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YouTube Shorts issue
DTC brand can’t get YouTube shorts to work. The CPA is 5-10x what we see in Meta or TikTok using the same creatives.
Some context:
1. We run YouTube ads from the same account as search & shopping ads, which do not have issues with tracking.
2. We run broad audiences on Meta and TikTok, relying on the algorithm to find the best people. We have tried broad and interest audiences on Youtube, none have shown promise.
3. Our Meta and Tiktok ads spend thousands of dollars a day, our starting budgets for Youtube were $1k per day
4. We run the same vertical creative, so did not expect YT performance to be so much worse.
5. Not sure how to target only Shorts placement (don’t think it is possible?) so maybe an issue as we only upload vertical creativesGreatly appreciate your thoughts on what could be going on. Thank you!
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1 Reply
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[deleted]
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YouTube may be video but it’s not Meta or TikTok. The latter two are very different platforms vs what YouTube is. I would look at testing different creative on YouTube to get better performance.
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re 5) Pretty sure you just target mobile and go. If you upload the ad to YouTube it will have a shorts url if it’s a short vertical video
I’m having the same experience. Everyone is saying shorts are killing it. Not for me yet. Same ad on fb destroys my other creatives in terms of cpa.
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Check placement report. Might be spending lots on mobile apps like candy crush. Try excluding mobile games.
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I don’t think Google has already launched Short ads. It’s still in beta and available for a handful of clients. I am suspecting you’re just using a Short video within a standard video campaign, and limiting the ad on mobile. That way, you force your ad to show up in-between Shorts, but also as a standard skippable ad with a weird look (extended margin for a landscape display). That could explain the poor performance.
I wouldn’t recommend rushing Short videos. Wait for the official release from Google.
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What about your tracking, do you have the purchase goal imported from Analytics, or do you track pirchases via GTM? I’d say the latter is a must for YT Ads as you can also track engaged conversions.
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