What You Need to Know About YouTube Advertising

When you think of marketing strategies for interior design, you probably imagine crafting a solid library of blog content, strategically preparing and posting Instagram posts, and regularly engaging with followers over other social media channels. These organic social media marketing campaigns can be very successful, but if you want to kick-start that campaign, it’s worth looking into paid ads.

Most people hear the term “paid social ads” and immediately look to something like Facebook, but it’s easy to forget about another medium that’s great for designers: YouTube Ads.

You may already have posted design videos on YouTube, but the advertising end of the platform is something entirely different. Here’s what you need to know about advertising your business on YouTube.

Who Uses YouTube?

Before embarking on any kind of social media marketing journey, it’s important to make sure your target audience uses the platform in question. For instance, if you’re trying to reach older people, you probably wouldn’t spend time promoting your business on TikTok.

With that said, is YouTube for you? Here are a few fast facts and stats to help you decide:

• YouTube is the second most popular social media site (behind Facebook, as of January 2024)
• YouTube has about 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide
• About 54% of these users are male, and about 46% are female
• Most of the site’s global user base falls into the 25-34 age bracket

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of YouTube users by age:

• 18-24: 14.5%
• 25-34: 20.2%
• 35-44: 16.5%
• 45-54: 11.9%
• 55-64: 8.9%
• 65+: 9.7%

One last surprising fact about the platform: YouTube users collectively watch roughly one billion hours of video content each day!

How Advertising on YouTube Works

You might think that just because YouTube is a social media platform, running an ad campaign there is like running one on Facebook or Instagram. The process is actually dramatically different, with a sometimes confusing array of options and constraints. It’s also different from pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns, although the two do share some similarities.

With that in mind, set a marketing budget before deciding on a particular strategy. YouTube prices its ads by click or by view, which means you’ll need to decide how much you’re willing to pay per each kind of interaction. Most marketers spend between ten and 30 cents per click or view.

The pricing model you should choose ultimately depends on your ad campaign’s bidding strategy.

What Bidding Strategy Should You Choose?

Even if you already know a fair bit about marketing for interior designers, being new to YouTube advertising means the sheer amount of options you have can be intimidating. And to the uninitiated, selecting a bidding strategy might look especially complex.

Fortunately, though, you don’t need to be a marketing wizard to pick a bidding strategy. You’ll make the choice based on your goals for your current ad campaign.

Here’s a look at different bidding strategies and what they can help you accomplish:

Cost-per-View (CPV)

Under a CPV strategy, you pay each time someone watches your ad for at least 30 seconds or engages with it in some way. Because you’re only charged if someone doesn’t skip your ad, a CPV strategy is a great way to promote engagement with your brand without breaking the bank.

Cost-per-Action (CPA)

CPA strategies are high-tech options that use an algorithm that continually adjusts how it targets users. It’s constantly trying to target those who are most likely to engage with your ads, which makes it a great bidding strategy if you want to prioritize reaching your target audience. That said, you should keep in mind that the algorithm isn’t perfect, so there’s a chance it might not work as well as you’d expect.

Maximize Conversions

Here’s another high-tech option that continually adjusts and targets users with the goal of getting the most conversions. It might sound like the perfect strategy, but there’s a catch: If you want the algorithm to work properly, you need enough conversion data to “teach” it who to target. It’s for that reason that this particular strategy tends to be better for larger marketing budgets.

Cost-per-Thousand-Impressions (CPM)

A CPM strategy is great for anyone who is trying to increase their exposure or running what you might call a top-of-the-funnel campaign. They’ll pay each time someone sees their ad title or ad thumbnail, even if they don’t click on it or otherwise engage.

You don’t have to memorize each of these strategies or be familiar with all of their pros and cons to make the right decision for your ad campaign. If you’d prefer, you can input your goals while you set up your ad. Through Google, YouTube will pick which strategy is the best one to reach your goals.

At any rate, you don’t have to worry about accidentally overspending. When you advertise on YouTube, you set a daily ad budget. The platform will run your ads until you’ve reached that limit and then stop. If you decide to expand your campaign, you can always increase your daily limit.

What Types of Ads Can You Choose From?

It might seem like we’ve outlined lots of options for YouTube ads above, but that’s not all! Before you go about creating your actual ad, you need to know a bit about the different types of ads to choose from.

These include the following:

Non-Skippable, In-Stream Ads

These are video ads (usually 15-20 seconds long) that play in the middle of another YouTube video that’s at least 10 minutes long, akin to a commercial break on TV. Because users can’t click these ads away, they’re a great place to include clickable CTAs. Of course, if you want your ad to be successful, make sure it’s a high-quality video!

Skippable In-Stream Ads

These ads also play in the middle of another video. But because the user can click a skip button, you need to open your ad with an engaging hook. These ads make for a great opportunity for story-style ads with a human interest element.

In-Feed Video Ads

These ads show up in a user’s search results. If, for instance, a user searches for “interior design tips,” one of your ads might show up along with the suggested videos.

Overlay Ads

These ads are banners that run along the bottom of the screen as video plays. They’re a great way to get a user’s attention without interrupting their video.

Bumper Ads

Bumper ads are similar to overlay ads, but they only show up for six seconds under the video. If you want to get good results with a bumper ad, you must ensure that it’s visually striking!

Targeting Your YouTube Ads

Guaranteeing the success of your marketing campaign doesn’t just mean making sure you’re using the right bidding strategy to meet your goals. You also need to target your ads appropriately. Even the best bidding strategy can be a flop if you’re showing your ads to the wrong audience.

YouTube gives you an extensive range of options to choose from on how to target your ads, including things like:

• Age
• Gender
• Location (country, region, city, or even zip code)
• Household income
• Employment status
• Home-ownership status
• Marital status
• Education level
• Parental status
• Affinity audiences (audiences with certain interests)
• In-market audiences (audiences who are actively researching or shopping for a specific thing)
• Audiences who have visited your website but did not convert

It’s important to note that you can choose to target different demographics in the same ad campaign. For instance, you might target people over 65 who are also among the top 10% of household incomes. Overlapping demographics make for an area where buyer personas can come in especially handy!

Marketing Demystified With Behind the Design

If you’re wondering how to get interior design clients, taking advantage of relatively untapped opportunities like YouTube advertising is a great place to start. But as you’ve seen, for someone who isn’t very familiar with the marketing world, navigating a YouTube ad campaign can be time-consuming. And when you’re already running a business, you might not have that kind of time.

Fortunately, at Behind the Design, we’ve come up with a solution. We offer marketing services specifically for interior designers and architects. We know the design industry and the marketing industry, and that means we can create customized marketing campaigns that fit your goals and budget. Get in touch with us today to learn more or get started!