4 best practices for building impactful YouTube bumper Ads

A bumper Ad is a 6-second video format which is considered best for driving brand reach and frequency. They are available through AdWords as an add-on to traditional campaigns and sold on a CPM basis.

Bumper Ads are made with keeping shorter sessions in mind. These are perfect for moments when people are in hurry or on the go. Many large brands are using bumpers ads to drive upper-funnel goals like Ad recall and awareness.

Bumper Ads are a cost-effective way to reach your target audience, ensure your message is seen and heard and keep you top of mind with your prospects. For marketers, it is a new canvas and there is no set formula discovered yet.

Here are four proven tips to help make your Ads better:

1. Focus on simple purpose:

Bumper Ads are designed to reach viewers in moments when they're receptive to a quick, focused message. That makes having a single, simple purpose for your Ad the ultimate key to success.

Whatever your purpose may be, once you've decided on that one thing you want to communicate really well, you can limit your creative mandatories to just those things that will help to broadcast your message clearly.

2. Budget time to establish the Ad:

Make a clear Ad that doesn’t confuse your viewer. A single subject or visual signal can also immediately clue viewers that they've stepped into your brand's space for a few moments.

Effective Ads also leave viewers with a clearly expressed final thought or call to action that's been given enough time to sink in. Which can be seen as “sticking the landing," and more often than not, it requires little more than a fraction of a second to accomplish. Two seconds is a good length to aim for.

3. Look beyond 30-second spots:

Take a clear-eyed inventory of your full-length story, and retain only the aspects that will serve a powerful, memorable 6 seconds that help you stay top of mind.

Keep in mind that your other media can also offer a great uplift to your advertising campaigns. Depending on your bumper Ad's purpose, video Ads can work well and be just as fruitful as a cut-down version of a longer video Ad.

4. Build in series, rather than singles:

Don’t just end your bumper Ad as a single shot. Bumpers can be powerful little touches that add up to something bigger. Think and make bumpers as a set of three to five Ads that can free up your focus—and your expectations for each spot.

Building in series also allows you to think differently about how to create more impact on your audience. Bumpers can combine to tell a larger story or even be used with other video formats, such as display Ads or TrueView.

Bumpers Ads are short on time, but they're long on impact. They work well on their own or when paired with a True View or Google Preferred campaign, delivering incremental reach and frequency.