube subscriptions and engagements and audio reach.

If you want sales, leads or website traffic, there is a change to note. Google has moved Video Action campaigns to Demand Gen campaigns: new Video Action campaigns could no longer be created from April 2025, and the automatic upgrade of the remaining campaigns was completed in April 2026. Demand Gen combines video and image assets in one campaign and shows them on YouTube and Google's other discovery surfaces. We cover the similar shift on the Display Network in our Google Display ads guide.

How do you set up a YouTube ad campaign step by step?

1. Upload the video to YouTube. Google Ads requires the ad video to be on YouTube; when setting up the campaign, you select the video by its link or name.
2. Set up conversion tracking. If you expect sales or form fills, test before the campaign that the Google Ads conversion tag, or conversions imported from Google Analytics 4, are working.
3. Choose the goal and subtype. Video reach for awareness, video views for consideration, Demand Gen for action.
4. Set the budget and bidding strategy. View-focused campaigns use CPV, reach-focused campaigns use CPM, and conversion-focused campaigns use strategies such as target CPA or maximize conversions.
5. Define targeting. Location and language, demographics, audience segments (interests, people who visited your site, your own customer data) and, where needed, content targeting: keywords, topics or specific channels and videos.
6. Build the ad. Add the video, final URL, call to action and headline. If you upload more than one video, you can compare which performs better.

What makes a good YouTube video ad?

In a skippable ad, the first 5 seconds are when viewers decide whether to stay. Show your brand and your promise within that time; do not hide the logo in the final frame. Use captions for people watching on mobile with the sound off. For Shorts, prepare a version shot vertically instead of cropping a horizontal video. In a bumper ad, one idea is enough; three messages will not fit into six seconds.

When planning production, the format and length recommendations in our social media video production guide can help.

How should you measure performance?

The campaign goal decides the metric:

• Awareness: unique reach, average frequency, CPM. An ad shown too often to the same person wears out both the budget and the brand's image.
• Consideration: view rate, CPV and how much of the video was watched (quarter, half, complete).
• Action: number of conversions, cost per conversion and conversion value.

Judging a campaign by view count alone can mislead. To see the effect of an awareness campaign on sales, also track how branded searches and direct traffic change over the same period.

What are the most common YouTube advertising mistakes?

• Running a reach campaign when you expect sales, then complaining about low conversions
• Using a 30-second film shot for TV in a skippable ad without changing it
• Trying to set up conversion tracking after the campaign has started
• Narrowing targeting so far that the budget does not get spent
• Starting with a single video and leaving no room for comparison

In short

• YouTube ads are run from Google Ads; the video is uploaded to YouTube first.
• There are six formats: skippable, non-skippable, bumper, in-feed, Shorts and masthead.
• Use video reach for awareness, video views for watch time and a Demand Gen campaign for action.
• In skippable ads, the first 5 seconds decide; show the brand early.
• Read metrics according to the goal, and set up conversion tracking before the campaign.

For setting up your YouTube and Google Ads campaigns, take a look at our Google Ads service.