My Experience Using Google Ads to Promote My YouTube Channel

Using Google Ads to Promote My YouTube Channel Intro

Four days have passed since I started this campaign. Let's review what we have achieved and see what lessons can be learned. Greetings, and welcome back to Taraan.com! I will discuss my experience using Google Ads for YouTube promotion in today's article.

If you are a small YouTuber, the struggle of getting more views, driving traffic to your videos, or being recognized on YouTube can be real. Everyone's ultimate goal is organic traffic and having YouTube suggest their videos; however, at some point, we all consider hiring promotional services or investing in paid traffic to increase our videos' visibility.

After researching various services, I ultimately chose Google because they own YouTube and seem to know what they're doing. With my video uploaded and optimized for search, Google suggested it to the correct people – and so far, the results have been satisfactory. If you want to discover if this method worked for you, too, keep reading!

 

What I Did

 

Recently, I used Google Ads to promote one of my evergreen videos. An evergreen video is one that people will be interested in and search for repeatedly. For this promotion, I chose “How to Create an Online Course,” published a few months prior, since my channel focuses on teaching people how to make money online. Selling digital courses is one way I always teach my students how to make money online, so this would be the ideal video to draw in their desired audience.

To get started with Google Ads, I Googled “Google Ads“ and discovered the onboarding process to be relatively straightforward. You need to specify the type of campaign you wish to run – in my case, a video campaign to increase views on my videos. Google Ads offers many campaigns, so you must pick one that meets your needs.

Many people suggest doing a daily budget, which I found beneficial when testing it out and seeing what results you get. So, I set a budget of three dollars daily for this particular video.

Targeting a specific audience was another goal I set for myself by setting interest categories, keywords, and multiple locations where to advertise this video. Since most of my videos are in English, including the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia – as well as India since Udemy courses or creating courses generally tend to draw in viewers from there, this one also included India.

After finishing all the settings and submitting it for approval, my campaign was approved within four days! To remind you, I started this video at just under 300 views, so promoting it was necessary since this one had been having trouble with views.

 

The Results

 

Now let me turn our attention to the success of my Google Ads campaign. After 24 hours, I checked in on the progress of my video and was delighted to see that its view count had doubled to 758! This was a great sign that my strategy had paid off, showing me it was working!

On day three, my view count had increased to 931 views – an incredible 200 extra views! On day three, we even hit 1000 views! Finally, on day four, we hit 1.2k views, proving that Google Ads worked!

YouTube is unmistakably driving traffic.

 

This is Working

 

I know many of you are thinking, “Great tip! Thanks for sharing it – I'm going to try this!” But before investing your money in Google Ads, there's something else you should consider: Views aren't the only metric that determines whether your video is good or not; additionally, views don't determine whether YouTube will start organically suggesting other viewers your videos.

Before investing in Google Ads, remember to focus on metrics like audience retention, engagement, watch time, and subscribers. These indicators will help YouTube decide whether your video deserves an organic promotion. Therefore, create high-quality content that engages your viewers and keeps them watching.

In conclusion, while Google Ads can drive traffic to your videos effectively, it won't solve all problems. It would be best to focus on crafting high-quality content that engages viewers and keeps them returning for more. Doing this increases views and builds a loyal following that helps grow your channel organically.

 

Engagement and View Duration

 

Engagement and view duration are crucial metrics you need to pay attention to, especially if you want the algorithm to start treating you better. Before I started my Google Ads campaign, my audience retention rate was 52% which is typical according to YouTube. Audience retention rate refers to how many people are still watching your video after 30 seconds – this crucial time when viewers decide whether or not they want to continue watching.

This metric is essential because it indicates whether viewers are engaged with your words and if the right people are watching your videos.

On Day Two of my Google Ads campaign, my audience retention rate dropped to 44% – significantly below typical. YouTube informed me this meant viewers weren't engaged or didn't like my video. On day three, it dropped again to 35%, leaving me increasingly concerned.

On day four, I checked in again, and my audience retention rate dropped significantly to around 35%. This could have been because YouTube wasn't showing it to those who cared, or maybe people watched my video and didn't like the first 30 seconds.

In conclusion, monitoring your audience retention rate is essential to determine whether viewers are engaged and interested in your words. If it is low, YouTube may not promote your videos organically. Therefore, it is key to create high-quality content that engages viewers and keeps them watching for extended periods.

 

Subscriber Count

On day four, it seemed like my Google Ads campaign was doing more harm than good to my videos; while they were getting views, they weren't from people who were engaged with what I had to offer. My primary objective was to gain subscribers and viewers who cared about what I had to offer. Yet audience retention rate – an essential element for long-term success on YouTube – wasn't something I could overlook.

Let me conclude this experiment on a positive note. After running the campaign, this video gained nine subscribers – double what the organic view count brought me! So in total, my Google campaign brought six subscribers. So in conclusion, there are some positive outcomes from it: views and subscribers!

If you've tried other promotion methods and found success, please share the details in the comments below – I'd love to hear! All small YouTubers should support each other.

In conclusion, while Google Ads campaigns can successfully increase views and subscribers, it is essential to pay attention to metrics such as audience retention rate, engagement rate, and view duration to guarantee long-term success on YouTube. Crafting high-quality content that engages your viewers and keeps them watching will ultimately result in the organic growth of your channel.