YouTube Ads Agency London
What are YouTube Ads?
YouTube Ads is Google's video advertising platform inside the Google Ads ecosystem. For a London business in 2026 it covers in-stream pre-roll, mid-roll, Shorts vertical video, bumper ads, in-feed ads and remarketing. YouTube reaches more UK adults aged 18 to 49 than any commercial broadcast channel, making it the largest video audience in the country.
What our YouTube Ads management covers
In-stream video ads
Skippable and non-skippable pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll inside YouTube videos. The dominant YouTube ad format for awareness and consideration. We brief creative for the first 5 seconds because most viewers decide whether to skip or watch in that window.
- ✓Hook in the first 5 seconds
- ✓Skippable and non-skippable variants
- ✓Audience and topic targeting
- ✓Frequency capping per user
YouTube Shorts ads
Vertical 9:16 video ads served in the Shorts feed. The fastest-growing surface on YouTube. Creative must be vertical, fast-cut and platform-native. Reused horizontal ads burn through budget without converting on Shorts.
- ✓9:16 vertical creative briefs
- ✓Hook within 2 seconds for Shorts
- ✓Captions burned in (sound-off viewing)
- ✓Separate measurement from in-stream
Bumper ads (6-second awareness)
Non-skippable 6-second video ads. Designed for awareness and frequency, not direct response. Best used as a frequency layer on top of in-stream to reinforce brand recall. Cheap CPM, broad reach.
- ✓6-second creative brief
- ✓Single message per bumper
- ✓Frequency capping aligned with in-stream
- ✓Awareness brand-lift studies where appropriate
Audience-led targeting
YouTube performance depends more on audience selection than keyword choice. We layer in-market audiences, custom audiences, customer match and remarketing. Demographic and content topic targeting come second. Audience choice is the single biggest lever.
- ✓In-market and affinity audience layering
- ✓Custom audiences from search intent
- ✓Customer match from CRM
- ✓Remarketing from website visitors
Creative briefs and production support
Bad YouTube creative cannot be fixed at the bid level. We write the creative brief, structure the storyboard around the first 5 seconds, and either produce in-house or brief your production team. Hook, value, proof, call to action.
- ✓5-second hook structure
- ✓Sound-off viewing assumption (captions)
- ✓Format-specific briefs per placement
- ✓A/B test plan per creative wave
View-through and remarketing
Most YouTube conversions are view-through, not click-through. We measure view-through attribution windows separately from last-click and build remarketing audiences from video viewers segmented by quartile watched. Viewers who finished the video are different from skippers.
- ✓View-through conversion windows
- ✓Remarketing by video quartile watched
- ✓Branded search lift tracking
- ✓View-through to website visit attribution
Our YouTube Ads process
Strategy and audience
Funnel position, audience layers, message hierarchy and budget allocation decided before any creative gets briefed. YouTube without strategy burns budget fast.
Creative brief
Creative briefs written for each format. First 5 seconds storyboarded. Hooks tested. Sound-off captions required.
Launch
In-stream first, Shorts second, bumper as frequency layer. Each surface launched in stages so we can measure incremental lift.
Optimise
Weekly creative review. Underperforming creative cut after statistical significance. New variants briefed monthly. View-through performance reviewed alongside last-click.
"You cannot fix bad YouTube creative at the bid level. Brief the first 5 seconds like the campaign depends on it. It does."
What Makes Us Worth Paying For
Transparency about what's working. Honesty about what isn't. A management structure where the person who built your account is the person managing it.
Creative-first
We brief the video before we run it. Bad creative is the most common YouTube failure point.
View-through honest
We report view-through and last-click separately so you see what the channel actually does.
Format-specific
Shorts is not a re-edit of in-stream. Each format gets its own creative.
Common Questions
Everything you need to know about our services, pricing, and process.
Still have questions? Talk to us