How We Promote YouTube Videos Using Google Ads

Posted on August 3, 2025 by James Martin

At Vedzzy, we don’t believe in shortcuts. No fake bots, no shady traffic—just real YouTube video promotion using Google Ads, the official and safest way to grow your views, watch time, and subscribers. This post gives you a full breakdown of how we run video ad campaigns for your YouTube content and what actually happens behind the scenes.
Let’s walk you through it step by step.

1. Choosing the Right Ad Objective
When you’re running YouTube promotions through Google Ads, the first and most crucial step is picking the right campaign objective. This choice tells Google what you actually want to achieve—whether it’s more video views, brand awareness, or even website traffic. Your entire campaign structure will revolve around this initial decision.

At Vedzzy, we focus on helping creators, musicians, and businesses grow their audience on YouTube. So naturally, we choose ad objectives that align with video performance and user engagement.

Here are the most common objectives we consider:

• Product and Brand Consideration
  This is perfect if you want people to not just watch your video but also think about your brand or channel afterward. It’s useful when you’re launching a new song, introducing your YouTube channel, or trying to stay top of mind among your target viewers.
• Brand Awareness and Reach
  This objective is ideal if your main goal is to get your content seen by as many people as possible. We often use this for promotional music videos, trailers, or Shorts where visibility and exposure are key.
• Website Traffic
  If your YouTube video includes a call-to-action directing users to a website—like a landing page, music portfolio, or EPK (Electronic Press Kit)—this objective helps send viewers to that external page. It’s especially useful for artists or brands looking to drive people outside of YouTube for more conversions.
• Leads
  This objective is best suited for creators or businesses who are offering something in exchange for contact details—like a free song download, newsletter sign-up, or workshop registration. It helps you build a list while still promoting your video.
• Views and Engagement (Most Common)
  For most of our clients, the main objective is to get real views, likes, watch time, and subscribers. That’s why we typically select subtypes like “Video views” or “YouTube subscriptions and engagement”. These are laser-focused on boosting your video’s visibility and performance within the YouTube ecosystem.

2. Campaign Type: Video
Once we select the right ad objective, the next step is choosing the Campaign Type—and for promoting YouTube videos, there’s really only one right answer: Video.

Why? Because the Video campaign type is specifically designed for YouTube. It unlocks all the ad formats that show directly on YouTube or across Google video partner sites. That includes skippable ads, in-feed video ads, and even Shorts ads.

Now, Google Ads offers several campaign types—like:

• Search (for text ads on Google Search results)
• Display (for image/banner ads across websites)
• Performance Max (which runs across all Google platforms automatically)
• Demand Gen (for visual-based campaigns on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail)

But if your goal is to promote a YouTube video, grow views, increase watch time, or gain subscribers, then “Video” should always be your campaign type.

Here’s what makes it ideal:

• It gives you full control over video ad formats (skippable, in-feed, Shorts, etc.)
• You can customize placements—choose specific YouTube channels, videos, or topics
• You get detailed YouTube-centric performance metrics like earned views, watch time, and engagement
• It aligns directly with your goal to grow on YouTube, not just drive web clicks

So while other campaign types have their own benefits, when it comes to growing a channel or promoting video content effectively, we stick with what works best—Video campaigns tailored for YouTube.

3. Campaign Subtype Options
After choosing “Video” as the campaign type, the next step is to select the Campaign Subtype—and this is where your specific goals really shape the strategy.

Google Ads offers several video campaign subtypes, each designed to support a different outcome. Here’s a quick breakdown of the main ones we use when promoting YouTube videos:

• Video Views
  This is our go-to for most YouTube promotions. If you’re looking to increase your views, boost watch time, or grow video engagement, this subtype is perfect. It’s optimized to get your videos in front of people who are more likely to watch and interact.
• Efficient Reach
  Want to get your video in front of a lot of people without blowing the budget? Efficient Reach helps you maximize impressions at a lower cost, using formats like bumper ads and skippable in-stream ads. It’s ideal for awareness campaigns or quick promotions.
• Non-skippable In-Stream
  As the name suggests, this format forces viewers to watch the entire ad (up to 15 seconds). It’s a solid option if you have a short, high-impact message—like a song teaser, trailer, or event promo—where you want guaranteed attention.
• YouTube Subscriptions and Engagement
  This subtype is specifically built to grow your channel by encouraging users to subscribe or engage with your content. Great for creators focused on long-term community building rather than just one-off views.
• Ad Sequence
  If you want to tell a story over multiple videos, this option lets you design a sequence of ads that play in a specific order. It’s great for music video launches, multi-part campaigns, or any narrative-driven project.
  No one-size-fits-all here. We carefully choose the right subtype depending on your content, target audience, and budget. Whether you’re aiming for views, reach, or subscribers, there’s a strategy that fits your goals—and we tailor the campaign to get the best results.

4. Ad Formats We Use
When it comes to promoting YouTube videos, choosing the right ad format is crucial. Each format reaches users differently—whether they’re browsing, searching, or watching content. We don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we test and choose the format that fits your video style, goals, and audience behavior.

Here are the main YouTube ad formats we use to get your videos in front of the right viewers:

Skippable In-Stream Ads
This is one of the most popular formats. Your video plays before, during, or after other YouTube videos, and viewers have the option to skip after 5 seconds. It’s a great choice for longer videos, music videos, or artist trailers—especially if the first 5 seconds can hook attention.
Why we use it: It gives you visibility while letting users opt out if they’re not interested. That means your views are more intentional and likely to convert into real fans or subscribers.

In-Feed Video Ads (Previously Discovery Ads)
These ads appear in YouTube search results, related videos, and the homepage feed—basically where users actively browse and discover new content. They include your thumbnail, title, and a short description.

Why we use it: In-feed ads are perfect for targeting people when they’re already looking for similar content, especially useful for growing music channels or reaching fans of a specific genre or artist.

Shorts Ads
With the rise of YouTube Shorts, these vertical-format ads now play between organic Shorts content in the Shorts feed. If you have a short-form video, a teaser, or a catchy snippet of a music video—this format helps you tap into a massive mobile audience.

Why we use it: Short, engaging, vertical content can go viral quickly. Shorts ads are great for musicians, content creators, or brands targeting Gen Z and mobile-first users.
Each ad format has its strengths, and we don’t just pick one at random. We analyze your video type, your goals, and your target audience, then use A/B testing and real-time data to select the best-performing formats.

5. Location Targeting
One of the key steps in running successful YouTube Ads is choosing where your audience lives. Whether you want global exposure or local reach, we customize your campaign to target viewers in the right places.

Global Promotion
If you want to reach audiences worldwide, we can run ads across multiple countries—great for music with international appeal or viral-style videos.

Country-Specific
Need to focus on a particular country like the USA, UK, India, Canada, or Australia? We’ll target only that region, helping you grow a fanbase where it matters most.

City or Region Focused
Promoting a concert, brand, or event in a specific area? We can narrow it down to cities or states like New York, Toronto, California etc.

Why It Matters:
Targeting the right location makes your ad budget work harder—reaching real viewers in the markets that matter to you. Whether you want broad reach or niche focus, we’ve got you covered.

6. Audience Targeting: Who Sees Your Video
Targeting the right audience is what makes a YouTube ad campaign truly effective. Instead of wasting views on random users, we make sure your video reaches people who are most likely to engage.
Demographics
We define basic traits like:

• Age: From teens (13–17) to adults (65+)
• Gender: Male, female, or all
• Parental Status: Especially useful for kids’ content or parenting products
• Household Income: (Available in selected countries)

Interests & Detailed Demographics
We go deeper by targeting people based on what they love. For example:

• Music lovers (rock, pop, hip-hop fans, etc.)
• Fitness enthusiasts
• Gamers
• Entrepreneurs
• Students, artists, tech geeks, and many more

The Result?
Your video gets shown to the right people, helping you grow a real fanbase, not just empty views.

7. Keyword Targeting: Appear in the Right Searches
Keywords help your video show up when users are actively searching for related content on YouTube.

We carefully choose phrases your potential viewers might type—so your ad appears in the right place, at the right time.

Example keywords we use:

• “latest rap music”
• “guitar tutorial for beginners”
• “how to start a YouTube channel”

This strategy places your video next to relevant content—boosting views from people already interested in your niche.

8. Topic Targeting: Match Your Video with the Right Categories
In addition to keywords, we use topic targeting to place your ad within videos and channels that cover similar subjects.

Some common topics we target:

• Music & Audio
• Beauty & Lifestyle
• Fitness & Health
• Gaming
• Tech Reviews

This way, your video ad runs on content your ideal audience is already watching—boosting relevance, views, and engagement.

9. Placements: Appear on Specific Channels or Videos
Want more control over where your video ad shows up? We can hand-pick specific YouTube channels or videos that match your target audience.

For example, your music video can appear:

• Before trending music videos
• On popular genre-specific channels
• Next to similar artists’ content

This strategy helps boost visibility in the exact spaces your potential fans already visit.

Why This Matters
This setup is not only 100% legit and safe, it’s also powerful. You’re using YouTube’s own ad network to grow—no tricks, no fake viewers. And every view comes from real, interested users who can like, comment, subscribe, or keep watching.

Final Thoughts
If you’re serious about growing your YouTube channel the smart way, Google Ads is the best solution—and we’ve mastered it. At Vedzzy, we make YouTube promotion effortless, effective, and totally safe.

Want to get started?
Promotion packages start at just $9, and we’ll tailor everything to match your goals.

Let us handle the ads—so you can focus on creating great content.