How to set up YouTube ads is one of the world’s most popular video platforms, with over two million videos uploaded every day. This makes it a great advertising platform with robust audience targeting options, supplemented by data from Google search and partners. To get started, log in to or create a Google Ads account. Then, click the New Campaign button.

Select a campaign objective and a video ad format. YouTube has multiple ad formats, but the most common are in-stream ads that appear before or during videos and non-skippable preroll ads that can only be 15 seconds long.

Step-by-Step: Setting Up Your YouTube Ads

In-stream ads can include a headline, description line, and display URL that viewers see over the top of the video. The length of the ad can also vary, so be sure to test different versions with your audience. Non-skippable preroll ads are shown before YouTube videos, and can include a countdown of how long it will be before the video starts.

When choosing an objective, be sure to consider your goals and how a YouTube campaign fits into your larger marketing strategy. Then, as you set up your campaign, choose a bid type to help guide your budget. You can also select an additional setting called a frequency cap to help limit how often your ad appears. This is important, especially if you have small audiences, to avoid oversaturating them and decreasing their ad responsiveness. Finally, you can select a delivery schedule to determine when your ads will run.