As the user engagement metrics continue to skyrocket, YouTube has become one of the preferred medium for advertising. We have seen YouTube transforming itself from a site where users go to watch one-off videos into a site where users stick around for nearly an hour. But when it comes to advertising, grabbing one’s attention becomes all the more difficult. After all, the aim is to interrupt a viewer and engage him into something else.

So you set up your own in-stream ads, and nothing happens. Your YouTube analytics show a crazy high number of skips—meaning that the people who saw your ad chose to skip it—and you’re not getting any positive results. Relax, the problem is not advertising on YouTube but some common mistakes most advertisers make. Here’s where you may be going wrong:

Wrongly targeting ad insertions

While targeting an ad on youtube, an important question to ask yourself is, “Who will view the ad?”. Once you know the answer, the chances of ‘skips’ on your ads are minimised to a great extent. Most of the skips come from videos that aren’t well targeted to the audience that is viewing them. So, the catch lies in selecting the right target audience. YouTube offers a wealth of targeting opportunities, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different demographics and filters. Remember, you can always adjust your targeting later if your initial selections prove ineffective. Your YouTube analytics will give you all the data needed to determine whether your current targeting options are working.

Your message isn’t clear

The important thing is not just to target the right people—you have to hit them with the right message as well if you want to earn their attention. When you are advertising on YouTube, you are interrupting viewers and taking them away from what they are doing in the hopes of getting them to watch your ad.  What makes it more difficult is extremely short attention spans. So, you’ve only got a few seconds for your ad to convey your intended message in an effective way.  Here again, YouTube statistics help in defining the message that’s right for your ads. A high number of skips, low click-through rate (CTR) and quick drop-off times are all indications that the message you’ve chosen for your ad isn’t striking a chord with your targeted viewers.

When your budget is too low

Event though YouTube is known to be a cost-effective medium for advertising, setting your ad budget too low on a daily or per-view basis means that your ad won’t be seen by the people with whom you’re trying to connect. An important thing to understand here is that how low is too low? Now this is something that varies from industry to industry. One of the most popular YouTube marketing company, Veeroll’s default bids are set at $20 per day and 20 cents per view. So, those in popular industries may need to raise these figures to increase their odds of being seen.

You’re not exploring display options well

While in-stream ads are the most common choice for advertisers. Experts believe that  several advertisers have seen good results from in-display ads as well.

In fact, there are two key benefits of in-display ads that you need to know about. First, they’re significantly easier to get up and running, which can be helpful for new YouTube advertisers. But another major perk is that they aren’t required to redirect to Adwords-compliant landing pages like in-stream ads. If you’re looking to drive YouTube traffic back to a video on your YouTube channel, in-display ads can get it done.