The demand for video content is growing and it's expected to continue that upward trajectory in the coming years. As this demand gains headway, new methods for advertising come to light, including ads on videos as seen on the world's top video content platform YouTube.

Research from Cisco's Visual Networking Index recently indicated that by 2021, video content users would constitute around 82% of consumer traffic on the internet. In terms of time, videos are forecast to reach three trillion Internet video minutes a month. That sizable figure translates to around five million years of video a month!

What does this mean?
These figures mean that if you're working in digital marketing and content creation, the video should be a highlight among the services you provide to your customers or fans.
As social media evolves, you'll notice many platforms including Facebook and Instagram shifting their focus to video. But none have made it as far as YouTube.
With the rising demand for video, a YouTube strategy should be a highlight for you, including YouTube Ads as part of your Google Ads strategy.

Current Situation
Many marketers have been holding off of YouTube for a while, assuming that people aren't consuming video there, but the truth is quite different.
Recent research by eMarketer indicated that users of all ages – literally – were streaming or downloading the video.

They've surprisingly put in children aged zero, which is a bit weird but you can imagine that parents are letting their several-months-old children consume video, to keep them pre-occupied.
On average, YouTube has 1.9 billion viewers monthly, those logged into the site.

Why YouTube?
As mentioned, all social media platforms are trying to incorporate video into their platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even professional social site LinkedIn. But YouTube is the only one of those where the video is king. On Facebook and LinkedIn, posts are a mixture of text, text and image, video, and web lines. And the user is going through all of these on a daily basis.
YouTube, on the other hand, is purely and ultimately a video-only platform, which reduces the noise made by other aspects available on other social media platforms.

Available YouTube Ad Formats
There are five formats you can use for YouTube Ads depending on how you want to reach your target audience and what you want them to do when they see your ad.
-    Mastheads
-    Bumpers
-    TrueView Discovery
-    TrueView In-Stream
-    TrueView for Action

Now, let's go over each ad format in brief so you can decide which of YouTube's ad format suits your message and business.
-    Mastheads: These are ads meant to generate brand awareness. If you use these ads, they'll be located at the top of the YouTube homepage. However, this type is considered on the costly end of YouTube ads and is often used by large corporates with major brand awareness budgets and goals.

-    Bumpers: These are 6-second video ads that can be used for remarketing purposes. Most brands use this type when the audience is at least already familiar with them. You have to be able to say everything in the span of 6 seconds!

-    TrueView Discovery: The YouTube ad format comprises an image and not more than 3 lines of text. These ads show up in search result, homepage, or watch page. This video type is meant to increase video views; if you add in a CPC campaign and people don't click, you get free brand awareness.

-    TrueView In-Stream: This is the most commonly used YouTube ad format. It's the one where you get to skip the ad after watching it for 5 seconds. But generally, this format helps with the click-through rate (CTR) if you have a good