Running YouTube ad campaigns through Google Ads can be a great way to gain visibility and grow your audience. However, without the right precautions, it’s easy to overspend—sometimes without even realizing it. In this article, we’ll share essential tips to help you manage your campaigns effectively and avoid costly mistakes.
Set a Realistic Daily Budget
Google Ads can spend up to twice your daily budget in a single day to optimize performance, but it won’t exceed your total monthly limit (calculated as 30.4 times your daily budget).
For example, if you set a daily budget of €50, you might see daily spending reach €100, but your monthly total won’t exceed €1,520. Regularly monitoring your budget is key to preventing unexpected expenses.
Avoid Launching Campaigns Close to Midnight
Starting a campaign shortly before midnight can lead to excessive spending in a short period. Google may try to use up the entire daily budget within that last hour, which can significantly increase your cost per view (CPV). Instead, it’s best to launch campaigns earlier in the day to ensure a more balanced budget distribution.
Watch Out for Delayed Reporting in Google Ads
Sometimes, a campaign may appear inactive—showing zero views, impressions, and costs—when in reality, it’s already running and accumulating expenses. If you assume it hasn’t started and launch a second campaign from the same or a different account, you could end up paying twice as much as intended. Always double-check before making decisions based on delayed data.
Don’t Change Budget and Bids Too Frequently
Making frequent adjustments to bids, budgets, or targeting settings can confuse Google’s algorithm, sometimes causing a temporary pause in ad delivery for several hours or even days. It’s best to finalize your initial setup carefully and then make only small adjustments (around 10-15%) to monitor how the campaign responds before making further changes.
Google Ads May Re-Evaluate Your Campaign After Initial Approval
Even if a video gets approved for promotion initially, Google may later disapprove it due to policy violations. This can be problematic if you’ve already informed your client that the campaign was good to go. To avoid issues, wait a few hours before confirming campaign approval to clients.
Understand That Not All Google Ads Accounts Perform the Same
Newer Google Ads accounts may take longer to start delivering impressions and might have different CPV rates compared to accounts with an established history. This is important to consider, as it can impact initial campaign performance.
Optimize Your Setup to Lower CPV
There are several ways to reduce costs while still achieving good ad performance:
- Use In-Feed Ads Instead of In-Stream or Shorts Ads – In-stream and Shorts ads often have higher CPV rates. In-feed ads tend to be more cost-effective.
- Target Only Mobile Devices – Running ads exclusively on mobile devices (and excluding desktops, TVs, and tablets) can significantly lower CPV.
- Select a cheaper geographic target – Another effective way to reduce CPV is through geographic targeting. By focusing your campaign on emerging countries, you can significantly lower ad costs while maximizing the number of views within your budget.
- Test and Adapt – Not every strategy works the same for every niche. The key to success lies in continuous testing and adjusting settings based on results. Only professionals who manage ad campaigns daily can fine-tune campaigns to maximize performance at the lowest possible cost.
Conclusion: DIY or Work with Experts
We’ve put together this guide to help ambitious and tech-savvy individuals try running their own Google Ads campaigns. However, if you’re not getting the results you want, or if you want to maximize your return on investment without the hassle, our team can help you create and optimize campaigns that convert at the best possible price.
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