YouTube ads suit a local business whose work is easier to show than describe. Target a tight area, make the first five seconds count, and judge the campaign by bookings and calls, not views.

An ad before the video they chose

Someone in your town opens YouTube to watch a video about the very thing you do. Before it plays, a short ad appears for a business a few streets from their house.

That is a TrueView ad, the standard YouTube format, bought through AdWords like a search ad. It can be shown only to people in a chosen area, and skipped ads cost nothing.

For a local business that has never advertised with video, it is a cheaper experiment than it sounds. It is also an easy way to pay for views that never become customers.

How the ads work

In-stream ads play before or during other videos. After five seconds the viewer can skip, and you pay only if they watch thirty seconds, or the whole ad if it is shorter, or click.

Discovery ads appear beside related videos and in YouTube's search results as a thumbnail with a short description. You pay when someone clicks to watch.

Both run as video campaigns in AdWords, with the video itself uploaded to a YouTube channel the business owns. Targeting works by place, age, interests and the subject of the videos being watched.

When it suits a local business

The third is where many local campaigns go wrong. Someone with water coming through the ceiling searches and phones; they do not sit through a video first. Video suits decisions people take their time over.

The first five seconds

Most viewers decide in the first five seconds whether to skip. Whatever matters most has to be in them: who you are, where you are, and something worth seeing.

An opening spent on a logo animation and music spends those seconds on nothing. Open on the work itself, with the business name on screen and spoken aloud.

The rest of the ad is for people who keep watching: what it costs, how to book, what makes you different. Fifteen to thirty seconds is plenty.

What the video needs

Clear sound matters more than polish. Viewers forgive a plain shot of a real shop, but they skip a voice they cannot make out.

Show real people, real premises and real work, filmed steadily in good light. Someone who makes short ads for a living is worth hiring for this, since the first five seconds carry the whole campaign.

End on one instruction and the address to visit, on screen long enough to read. The ad can also carry a short line of text and a link alongside it.

Keeping it local

Set the location to the area you actually serve, and check the location options: AdWords can also reach people who merely show an interest in a place, which a local business rarely wants.

Cap how often one person sees the ad. The same fifteen seconds every evening turns curiosity into irritation.

Rule out the kinds of videos you would not want your name beside, using the content exclusions in AdWords. If the campaign offers partner sites beyond YouTube, leave them off at first so you can see where the ads run.

A worked example

An independent golf shop in a suburb sells clubs, balls and clothing, and its most valuable service is club fitting: an hour in a hitting bay, matching shafts and heads to a player's swing.

Fitting is hard to explain and easy to show, and conversations at the counter made it plain that many customers watched golf lessons on YouTube.

The shop had a twenty-second ad made: a player hitting in the bay, the screen tracking each shot, the fitter swapping a shaft, then the shop's name, its location and the words book a fitting.

The campaign showed it before golf videos to people in the shop's own city and the two next to it, capped at a few showings per person each week.

The owner judged it by fittings booked through the ad's page and by asking each fitting customer how they had heard of the shop. The view count was large and said little.

The AdWords figures for how far viewers watched showed many dropping off around the middle, so the second version moved the booking line earlier.

Measuring more than views

Views are cheap and easy to count, which is why reports lead with them. They say nothing about whether anyone came in.

Watch how far viewers get through the ad, which AdWords reports in quarters, and how many go on to the page it points at.

Track the form or booking button on that page as a conversion, count calls from it, and ask each new customer how they found you. Write the answers down.

Budget and patience

A campaign covering one town can run on a modest daily budget, since skipped ads cost nothing.

Give it two or three months before judging. People rarely act on the same day they see an ad for a considered purchase.

Decide in advance what result would justify carrying on, such as a number of bookings a month, so the decision is made on figures rather than on how the ad looks.

The counter-case

YouTube is the wrong first step for many local businesses. Urgent services are searched for, not watched, and search ads reach those customers better.

A business serving one small town may find too few viewers there for the campaign to learn anything.

And a business without the budget for a decent video should wait until it has one, because a poor ad teaches viewers to skip you.

Where the work is visual, the decision is considered and the area is big enough, a short, well-made, tightly targeted video is worth a proper test.

Before the first ad

  1. Check that customers watch YouTube on your subject.
  2. Make a short video that opens on the work.
  3. Put your name and place in the first five seconds.
  4. Target only the area you serve.
  5. Cap how often each person sees it.
  6. Track bookings and calls from the ad's page.
  7. Judge it after three months on those figures.

Step three decides whether anything else matters. Many viewers skip at five seconds, and an ad that has not said who and where by then has reached nobody useful.

Following up with people who have already visited your site is covered in remarketing for a business with long decisions.

Frequently asked questions

How do YouTube ads charge?

For skippable in-stream ads, you pay only when someone watches thirty seconds, the whole ad if it is shorter, or clicks. Viewers who skip cost nothing.

Can YouTube ads target just one town?

Yes. Video campaigns in AdWords can be limited to the area you serve, and to people watching videos on your subject or with matching interests.

How long should a local video ad be?

Fifteen to thirty seconds is plenty. The first five matter most, because that is when viewers decide whether to skip, so put your name and place in them.

What should I measure instead of views?

How far viewers watch, visits to the page the ad points at, bookings and calls from that page, and what new customers say when asked how they heard.

Which businesses should not start with YouTube?

Urgent services, which people search for rather than watch, and businesses in very small towns, where too few viewers see the ads for the campaign to learn anything.

Do I need a professionally made video?

You need a clear one: steady pictures, good sound, real premises. Someone who makes short ads for a living gets the first five seconds right, and those decide everything.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Work that is easier to show?

Tell us your area and what people should see. We will plan a short video campaign and how to measure it.

Start a Conversation