How To Create New YouTube Ads For An Existing Campaign

So, you’ve already got some YouTube ads up and running, and they’ve been doing exceptionally well.

First off – well done you.

But as with Facebook (boo! hiss!), YouTube ads also have a shelf-life. A video ad can last a couple of months, but when the CPV or CPL spikes, it could mean the audience are experiencing ad fatigue.

If that’s the case, I’m going to tell you today how to create new YouTube ads for an already existing campaign.

NOTE: When I refer to “YouTube ads”, I’m talking about the TrueView, In-Stream ads.

Viewers can skip these ads after 5 seconds. These ads are great, because you’re not charged a penny unless the viewer either makes a click or watches over 30 seconds of the video.

I’ve talked about the different variations of YouTube ads in a previous post, but I find TrueView In-Stream to be the best by far.

Here are four ways and reasons to create new YouTube ads for an existing campaign.

#1. Change Up Your YouTube Creative Once a Month

Flexx Digital shoots new YouTube ads monthly, without fail.

Even if your ads are pulling in views and leads by the truckload, it doesn’t hurt to create new YouTube ads to mix up your campaign a bit.

This way, your best-performing ads won’t fall victim to the dreaded “ad fatigue” that haunts Facebook so often.

Updating your YouTube creative so often will also put you at an enormous advantage.

Writing YouTube scripts, shooting, editing, hiring actors, adding graphics, etc., all take time. Many companies prefer to shoot one “really good” (in their opinion) YouTube ad, and use that for up to six months.

In reality, these businesses aren’t getting anywhere near the revenue they could if they were prepared to spend more money and time.

Say, for example, you posted a brand new ad to Facebook. The ad did pretty well, and you were getting a good level of engagement with plenty of new leads. That’s fine.

However, without split-testing and comparison, you’ll never know if another ad could have done even better.

And with high-ticket items, the difference between 200 leads and 250 could mean thousands of pounds you’re leaving on the table.

If you’re worried about writing multiple YouTube scripts, did you know that Flexxable offers YouTube template scripts as part of the paid course?

Check out our value video here.

#2. Introduce New YouTube Creatives To Ad Groups That Already Convert

Created a new YouTube ad but not too sure of its potential?

Use it in a campaign that already converts.

Unlike Facebook, YouTube doesn’t penalise your CPL for inferior ads… if you add them to a campaign that’s already crushing it.

If you add new creatives to Facebook and they don’t do well, that can mess up the algorithm. Sometimes, you’ll never get that ad set back to the way it was.

However, YouTube is much more lenient. If you create a new YouTube ad that hits the mark, it’ll do well out of the gates and start garnering traffic immediately. If it’s not as good as your existing YouTube ads, it just won’t get the views.

As you only pay for videos viewed for 30 seconds or more, you’ll be able to tell quickly if the new creative isn’t up to scratch.

#3 Create New YouTube Ads With The Same Script, Different Actors

If you’re worried about writing multiple YouTube scripts over the course of a few weeks, consider using different actors with the same script.

Again, this method is a form of split-testing – and it’s a guaranteed way to keep your YouTube creative fresh.

Be aware, when using different actors, that the results may surprise you.

For one of Flexx Digital’s recent ads, we were sure that the winning video would star a white woman in her mid-forties, with no discernible accent. However, the clear winner was a black lady in her late-thirties.

To read another script, we hired four actors. Three of them, in slightly different age-groups, took to the script like ducks to water. One of them, however, struggled with the script’s tone and our direction. We thought the last actor had no chance but, when it came to putting the ads up, she blew the rest of the competition away.

There’s no rhyme or reason, and you won’t know until you split-test your actors as well as your script.

If you’ve got no idea how to hire actors, here are a few quick tips:

Hire actors directly – there’s no need for agencies. Unless you want to work with acclaimed talent, approaching talent agencies will prove time-consuming and expensive.

Be 100% clear about the role. Flexx Digital works in a few financial niches, including the debt consolidation sector. Some people may feel uncomfortable making ads about delicate subjects, so flag the topic from the outset.

Use local acting groups on Facebook. Facebook has hundreds of local and national actor groups. Likewise, you will find filmmaker groups populated with fresh talent as well as seasoned pros. Facebook is an excellent place to find local talent, cheap studios and production companies to work with.

Use sites such as Fiverr and UpWork. There are actors everywhere, as long as you know where to look. We’ve posted acting jobs on Fiverr a few times, and we’ve always been pleased (and pleasantly surprised!) with the results. Though acting jobs will undoubtedly cost you more than $5, actors on Fiverr will sort out their own camera, studios, autocue, etc. This saves you a lot of time and, in most cases, a lot of money.

Put up a casting call. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it. Putting out a casting call, for any job, is likely to garner a lot of attention. Don’t forget to include a date, gender, age-range, location and hourly rate. Weed out the wheat from the chaff, by also requesting a spotlight profile and/or a portfolio. Include a business email address for them to send it to.

Once you’ve picked an actor, send a script over at least seven days before the shoot. The actor doesn’t need to memorise everything, but they need to get a feel for the content. There’s nothing more frustrating than a day wasted as actors stumble through an unfamiliar script. The actors also want to do a good job. This advert could end up in their showreel if all goes well. Avoid their embarrassment (and yours!) by sending the script as far in advance as possible.

#4. Create New Hooks For Your YouTube Ads

Browsing through ads on and off YouTube, I’m horrified by how many companies use the same hook to advertise their product or service.

You know what I’m talking about… take the life insurance niche, for example. Most life insurance ads read something like this:

“Life Insurance from £10 a month. Free quote.”

It hardly sets you on fire, does it?

Life Insurance ads on YouTube fare better, with some ranging from humorous to outright shocking. One particularly memorable one was a young man in the car with his crush. The ad set everything up for the first kiss – until the guy was shot through the car window.

In good taste? Perhaps not. However, State Farm, with the tagline “it’s never too early to start thinking about life insurance”, made people sit up and listen.

There’s no need to use extreme shock tactics in your YouTube ads, but make an effort to think outside of the box when it comes to writing hooks.

One tip for an “out of the box” hook is to think negative.

Sometimes, all the “this will transform your life” spiel gets tiring – for both you and the customer.

In Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, he tells us about a study conducted with two slightly different adverts sent to homeowners in the same neighbourhood.

The first ad said: “If you insulate your home fully, you’ll save 50 cents a day.”

The second ad said: “If you don’t insulate your home fully, you’ll lose 50 cents a day.”

The people who received the second ad were 150x more likely to insulate their homes.

This study shows us that people are more motivated by the fear of loss than the hope of gain. Avoiding pain is more important to our survival than gaining pleasure.

See, us humans like to read and watch things that tap into the four “S”s:

Shame

Shock

Surprise

Strong emotional response

So, try your hand at coming up with some negative hooks to catch your audience’s attention. Here are some (both swiped and made up):

7 Reasons Your Ads Are Destined To Fail

One Small Mistake Means This Mum Is $200,000 In Debt

How Lindsay Lohan Destroyed Her Looks

Are You Destined To Be Ripped Off By Health Insurance Companies?

Why Buying A Company Car Destroyed My Business

How This YouTuber Lost A Million Followers… In Less Than 24 Hours

The “Healthy Diet” That’s Worse Than Eating 3-Stick Of Butter A Day

Have You Been Duped By Your Mortgage Broker?

And so on.

Difficult it may be, but a bit of lateral thinking when it comes to your hooks could be the difference between a two-month campaign and a two-year one.

Apply your new and improved hooks when you create your new YouTube ads, and see your CPL do nothing but drop.