YouTube has become a critical platform for brands to reach their audience.
Understanding YouTube’s three key ad formats – in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts – is essential to creating campaigns that entertain, educate, and inspire without wasting marketing dollars.
But why do these formats matter, and how can brands make the most of them?
To answer that, we must look at how YouTube has evolved to become a cornerstone of modern advertising.
The YouTube ecosystem: Viewers, creators and advertisers
To fully understand YouTube’s impact, it’s essential to examine its ecosystem:
The viewer: Viewers are the foundation of YouTube. Their behavior has shifted from traditional TV to YouTube, and now back to TV screens via streaming.
The creator: Creators drive viewer growth. With YouTube, individuals can produce content independently, bypassing the need for large production teams or corporations.
The advertiser: Advertisers play a key role in this ecosystem. They can now reach viewers through creators or by producing compelling content on a platform designed for video consumption.
This ecosystem highlights the interdependence of viewers, creators, and advertisers in shaping YouTube’s ongoing evolution.
Dig deeper: How to overcome the top 3 objections to YouTube video ads
YouTube advertising: 3 formats your brand needs in 2025
YouTube remains an evolving platform, and many advertisers are still navigating how to approach it effectively.
With the right strategy, you can unlock its potential to entertain, educate, and inspire your audience in 2025.
Here’s how to make the most of YouTube’s three key ad placements.
1. In-stream ads
The way people consume video content is shifting. While viewers once moved from traditional TV to desktop YouTube, they’re now streaming YouTube on TV screens again.
YouTube usage on TV screens has grown by 63% compared to phones, according to eMarketer. It’s an impressive shift that’s only emerged in the last five years.
At the same time, traditional TV usage has dropped by 40 million households over the past decade.
Many of those households now use connected TVs, allowing apps like Google and YouTube to stream content directly to their screens.
This raises a crucial question: why rely on a connected TV provider when Google TV offers better targeting, data, and the ability to exclude video partners?
With Google TV, you can segment campaigns specifically for TV screens while integrating seamlessly with other Google ad campaigns.
This is a powerful opportunity for brands to target audiences at scale and use in-stream ads to educate viewers.
In-stream = Education
Where? TV.
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2. In-feed ads
In-feed ads offer a unique opportunity to draw users into your brand.
This is driven by human behavior. Users are scrolling through their feeds, looking for something to capture their attention and inspire them.
In-feed ads appear in three key places:
Home feed.
Watch Next feed.
Search feed.
Each placement triggers different user behaviors.
Previously, users only had the opportunity to watch videos after watching an ad (either skippable or non-skippable).
The ability to run in-feed ads in all three places completely changes how we experience ads.
For example, someone opens YouTube and starts scrolling, similar to LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.
However, these social platforms differ because you don’t know what’s coming next.
Is it a company post?
Is it grandma’s post?
Is it my best friend’s post?
Is it an ad?
But on YouTube, you know exactly what’s coming next – video.
This familiarity creates a more engaging experience, making this format highly effective for many brands.
This brings us to a crucial aspect of the process: the purchase cycle.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room – attribution.
A common question arises: if someone watches my ad, why don’t I see conversions in the UI?
The answer lies in the nature of the purchase cycle – it’s neither linear nor direct.
Before a user takes action, there’s a necessary phase of exploration, evaluation, and experience.
To drive conversions, you must know where to hook, engage, illustrate the problem, pause strategically, and qualify the user.
This process takes time. In-feed ads provide a powerful opportunity to inspire and introduce users to your brand as they navigate their purchase cycle.
In-feed = Inspire
Where? Mobile and Desktop.
3. Shorts ads
Shorts are especially valuable for many brands I work with, particularly those with a background in media buying on Instagram and Facebook.
Shorts offer a personal and engaging ad format, making it essential to:
Capture attention quickly.
Respect the viewer’s time.
Drive them to take action.
The goal is to keep people watching as long as possible, signaling to the algorithm that the ad is effective and should be shown to more users.
A key advantage of shorts is their versatility across platforms and placements.
A single vertical ad can run seamlessly on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, across multiple placements.
This allows us to evaluate how the creative performs in different contexts, adding value to the user experience.
Our agency is even testing dashboards to analyze this data more effectively.
What’s particularly interesting is how YouTube prioritizes Shorts in its app.
They’re prominently placed above the fold, making them the second thing users see after the first video.
This reflects YouTube’s investment in shorts as part of the user journey.
Whether transitioning from a long-form video or catering to viewers seeking quick, engaging content, YouTube positions Shorts as a key part of the platform’s experience.
This is a creative and humanistic type of advertising.
Shorts, in comparison to regular videos, have a multitude of different things.
People who come and watch Shorts are primarily in the “People and blog” type of content and entertainment.
And that’s what you should build for when it comes to Shorts.
Shorts = Entertainment
Where? Mobile.
Moving forward and building content on YouTube
Building content on YouTube doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s a simple approach to get started:
Set your budget
Start small with $5, $10, or $20 per day across three campaigns:
Shorts (9×16) and long form (16×9): In-stream (CPV).
TV: CPM.
In-feed: CPM or CPV.
Plan your content
Focus on creating multiple variations with different intros, outros, and voice types.
But more importantly, think about how your video content can transition across formats:
A 2-3 minute video should flow naturally into an in-stream format.
That in-stream video should translate into a 60-second in-feed video.
Finally, condense that 60-second video into a dynamic short with fast-paced action from the start.
Each format serves a purpose:
In-stream educates.
In-feed inspires.
Shorts entertain.
These straightforward strategies can transform your brand’s trajectory.
Dig deeper: What YouTube learned by analyzing over 8,000 top ads
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