Demand Gen + VVC + Shorts

    The compounding channel.

    YouTube ads aren't 6-second bumpers. Demand Gen, Video View Campaigns, and Shorts are the highest-LTV traffic source most DTC brands are sleeping on. The only channel that pays you back next quarter.

    Audit My YouTubeAll Platforms
    Anatomy of a winning YouTube ad · 30s
    0:00
    Hook
    Pattern interrupt before the skip
    0:05
    Context
    Who this is for, why now
    0:12
    Demo
    Product working in-frame
    0:22
    Social Proof
    Review, stat, founder line
    0:28
    CTA
    Shop now · clear destination
    YouTube Creator Academy
    2.5B+
    Monthly logged-in users
    YouTube CEO
    $264B
    Alphabet FY24 ad revenue
    Alphabet 10-K
    70B
    Daily Shorts views
    Google Blog
    1B+
    Hours watched daily
    YouTube
    $10–$30
    US CPM (in-stream)
    WordStream
    10.4%
    Share of US TV time (Jul '24)
    Nielsen Gauge
    5s
    Skip-button unlock
    YouTube Ads
    $0.02–$0.05
    Avg VVC cost-per-view
    Google Ads Help
    The Format Map

    Three buys. Three jobs.

    YouTube isn't one ad product — it's three. We run all three in concert so the remarketing pool from one feeds the conversions of the next. Google Ads Help

    Demand Gen

    CPM$10–$20
    IntentMid

    Unified YT + Discover + Gmail buy with conversion goals

    Video Views (VVC)

    CPM$2–$8
    IntentLow

    Build remarketing pool cheaply, retarget into DR

    Shorts Ads

    CPM$4–$12
    IntentLow-Mid

    Vertical 9:16 alongside TikTok push — same asset

    The 90s Story Ad

    The long-form template that compounds.

    For brands that can hold attention, 60–90 second story ads earn the cheapest LTV in DTC. Here's the beat-sheet we ship to The Studio, with target retention at each timestamp.

    0:00–0:05
    Hook
    ≥75% retention
    0:05–0:15
    Problem
    ≥60% retention
    0:15–0:30
    Pivot
    ≥45% retention
    0:30–0:50
    Demo
    ≥35% retention
    0:50–1:10
    Proof
    ≥28% retention
    1:10–1:25
    Founder
    ≥22% retention
    1:25–1:30
    CTA
    Convert
    Why It Compounds

    Every view becomes a future buyer.

    VVC builds a pixel pool of qualified viewers at $0.02–$0.05 per view. Those viewers then become retargeting fuel — not just on YouTube, but as Customer Match audiences on Meta and TikTok via Google's audience exports.

    The cheap YouTube view in January becomes the cheap Meta conversion in March.

    Remarketing pool · illustrative growth
    Wk 1
    Wk 2
    Wk 3
    Wk 4
    Wk 6
    Wk 8
    Wk 12
    The Unfair Advantage

    The audience export loop only YouTube enables.

    YouTube view audiences can be exported as Customer Match lists and uploaded into Meta and TikTok as seed audiences. No other channel gives you this much portability. Google Ads Help

    1. YouTube VVC
    $0.02–$0.05 per qualified view at scale
    →
    2. Customer Match
    Export viewer hashed-email list via Google Ads
    →
    3. Meta + TikTok seed
    Upload as lookalike seed — Day-1 warm reach
    The Skip Window

    Where viewers skip — to the second.

    The skip button unlocks at 5 seconds. The first hour of attrition happens in the next 3 seconds. Get the viewer past second 8 and you've earned the rest of the ad. Google Ads Help

    1s
    5s
    10s
    15s
    20s
    25s
    30s
    Peak skip
    Second 6
    Safe zone
    After 0:08
    Hook must land by
    0:04
    Avg drop curve
    ~70% by 0:10

    What we run on YouTube.

    Demand Gen campaigns

    Lookalike + custom intent audiences, multi-format creative (vertical, square, horizontal), proper conversion goals from day one.

    Video View Campaigns

    Cheap views to build a remarketing pool, then pixel-fire those viewers into conversion campaigns at a fraction of cold CPA.

    YouTube Shorts ads

    We ship 9:16 Shorts trafficked alongside our TikTok push — same creative, two auctions.

    Long-form scripting

    When the brief is a 60–90 second story ad, our Studio writes and shoots it. We don't outsource to stock-footage edits.

    The Research Phase

    We read every YouTube ad before shooting ours.

    Google Ads Transparency Center →
    • 01Search competitor advertisers — see every ad they've run on YouTube + Display.
    • 02Reverse-engineer their format mix (in-stream vs Shorts vs Discover).
    • 03Pull script structures from their long-form story ads.
    • 04Identify spend-weight signals (the more frequent, the more likely a winner).
    Google Ads Transparency
    YouTube Creative Spec
    YouTube Ads Specs
    Aspects
    16:9 · 9:16 · 1:1
    Durations
    6 / 15 / 30 / 60–90s
    Skip
    First 5s un-skippable
    Sound
    On in-stream / off Shorts
    Captions
    SRT or burned-in
    File
    MP4 H.264 · 1080p+
    $0.02
    Cost per Video View
    Highest
    LTV per Customer
    3 Fmts
    Vertical · Square · Horizontal
    Q4
    Compounds Best

    Anonymized blended figures from active YouTube accounts. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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