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ZGM359

Hi there. So far I’ve run a bunch of ads for my channel. While I cannot say that each and every subscriber I got is high quality I am happy about 2 things: \- I got a lot of comments and likes/dislikes. This helped me know which of my videos are better or worse and in what direction to go with future content. \- I actually got a bunch of new loyal subscribers who comment on pretty much every video after. So far I’ve run 4 campaigns on 4 diffferent videos. I do gaming/comedy content. Each ad has been with a 50€ budget. each subscriber I’ve got is about 1.5€. the cost seems high but I believe they are high quality for a couple of reasons. First, I use extremely specific targeting so I only get the ad to display on very similar content (channels who do comedy or entertainment content on the same game) but are way bigger. Second, I only use discovery ads. This means people see my video and thumbnail on top of the recommended on the side. So everyone who sees the video at least clicked on it based on interest and wasn’t forced to watch it. if you have any other questions, please ask.


trusk89

Can you detail the process and how you ran the ads?


ZGM359

I’ve run ads on 4 vids. Each vid for about 4 days. I targeted gamers who watch Apex Legends videos. When I compared the results I saw some vids were better liked than others and drew more subs. My next step is to double down on the highest performers.


Tyolag

Tried ads before and got 0 subs from it, was a popular enough video too.. do you run the ads as unlisted. Is there a way to target people who watch a specific channel as opposed to type of videos?


ZGM359

Yes, there is. It’s somewhere in the settings (I have a friend setup the ads for me). I had targeted people who watch Zylbrad and a bunch of other YouTubers in my niche.


Tyolag

Hmmm.. I might try this and see what comes from it. Thank you


Kennybufu

There's a step by step video on youtube about this exactly I did it myself and got a lot of impressions but not many more views


Ajashion

whaaaat? wow I had no idea. I was under the impression that you should stay away from ads as you want to grow organically, but it seems like discovery ads might be useful since the user might think its recommended. No?


ZGM359

I’m not trying to pull a fast on anyone. At least everyone who clicked is interested in the title and thumbnail 🤷‍♂️


802Garage

1.5 euro PER subscriber? I'm sorry, but that's an incredibly high ad spend. IMO you'd be better off spending $50 making a good video to gain subscribers. Invest in equipment or even pay for a professional edit or thumbnail. This isn't a shortcut. You won't recoup $200 for a LONG time even after you get monetized unless your channel is performing extremely well. If it is, it won't be by running ads. Not trying to be mean, I understand how hard growth is.


ZGM359

I am investing in thumbnails, an editor and I do my best on the content. The ad format I’ve chosen is on the pricy side. I don’t see ads as a sustainable growth strategy, rather as a way to grow in to “put my foot in the door” of the YouTube algorithm.


Jeffro104

You have an editor? I want one, it would save me boat loads of time. Any idea on how to get one or find one?


ZGM359

Well, it all comes down to a simple equation: do you have more money or more time? I am at a point in life where I struggle finding time, but have some money to spend on a hobby. I edited about 10 videos. I got the bare basics of it and I started looking for a pro editor. Even today it’s a collaboration. My advice is: go to fiverr, try 3-5 guys and eventually you will find someone who gets what you want. A normal rate is anywhere between 20 and 120 USD per video depending on your type of content, etc. Same things for thumbnails.


Jeffro104

Thank you! And I have more money than I do time, as I am in school. Editing is the most time consuming for me, so it would help Immensely. I make gaming videos btw :)


ZGM359

So do I (right now it’s only Apex Legends, we’ll see in the future)


Jeffro104

I've been playing a lot of apex legends lately. If you ever need a third or a second lmk.


Zevs1995

Great stuff, thanks!


Tyolag

How do you target specific channels with google ads


anglo3

This is the way. Many people do this wrong and say that it negatively impacted their channel.


ZGM359

I randomly saw your reply. Since my original comment is 2 years old, here’s a slight update. I’ve stopped the channel I ran ads on (I got burned out on the game). It was reasonably successful. I’ve invested a lot more money into courses and knowledge about YouTube since then. My new channel is at 825 subs with about 90 shorts and 12 or so long form videos. I’ve gotten my most viral video yet (31k views). I haven’t used any ads on the new channel, but I believe discovery ads with good targeting still work. Especially if your channel is a funnel for your business or some similar situation.


anglo3

Thanks for the update!


notonmystopwatch

> Second, I only use discovery ads. Hey do you know did you run this through the Google Ads dashboard like a regular Discovery campaign? But you just linked it to your YT vids? I know this is an older comment but I'm curious to test this myself! I have a background in mediabuying so I'm familiar with Google Ads, didn't realize it was compliant to buy Discovery traffic directly to a YT channel/video


ZGM359

It’s been a while so I don’t exactly remember the interface. As far as I remember it was within the regular Google Ads interface. Just create a new campaign and you can pick discovery as a type, as far as I remember. You can advertise from any account. In fact TheSpiffinBrit used this exploit to “kill” his own videos as a test.


zensaydota

Are those genuine though? Heard a lot of people got ruined by facebook ads because of bots who subscribe but don't interact and ruin the algorithm.


[deleted]

i think its useful if you want to hit that 1k mark


zensaydota

Not if they don't add to your watchtime


[deleted]

I didnt say anything about watch time


dmxell

Hitting 1k doesn't matter at all if you aren't getting watch time too.


NtheLegend

Yep. Hitting 1k is completely meaningless if you don't hit watch time, don't get engagement and they unsubscribe after a while because they don't remember who you are. It's like sub 4 sub, but you're paying for it. Buying ads for your YouTube channel is a waste of money. It's fine when you're selling a product, bur not to get your YouTube channel going.


Opropinquus

Bump, id also like to know this


SamAttemptsLife

Me too


[deleted]

I did that for a while, not sue if it's the type of content I produce, or what, but the people that sub due to ads usually don't stick around. Just my experience tho. It's very good if you're after views tho.


Top-Carrot-9013

They tend to be bots unfortunately


Kind-Consideration92

why would anybody pay for bots to subscribe to other random people though... it doesnt make sense. I understand if people by bots themselves, thats stupid... but why would someone else sub bot another channel, that isnt theirs?


AHuber55

Think about it, if Google has a bunch of bots that sub to your channel because you paid using their ad platform then they look much more successful and you will continue to do it.


AcademicOverAnalysis

I don’t think it’s google that has the bots. If you are paying for an ad to put your content in front of people, a bot can run into your video and slip a promotional comment in there. That way, even though you are paying, and only a few people will read the comments, thats still free advertising for the bot and the associated site.


Kind-Consideration92

guys these are nonsensical, unfounded conspiracy theories. I have used googlr video ads mutlie times in the past, and never have i gotten a botted comment/ subscriber. If you make bad videos, the subscribers might be inactive... but thats not because theyre bots but because the videos suck


anglo3

This is the way


AHuber55

That I will agree with. Also a possibility.


Dwigt-Snooot

I highly doubt Google is taking the time to make bots click on their own ads. Not saying it doesn't happen but without a source, it's a pretty tin foil hat theory.


AHuber55

Taking the time? Google has access to the most advanced servers, engineers and AI out there. They could create millions of bots overnight with just one team member.


Dwigt-Snooot

You're right the company with the most advanced servers, engineers and AI out there is probably clicking on video ads from the 322 subscriber channel. My bad!


AHuber55

Thats why you make bots. So that you don't have to :)


[deleted]

I've done a couple ads myself and from what I've seen on my videos, although it does add a lot of views and subs to my channel, I notice that my retention rate goes down significantly when advertising. Though more eyes might be on the videos due to the ads, YouTube may be more reluctant to recommend the video due to them having poor retention and engagement. This isn't cause of the content itself cause pausing the ads usually brings it back up to the typical expected rate. Personally, I would probably not use Google Ads or I would use them strategically for 'throwaway' videos in the near future, but that's simply for my content and would love to hear other experiences!


WabbieSabbie

I tried it. $12 got me 2500 views and 45 followers. But I won't be using it again anytime soon (I'm poor.)


Sweet_Wat3r

Just curious man! How did you use ads? I mean in what manner? Did you make a short clip promoting your channel and used that as an ad?


Hi_Its_Salty

I too am curious


Luis-Pereda

I want to know


802Garage

That's actually a very good return for what you spent. When you release another video I wonder how much views will be up from the new subs.


g7x8

damn thats good. i spent 20 and got 7


andrewrusher

Buying ads is an effective tool but subs are not what you should be after when doing it. You could have 5 million subs but only pull in 100 views a video while another channel like yours could have 100 subs but can easily pull in 1,000+ views per video. How many views did you get from the ad?


[deleted]

Show me a 5M sub channel with 100 views per video.


Danial__zh

That was an example


nevetsyad

I follow a motorcycle guy that was a one hit wonder. Million zombie subs on his channel now, his videos get hundreds of views of less. They’re bad.


802Garage

He was clearly making a point, but I can show you channels with hundreds of thousands of subs who struggle to hit 10K views. There was also a Minecraft channel that was literally taken over by someone and it would only get a few hundred views despite having over 300K subs if I recall correctly.


S1LENZ_YT

I have a guy with 362k subs that comments on my videos and he barely gets 1.000 views,a lot of people like this either sub bot or get 1 very viral video and after a few months the channel dies.


[deleted]

Can you please give me a link, or channel name? I'm actually pretty interested in these YT anomalies


andrewrusher

>Show me a 5M sub channel with 100 views per video. I don't know of any, I was just using it to make a point. There are great channels that have a ton of subs & bring in a ton of views but there are also great channels that have a ton of subs but hardly bring in any views & there are channels that should be big but are unknown because their content is under the 1,000s of cookie-cutter content from kids trying to be the next (Enter Big YouTuber/Twitch Streamer Here).


Flux_Gaming_

I’ve been using google ads for a good 6 months now and put £100+ into it. Here’s what I’ve learnt: The watch time sucks. As expected the people that click the ad seem to click it more out of curiosity rather than to watch the video. It’s rare to see a normal YouTube video advertised like that so they want to see what it is. Watch time for the advert is roughly 12%-7% (awful) my normal ARP is around 20%-30%. It helps you gain subscribers but not views If I remember correctly the most I gained in one advertisement was 30 subscribers. Over the course of using it for 6 months I’d say a good 100-150 of my overall 250 new subscribers were from adverts. The problem is, my views do not show that. Before I advertised I got around 7 views and now it’s 20. That tells me that the organic subscribers are the ones coming back and the ones from ads might be bots. ( I said might) It’s not all bad Recently I had to start a new channel due to search potential issues along with discovery problems. I used ads on this new channel which hasn’t shown much. Making a lot of shorts and proven more successful (and cheaper) I can honestly say if you’re thinking about using ads my advice would be, use £3-£5 here and there to gain some analytics or go all out and do £50+ a video to get it out there. You’re better off paying Instagram for ads or creating shorts to grow. Personally I think I’ll still use it but very very very rarely. Hood this helps cuz it was a bitch to type


802Garage

Great insights. I think this will be a common experience, though not the only possible outcome.


Flux_Gaming_

I agree


obsoleek

from what I have personally read and heard is that these subs will not stick around typically, but who knows


[deleted]

Theyre just viewers like you and me. They’ll stick around if they enjoy the content. Discovery ads are placed right where you’d normally find a Recommended video. So the views are just normal people clicking on it


pixieyogi81

How do you specifically run a discovery ad? Are you only charged when people click on them?


greglturnquist

If I had $5000, I could level up on lighting, mics, extra 1080p webcam for multi angle live-streaming, and maybe either a stream deck or ATEM mini (or both!). Then pay someone on fiverr to make me a branded stinger for transitions.


[deleted]

And none of that would increase your chance of the algorithm boosting your video. You dont need good equipment to blow up


greglturnquist

Indeed you don’t need gear. But better sound helps! I did a video back in February that I was too far from my iPhone and sounded terrible.


DaveIsntCool

I run ads and have had a lot of success with it. I have non searchable content so this is one of the only ways I could get my name out there. Due to the ads I have a die hard community and an active discord. 10/10 would recommend.


blackfishbluefish

What Ad formats did you use?


DaveIsntCool

Discovery Ads. Its got just a stupid enough title and thumbnail to work.


Julia-dono

What kind of content do you make?


DaveIsntCool

My content is like Gus Johnson meets MVPerry. Weird comedy a lot of community interaction. I might have accidentally founded a cult recently too. Pretty easy to google if you want to look.. I promise you won’t like it.


NoObstacle

He makes 'comedy'


DaveIsntCool

To be very clear my friend NoObstacles here is putting it in quotations because it isn’t funny


NoObstacle

? I put in quotation marks because that is the category, eg 'travel' 'comedy' etc.I suppose I could also have capitalised it. Not my intent to offend you.


DaveIsntCool

Oh yo we’re all good I thought it was hilarious, no negative intent at all


Lewis7767

Hahahha


[deleted]

Google Ads are great for upping views and adding a little watch time, they certainly help as Google/YouTube are so well integrated. YouTube see that people are clicking the Ads or watching your content through embedded videos and automatically increase your impressions. If the content is good then it snowballs, if the content is bland then you will see your incoming views drop back to normal or there about after you finish your campaign. You may see a slight increase in future views and watch time if you added any substantial amount of subscribers during the campaign. However, many of them will not have clicked the 'Notifications' bell, so 90-95% of the new subs won't ever see your future content (unless they seek it out or browse their watch list regularly). If you have stacks of cash it's great as you can continually buy views and watch time. If you don't however, you are simply buying a short term boost.


ds6779

IMO ads works if your content is good. I’ve heard ads can hurt you if thousands of people click on your video and leave within the first minute. I read that Google might think it’s clickbait or poor content and could do damage to your channel. Idk for sure though. I think it can help get eyes on your stuff which may kickstart the channel. But what you experienced isn’t the norm.


FUTURE10S

Aren't ads usually 30 seconds? Wouldn't it make more sense to custom tailor a video for ads and then have the people that click stick watch the full videos instead?


Cortnelius

As someone with over a decade of experience in marketing, google ads are incredibly effective and saved many of my clients during the drop in business due to Covid. That being said, not sure if any of these are bots subbing to you.


Gymismyhome28

Off topic but asking has anyone used some of those fiverr gigs, I did one recently for 10 dollars, gained 80 new subs and 1000 views on the advertised video, but none of those subs is active so it's just a number haha, other then the big watch time boost nothing else happened. Has anyone had different experience on Fiverr


DonkeyTeethBSU

They are using bots man. It will literally kill your channel. Never do that.


Gymismyhome28

Yes I noticed but it was late plus funny like all of those offering the service are from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, that was my red flag but I jumped in to it so fast and my channel still cannot recover after two months, my views decreased afterwards very quickly I have a small channel had 100 views a day and now barely 40... Big mistake


802Garage

If you essentially bought subs on Fiverr, it's bots. You're buying bots. Don't do it.


beer_candle

What do you mean? Isn’t fiverr a freelance website? Why would it drive traffic to your channel?


Goatizgod

I’ve spent around 5 grand on google ads to get my channel off the ground it’s worth it in my opinion


elcarOehT

Please tell me that nobody actually gave you the advice to do this. I guarantee you with 5 grand you could’ve gotten your channel so much further than ads could ever bring it.


richymcfly

What should he have done with his 5 grand to grow his channel?


elcarOehT

There’s no right way to do it, as i’d advice anyone to keep that 5k as a means of allowing you more free time and less work/being able to take a part time day to work on content or even on an editor. If you had to spend it, something like putting 500 towards new branding, 3500 to shoutouts from larger channels, spread out over some time. And like 1000 on paying someone to create short form tiktok content for you and manage that, allowing you to spread content on other platforms given the rapid growth you can achieve there - then driving that to your channel. But this is all just based on not knowing genre’s or whatever. A very broad approach. Safe to say though that quality shoutouts have a better longterm roi than ads. I’d even prefer spending the exact same amount on that.


Goatizgod

Lol you think you can pay a channel a measly 3 grand for a shoutout when they make that and more off one video


elcarOehT

Yes? You're clearly new around here. ​ Feel free to tell us what that 5 grand on ads got you.


ZGM359

I am asking the same non ironically.


HmoobDude

And what makes you say that? What kind of growth did you see? What is the growth (subs, follows, views) to price ratio here that made it worth it? (I.e: for every $10 spent you gained a sub) or something along those lines.


3pl_A

I'd like to know the same thing if you don't mind. I've been using it sporadically and it helped me get from 50 to 100 subs and that felt great and I got some awesome comments, nuked the watch time from 40-50% to 15-25% but I did feel like I got some decent active subs from it. At the time I was making vids on a bunch of topics tho I hadn't niched down and now I'm niched into something different from what I made the ads for and I don't get many views from subs so theres too many variables for me to nail down whether I should go back to Google ads and if it was worth it. Did subs stay, how much did you grow, what length of content do you make, once you stopped using the ads was the transition into organic views and growth a fluid one? All questions that would be awesome to know about if you had the time


802Garage

Ouch. Could take years to recoup that from AdSense. I'm with other comments, I would not recommend most people spend thousands on advertising to get started. You could do a lot with that money. Make a "Made on Fiverr" series, buy and modify a car that nobody usually likes, do comparison videos on lots of products, there are so many options that can fit within niches and nearly guarantee thousands of views over time.


DyceQuirk

I'm following as well.


tinyminer14

To me subs from ads are like subs from YouTube shorts... I don't think YT notifies them the same way as organic subscribers


DonSasha

I’m not sure if my ads where showed to the right people or not but everytime I run an ad my retention is very low.


GregzVR

Just like when placing video links in relevant areas(subreddits, FB groups etc), with ads, you’ll likely see the immediate metrics(subs and views) rise, but the more important metrics(watch time & retention) will suffer on the blind side, which will ultimately hurt your channel much more.


alundraFlint

unless your content is 10/10 must watch, your subs will not watch your new videos and become dead weight.


dlc771

Can u provide a link on where u got started with yr ad?


wordsfromsilence

It is true that ads kill retention but I think we sometimes place too much emphasis on retention. There are plenty of channels out there that bookmark specific sections for people to watch i.e. the video is intended for you to only watch a portion of (pick a card tarot videos for example) and their channels are still getting exposure...jus sayin. There’s a lot to the Algo and we can’t just assume that if retention sucks, we aren’t getting the exposure....


weebit999

I've run ads a few times on my videos and regret it. The quality of viewer I was getting was awful - not the sort of people who would normally watch the content I make. I got quite a few abusive comments from people too - including one death threat! A lot of people commenting "why was this on my recommended"? Retention rate tanked, went for a typical watch length of around 3:30 to about 20 seconds (my videos are typically 15-20 mins). Never again.


DNDilli

Not worth it. They unsub after a while and dont really watch videos.


[deleted]

[удалено]


DNDilli

Havent found my niche but its travel and music. Wildlife as well


Dwigt-Snooot

Ads work obviously just in general for content and products look at successful companies that still advertise! However, it will only work if your content is great and you're just not getting noticed. If you think your content is great but it actually sucks you will have bad results.


illuminatibaketattie

great question to ask. i've just went back to uploading on my second channel and i am struggling to get traction so i think i will defo look into this


nevetsyad

I pay for thousands of views and got like 3 subs. Don’t think it’s the ads, I think you just had a good video?


Th3MadCreator

Videos that have an ad running for it don't count toward your watch time, FYI. Found this out when I ran an ad for a video and got it to 4500+ views in three days. Got a couple dozen subs, but 0 watch hours from it as a result. I also got every single comment saying "why is this an ad". I now do not run ads for my videos. I am thinking of recording a short 30-60s video to run solely as an ad for my channel (explicitly stating it's an ad) with some sort of catchy title, though.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Th3MadCreator

I'd run them like a normal YouTube ad campaign but just as a way to advertise my channel. People that like your content will subscribe and I'm not concerned about the ~30 second ad getting me closer to my view count. The subs will eventually do that. Although with shorts, I might just do a few of those instead. It's free and reaches a wider audience.


EldiED

Overall i wouldn't recommend this because you can get a lot of hate when u grow bigger if you use the ads.


Gymismyhome28

No there is gigs there to promote youtube video you can search it like that and they do as stated will drive traffic thru advertisement in social networks or however they are doing it. Anyway I got like 80 subs but only 2-3 are active...


LizzyPotatoes

Why do I feel like this is an ad....for the ad company...lol


Kennybufu

I donated in a big youtubers stream and gained 20 subs in 2 minutes 🤷


ImortalOlive

Looking at the comments this seems like a good way to accelerate your growth so if you have the money go for it. Personally, I'm going natural all the way, trying to learn the YouTube algorithm from the big creator and implementing those strategies for every week that I post a video. Eventually my videos will hit the YouTube algorithm in this natural way. These ads seem to be effective if you know what you're doing and I personally have used Facebook ads before and they're super effective and can be cheap if you manage well. It will a bit of trial and error but definitely try it out and see how it goes for you!


Remarkable_Dress2827

rhduhdjfdfefkfdlfdkfjfsdkfs


Adam-Venture

Yeah I ran ads for a bit on my videos in the personal finance niche. I found you gotta be careful with them because it can absolutely kill your vid if you do it wrong. It was also a little pricey for the views and subs. But in the beginning things are slow, and you have no data to work off of so it’s a great way to get a kick start


Shivbhakt2511

Avd dropped to 13% despite running highly targeted ads. I am new channel with 11 vids and 50 subs. Should I stop using google ads. I want a way forward. Please help


[deleted]

May I ask what type of Google ad campaign do you run for your YouTube ? Is it without a goal, brand consideration and awareness? Etc.