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Guide to Advertising on YouTube Shorts
Advertising your brand’s content on YouTube is a way to reach billions of people every month – 2.5 billion to be exact. This network is powerful because you can appear on YouTube and Google, Yahoo, Bing, and YouTube Shorts. With the craze of short-form video content, YouTube Shorts ads allow you to tap into an engaging audience.
From our 2024 Short-Form Video Study, we analyzed YouTube Shorts, TikTok videos, and Instagram and Facebook Reels to see which short-form videos are more impactful. The data found that Shorts have the highest engagement rate, at 5.91%. YouTube Shorts is the number #1 short-form video platform for brand and product discovery.
Overall, marketing and advertising on YouTube can generate leads and conversions, across multiple channels, simultaneously. If you’re new to YouTube advertising, make sure to read this guide below:
Once you’re familiar with YouTube advertising, let’s dive into advertising on YouTube Shorts placements.
What Are YouTube Shorts Ads?
YouTube Shorts are the network’s short-form video content. These vertical, 60-second videos appear in the “Shorts” feed on the network, similar to the Reels feeds on Facebook and Instagram.
YouTube Shorts ads are directly integrated into the Shorts feed, appearing as regular content. However, these ads will include a “Sponsored” label and normally a call to action. Each ad can be skipped and scrolled past.
With this in mind, advertising on YouTube Shorts is less intrusive than other platforms. Plus, with a 60-second cap, these ads are short, sweet, subtle, and effective to convert users.
How to Advertise on YouTube Shorts
To advertise on YouTube Shorts, you need an active Google Ads account to run campaigns across Google, YouTube, and all Google partner network placements. When opening your Google Ads account dashboard, you will see an overview of your previous ad campaigns, recommendations, insights, and more.
Click “+” and then “Campaign”. This will open the campaign objectives page.
Next, you will configure your conversion goals and campaign type. To advertise on YouTube Shorts in this case, select a Video campaign. From here, you will build out your campaign with the following details:
- Campaign name
- Locations
- Languages
- Bid strategy
- Budget and dates
- Networks
The most important step in this process is to click on Additional settings and then Devices. Only select “Mobile phones” from the device list, as Shorts are optimized for mobile viewings in the 9:16 aspect ratio.
While you can’t specifically direct YouTube Shorts placements, this will ensure your ad is not displayed as the typical 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the normal specs for long-form YouTube videos.
Next, define your audience and content by demographic information, segmentation, keywords, topics, and placements.
In the “Create your video ads” section, paste the URL of an existing YouTube Shorts video. Then, select the video ad format – Skippable in-feed ad or in-feed video ad.
You also have the option to add a “Final URL” to your campaign landing page and a call-to-action.
Lastly, upload a cover image for your Shorts ad and bid for your ad group. Once your campaign details are finalized, click “Create campaign”. Google will review your campaign and notify you when your ad is approved.
YouTube Shorts ad specs
YouTube Shorts ads can appear as square or vertical, and must follow these specs:
| Vertical | Square | |
| Video Length | Up to 60 seconds | Up to 60 seconds |
| Aspect Ratio | 9:16 | 1:1 |
| Video Resolution | 1920px by 1080px | 1080px by 1080px |
| Frame Rate | 60fps | 60fps |
Can you earn money on Shorts ads?
Channels part of the YouTube Partner Program can earn money on YouTube Shorts ad-revenue sharing program. To be eligible for the YPP, you need:
- At least 1,000 channel subscribers with 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months OR
- At least 1,000 channel subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
Inside YouTube Studio, find the “Earn” tab to view your eligibility status. If you are not eligible, you can enable notifications when you are eligible. Once eligible, you can apply to YPP within YouTube Studio.
After enabling ads, you can view your Shorts Feed Ads earnings inside the Analytics section. Find the “Revenue” tab to see your total earnings, how much money your videos bring in, and how to make money.
You can also see which videos have monetization turned on inside YouTube Studio’s “Content” tab.
YouTube Advertising with Metricool
Did you know you can create Google Ads to appear on Google’s Partner networks, including YouTube? Our advertising platform is very intuitive and user-friendly to build powerful advertising campaigns without confusion.
When configuring a YouTube advertising campaign on Metricool, enter a campaign name, URL, and toggle on Google Ads. To appear on Google partner networks, you will run a Search campaign.
After this, the platform will seamlessly walk you through building your campaign – location, segmentation, audience interests, keywords, ad design, and budget. Finally, you will submit your campaign and monitor your performance inside the Google Ads analytics dashboard.
Analyze your campaigns in-depth – impressions, clicks, conversions, CPM, CPC, CTR, conversion value, ROAS, and amount spent. When optimizing your advertising strategy, measuring your results is vital. Without this data, you won’t know how to improve.
With Metricool you can also customize and download comprehensive social media reports with all your social media and advertising data. Customize this document with your brand logo and colors, and select which social media networks to appear on the report.
These tools are indispensable for your marketing and advertising strategy. Plus, you get started for FREE with Metricool.