Google Ads for YouTube: The Ultimate Guide

Here are a few business requirements:

1. Reasonable monthly spend 
2. 90(ish) days to prove concept
3. Unique selling proposition 
4. A long sales cycle
5. Confidence with media creation
6. Ability to handle an influx of traffic 
7. Completed Customer Avatars

Let’s explain:

1. Reasonable monthly spend 

(And enough margins to support a traffic campaign)

As mentioned earlier:  we recommend spending $5000/month.

Yeah, it’s not cheap.

Here’s why:

With any form of Google Ads, your monthly budget early on is an investment. 

You are buying data you need to understand what works in your campaign, what doesn’t, and where to make changes—in a reasonable amount of time. 

With that investment, Google will start to build an audience specifically for you that you will capitalize on later. 

And it will be worth it! You *must* have enough monthly ad spend to accumulate enough accurate data for testing and optimizing down the road.

$5000 per month too steep? Maybe you want to hold off until it’s more feasible. 

Google is a learning algorithm. The first three months are going to be the most “painful” part of your campaigns. Which brings us to our next requirement:

2. 90(ish) days to prove concept

It bears repeating that Google is a learning machine. And learning takes time.

In fact, we’re asking Google to do some pretty spectacular behavioral analysis.

After you set up your YouTube campaign, Google learns: 

• When customers interact with your ads
• How many times users click on your ads
• What channel those ads are clicked
• How long it takes for the prospect to come back
• What channels they come back to
• Which other products they view

Once Google has all that data, it determines how many other customers follow through the same pattern or similar cycle.  

So, for a 15-day sales cycle (meaning it took 15 days from when a customer first clicked your ad to when they made a purchase), you might have to wait a full month for sales to start coming in. Meaning it will take a full month for Google to begin to gather data for testing and optimizing.

Again, those early days are tough. But by day 90, you should have enough data to tell whether or not the campaign will work long term. 

3. A unique selling proposition 

(…which your audience needs to be educated about)

The more heavily saturated your market, the harder it’s going to be to turn a profit from Google Ads for YouTube. 

That said, if there is a reason to go with you as opposed to your competitors, YouTube is a great option.

So, what makes you different? 

The more unique selling propositions, the better. 

Once you have a list, create a video for each individual selling proposition (don’t put all your “whys” into one video!), then create a sequence (drip).

YouTube takes time, and it gives you the opportunity to engage with people over time with ad sequences (showing a series of ads to your audience). 

Your unique selling proposition is key for the success of these campaigns—specifically longevity and return traffic. 

After all, it’s six times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than a new one.

4. Long sales cycle

Businesses with a long sales cycle generally do better with YouTube ads because it allows you to stay in front of your audience. 

YouTube ads are great for remarketing, so long as the advertiser is providing value—not just generalized remarketing. 

5. Confidence with media creation

YouTube likes to split test five videos at a time to choose one “winner.” That means you’ll need to create five videos, only for 80% of them to go out the window—then do it all again the next time you have a message or want to optimize your campaign.

And here’s the kicker:

Your business needs to be comfortable with creating these video ads yourself. This means without hiring someone to over-produce videos for you. 

More successful ads come from DIY content straight from the brand. 

6. Ability to handle an influx of traffic

Are you going to answer your phone when customers call? 

Are you fully stocked and ready to ship? 

Can you accurately forecast how much product you need?

Will people call you directly, or will you have a sales team that’s trained and ready to take calls?

While YouTube ads might send leads and customers your way, you need to be sure you have the ability to scale first. 

7. Completed Customer Avatars

Not only do you need to know who your target audience is, they also have to be:

• On YouTube
• Easily identifiable 
• Educated about your product or service (i.e. anything B2B)

Now, a lot of business owners think in terms of demographics—not avatars.