YouTube is a powerful platform for advertisers, but not every campaign is a success. In fact, many advertisers struggle to achieve their desired results with their YouTube ads. If you’re in this position, don’t worry. There are several levers you can pull to optimize your campaign and improve your results.
In this blog post, we’ll explore three guidelines that can help you turn your poorly performing YouTube ad campaign into a high-performing one.
Plug the Holes in the Bucket
Imagine your campaign as a bucket, and the water inside represents your advertising dollars. Now imagine there are holes in the bucket, and the more water you pour in, the more water leaks out. The goal is to plug those holes, so your bucket doesn’t leak any more water. In this analogy, the holes are issues with your campaign that are causing it to underperform.
Common holes include:
- A poorly crafted message or video
- An ineffective campaign structure or bid type
- The wrong audience
- An unappealing offer
Create Well-Structured Campaigns
Another way to optimize your YouTube ad campaign is to structure it effectively. Many advertisers make the mistake of creating one big campaign with one video and poor naming structure. This approach makes it difficult to determine what’s working and what’s not. Instead, use the 313 Method to structure your campaign.
For every offer, build out three campaigns. Inside each campaign, have one ad group or audience. Inside that audience, test three different videos or ads. This approach provides clarity on what’s working and what’s not. It also helps identify whether the issue is with the audience, campaign structure, or funnel.
Optimize Your Campaign
Now that you’ve plugged the holes and created a well-structured campaign, it’s time to optimize it. Use the Red, Yellow, Green Framework to determine which campaigns are performing well and which ones need to be paused.
For example, if your goal is to get a $10 cost per lead, create ten different audiences, and run the videos to those audiences. Track conversions and cost per conversions. Identify the most expensive audiences that are producing the highest cost per lead and pause them. Optimize your campaign by increasing what’s working and pausing what’s not.
Conclusion
If your YouTube ad campaign isn’t performing as well as you’d like, don’t give up. Instead, use these three guidelines to optimize your campaign and improve your results. Plug the holes in the bucket, structure your campaign effectively, and optimize it using the Red, Yellow, Green Framework. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to running a high-performing YouTube ad campaign.
If YouTube ads is something you or your business are interested in but not sure where to take that initial first steps then you will want to check out our 2023 YouTube Incubator program.
We spend 3 days taking you from writing your video ad script, shooting your video ad, researching your perfect audience to launching your YouTube campaign.
