What YouTube ad views don't tell you

The ad had more views than anything the business had ever posted. A friend mentioned seeing it before a cooking video. Another had seen it in Shorts, with the end cut off. The phone was no busier than it had been the month before.

Views are real.

They're just not the same thing as customers.

YouTube can put a business in front of people before they start looking for it, which Search can't do.

When a YouTube campaign is watched but nothing much follows, the cause is usually in one of five places.

Where the views get lost

• Views are being counted as the result.
• The ads show next to content nobody would choose.
• The video was made for one screen and shown on another.
• The video doesn't ask the viewer to do anything.
• It's being judged on the wrong timeline.

Counting views as the result

A view is easy to count and easy to grow. A campaign set up to get as many views as possible will usually find them, often from people who couldn't skip, or in places where the sound was off.

None of that is wrong, and reaching people is sometimes the whole aim. It just isn't the same as someone becoming a customer. If the account only reports views, reach and cost per view, a campaign can look busy for months with no way to tell what it led to.

You can check this by looking at whether the account records anything that happens after someone watches, like a visit, an enquiry or a sale.

Next to content nobody would choose

YouTube ads can show on channels, videos and apps well beyond the ones anyone had in mind. A physio's ad can end up before gaming streams, music left playing in the background, or videos inside apps nobody chose.

Those views are often cheap, because few advertisers want them. They're still counted the same as a view from someone who might book an appointment. When nobody reads the list, a handful of those places can take much of the budget without anyone noticing.

You can see this in the placement reports, by reading where the ads actually showed, channel by channel.

Made for one screen, shown on another

A lot of video is made wide, for a laptop or a TV. Much of YouTube is now watched on a phone held upright, in Shorts and in feeds.

When a wide video lands in a tall space, the edges can be cropped, the text cut off and the logo lost. The viewer sees part of the ad and none of the point. The same happens the other way, when an upright video is shown in a wide space and shrinks to a narrow strip down the middle.

You can check this by watching the ad on a phone, in the places it's actually showing, rather than on the computer it was made on.

A video that doesn't ask for anything

Some ads are made to be liked. They're well shot, they tell a small story, and they end on a logo. The viewer enjoys it and carries on, because nothing told them what to do next.

An ad doesn't need to shout, but it does need to leave the viewer knowing who it was from and where to go if they're interested. If that only appears at the end, most people have skipped before they get there.

You can check this by watching only the first five seconds and asking whether someone who stopped there would know who the ad was for.

Judged on the wrong timeline

Someone who sees a video ad rarely stops what they're doing to buy. They might search for the business a week later, mention it to someone else, or come back when they need it.

When that happens, the sale is usually credited to whatever they clicked last, often a Search ad or the business's own name. The video did some of the work and shows none of the result. It's one reason every platform claims the same sale, and one reason a YouTube campaign can be switched off just as it starts to help.

You can see this by comparing searches for the business's name, and direct visits to the site, in the weeks the videos ran and the weeks they didn't.

Where to start

The quickest way to see what a YouTube campaign is doing is to watch it the way a customer would: on a phone, in the places it's showing, for the few seconds most people give it. Then look at what happened in the business afterwards, not only in the campaign.

None of this means YouTube doesn't work. It means it's judged on what it leads to, not only on how often it's watched.

That's also where a review starts.

If you'd like someone to look at yours, you can request a review, or read more about YouTube campaigns.