If you’re buying YouTube video somewhat blindly, you might be gobbling-up the lesser expensive skippable units. Clients like low CPMs, as we all do, but it’s critical to understand the value of an ad impression. Skippable placements basically mean that 95% of your audience is only watching the first 5 seconds of your video. Non-skippable YouTube placements are also only available for :15s videos, so longer videos might be better with CTV/OTT/FEP inventory. That might sacrifice some of the targeting (user vs household) but gain visibility and complete video exposure.

It’s a bummer to be the person telling a brand manager that they’re not getting what they thought they were getting. It can also confuse a brand manager when we suggest paying more for an ad impression. Fortunately though, data can help us illustrate video view rates, cost per complete video view, and cost per engaged website visitor (rule-out incidental and accidental clicks that would skew CTR at face value). On that last point, looking past the CTR is critical.

We should also take steps to minimize below the fold placements, auto-play settings, and other attributes that contribute to waste or otherwise lend less value. We might apply category or specific exclusions to minimize placements that we know to drive mostly accidental clicks; placements that drive twice as many ad clicks as website visits, for example.

Historical experience says that slightly higher CPMs often drive an increase in video view rate, often to the extent that the cost per video view goes down. I recall a recent test where tolerating a 28% increase in CPM lent to a 52% decrease in cost per Video View (user either interacts with your ad or watches the full :15 video that I was using).

That’s not intuitive, so it can really pay to look around and test different bid strategies and placement types. We try to as often as we can but of course, nothing moves as quickly as we’d like. It’s a good reminder that focusing on the proper KPIs is what’s critical, as is understanding what KPIs to ignore for specific placement types.

We’re always looking for problems to solve, and we’re happy to show you how we do it. Drop us a line here or email us directly at info@whitelabeldigital.co for more info.