YouTube Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide for 2024

Since the early 2000s, YouTube has been home to an expansive collection of video content. While this certainly hasn’t changed, YouTube video ad specs have evolved to meet the needs of viewers and advertisers alike. 

With a wide variety of video content, you can reach viewers with nearly any interest, hobby, or demographic. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to make sure YouTube is a pillar of your video marketing strategy. 

Here, we’ll cover YouTube ad sizes and how to make the most of your YouTube video marketing campaigns. 

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Benefits of YouTube Video Marketing

With the right YouTube ad specs and video creative, the platform can prove highly valuable for the success of your video marketing campaigns. Some of the benefits of video marketing on YouTube include: 

• Effectively reach your target audience. Since most people use the platform to watch videos related to their interests, YouTube allows you to target based on demographics, industry, interests, and more. 
• Increase brand awareness. The different YouTube video ad sizes provide your business with a variety of ways to reach your audience and increase brand awareness. Plus, with over 210 million users in the United States alone, you have the opportunity to tell lots of potential customers about your brand. 
• Explain your products’ benefits and use cases. Many people take to YouTube for educational purposes, so give them the content they want. With animated explainers or how-to videos, you can teach potential customers about the benefits of your products! 

Learn more about how the YouTube algorithm works.

YouTube Video Ad Specs & Placements

When it comes to YouTube ad specs, there are three distinct placements across the platform: 

Skippable Video Ads

YouTube’s Skippable video ads play before, during, or after videos on YouTube. Viewers have the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds, so you must frontload an attention-grabbing hook in your creative to keep viewers engaged and discourage skipping. These ads are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TVs, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. 
• Video length: Skippable video ads do not have a minimum or maximum length, but YouTube states video ads 3 minutes or less perform best. 
• File type: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) is recommended, but many other formats are accepted

The headline accompanying a Skippable video ad must be 15 characters or fewer without a CTA, or 10 characters or fewer with a CTA. 

Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads

As the name suggests, YouTube Non-Skippable ads cannot be skipped and must be watched before a video starts or continues. Because of this, you have the opportunity to focus your creative less on that immediate hook, and more on taking the viewer through a longer narrative arc. Like with Skippable ads, these video ad examples will play before, during, or after the content you clicked on. These assets are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TVs, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. 
• Video length: 15 or 20 seconds in length, depending on regional standards.
• File type: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) is recommended, but many other formats are accepted

Bumper Ads

YouTube Bumper ads, also called pre-roll ads, are non-skippable short messages delivered before, during, or after a video plays. Even though bumper ads cannot be skipped, still aim to capture attention in the first few seconds to keep your viewer engaged as they wait for their video to begin. Bumper ads are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TV, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. 
• Max length: 6 seconds or fewer 
• File type: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) is recommended, but many other formats are accepted 

Related: Learn about the best time to post on YouTube.

Making YouTube Videos at Scale

Video marketing is becoming increasingly essential to all marketing strategies, but consistent, high-quality video creative can be difficult to create. Plus, many marketing teams are already at capacity. 

The good news? You don’t have to manage social media video marketing on your own. 

At QuickFrame, we use an end-to-end video creation platform to connect your business with leading makers and video production teams. No matter your objective, or the type of video you need, we can connect you with the right creatives who are ready to deliver on-brand videos faster and more affordably than ever before.

Contact us today to learn more about YouTube video production. 

YouTube Ad Sizes: Final Thoughts

With videos covering just about any topic you can think of (and then some!), YouTube likely has a space for your business. With the right YouTube video ad specs, you can successfully implement the platform into your video marketing strategy. 

Need help with other networks? Check out our complete Social Media Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide