YouTube is more than a video platform. For many of us, this video-sharing service is a resource for product reviews, demonstrations, and testing. For businesses and brands, it is also an integral advertising platform for any successful marketing strategy.

This article lists everything you need to know about how much it costs to advertise on YouTube and the factors that contribute to pricing.

Why YouTube should be part of your marketing strategy

• YouTube has over 2 million monthly users, second only to Google as a search engine
• All ads on Youtube are part of the Google Ads network, which means that when you advertise on YouTube, you have the benefit of Google’s hyper-targeting features and targeted user activity
• It is usually cheaper to advertise on YouTube than using Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) ads

How much does YouTube advertising cost?

The cost of advertising on Youtube is not fixed, but is dependent on several factors including the targeted audience, the marketing objectives, and watch time. Nonetheless, the average rate is $0.10 to $0.30 per view or action, with a daily average budget of $10.00. What this means is that you will pay between $10.00 and $30.00 per 1,000 views. If you’re looking long term, it will cost you an average of $2,000 to reach 1,000 views. To keep it simple, these rates mean that Youtube charges an average of $2.00 for Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM).

What to consider when planning to advertise on YouTube

1. What you want to achieve

To help you answer this, Google Ads has a list of potential marketing goals to consider:

• Driving sales
• Generating leads
• Sending traffic to your site
• Boosting product or service discovery
• Broadening reach and building awareness
• Create a campaign

Depending on what you want to achieve, you can select one of two cost variables: advertising type and bidding strategy.

2. How much you can spend

A good rule of thumb is to budget for a daily spend of $10.00 for local campaigns and then multiply this by the number of days that your campaign will run. A 2-week run is a great starting point, but a longer run might gain more traction.

3. Your target markets

In order to reach your desired audience, you need to target your advertising. This includes selecting your preferred:

• Location
• Audience (detailed demographics, interests, and video remarketing)
• Content placement

4. The correct type of ad

YouTube offers five ad types for you to choose from and you can choose to pay in the following ways:

• Cost per View (CPV), where you pay each time someone interacts with your ad for over 30 seconds or selects the call-to-action (CTA) overlay. The average CPA is $0.10 to $0.30
• Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM), where you choose the highest amount you will pay for your ad to appear 1,000 times
• Cost per Action (CPA), where your ad causes a viewer to make a purchase or complete a form. The average CPA is $0.10 to $0.30

The ad types are:

• 1. Skippable In-Stream Ads that roll before, during, or after other videos and allow viewers to skip the ad after 5 seconds have played.
  Pricing: CPV, CPM, and CPA
• 2. Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads that play for 15 seconds before, during, or after other videos, without the option to skip.
  Pricing: CPM
• 3. Video Discovery Ads that have a thumbnail image that appears next to a related video.
  Pricing: CPV
• 4. Bumper Ads that cannot be skipped and last for six seconds.
  Pricing: CPM
• 5. Outstream Ads that are silent and viewers have to click to listen to the audio.
  Pricing: CPM