Running advertisements on YouTube can yield outstanding results, but if not checked on a regular basis, it can easily happen that ads appear on content that might harm the advertised brand or unnecessarily waste budgets on underperforming ad units.
Check Ad Placement
Begin with the examination of where specifically your advertisements are being served. Within Google Ads, you can go to the campaign you are running and click on the “Content” option, followed by selecting “Placements.”
Try to find placements where you think you either don’t fit with them in terms of values or they don’t fit with your audience. You might take one look and find that you’re running on pages that have very negative content, very little engagement, or audiences that are different from who you’re targeting as a customer.
Analyze Channel Content
After you have determined where your ads are being published, you should look further at the content on these platforms. You can go to each site where you are getting substantial impressions and watch several videos posted in the last month or so.
Consider whether it positively impacts on your own brand. Perhaps it doesn’t specifically appear to be ‘problematic,’ but it might appeal to the wrong audience if it doesn’t respect your own product either. So, for instance, you wouldn’t advertise in the same space targeting extreme budget shoppers if it was a luxury commodities company.
Review Performance Metrics
Your placement report will also help you understand which channels are driving real-world performance. Sort on key metrics such as view rate, click-through rate, or conversion rates to uncover the best and worst-performing placements.
High view rate: this shows that viewers are watching rather than skipping the ad, signifying high relevance of your ad to them. CTR gives you information on the appeal of the message you convey, while the conversion rate informs you if you’re getting monetary returns from users’ clicks on your ad.
Don’t overlook cost metrics, either. There might be placements that click well, but with high cost per conversions, they’re not worthwhile. Mark these to be either excluded or to adjust bids.
Optimization Tips
With the knowledge gathered from auditing, take steps to improve campaign performance. Make a YouTube exclusion list, for instance, containing videos and topics that you would not like advertisements to appear on. In Google Ads, you can place them in “Content exclusions” at the campaign or account level. You can also use a third-party list to manage campaigns.
Sharpened targeting should concentrate on placements that yield results. If there are placements that constantly deliver, look into how you can find more of these audiences. Adjustments should be made to cut spending on marginal placements while spending more on proven winners.
Also, check your ad creatives. If there is large performance variability across comparable ad placements, it may be necessary to optimize the ad content itself. You can test variations in ad hooks, calls to action, or even video lengths to enhance interaction performance.
Finally, you can apply content category exclusions if you previously set the content too broadly on YouTube. For instance, you can apply category exclusions such as “Sensitive Social Issues” or “Tragedy and Conflict” on content posted on the site to avoid brand safety issues.
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Keeping Your Campaigns Running Smoothly
The process of auditing YouTube campaigns is not something that you can complete one time and ignore until the next campaign roll out and beyond. It needs to be done on a regular basis, so if you’re working with large campaigns, you should be checking them on a weekly basis, while smaller campaigns can be checked monthly.
