YouTube adverts, you've got 5 seconds...

These days, adverts are pretty standard on YouTube. They last approximately 15 - 30 seconds, which in advertising terms is pretty short anyway, but on top of that, the option to skip the advert appears after 5 seconds! It's important when thinking about creating this kind of advert that you grab the viewers attention within those first few seconds, to ensure they keep watching until the end.

Here are our top 5 ways to grab attention in the first 5 seconds:

1. A celebrity: People will keep watching to see what their favourite celebrity is about to do

2. A question: Something like 'are you ready for what happens next?' encourages the viewer to answer the question in their head and can make them keep watching

3. Something totally bizarre: Speaks for itself!

4. A situation that you have to keep watching: Like a David Blaine style trick

5. Something controversial

Of course, many people are still likely to skip, so don't forget that the best adverts establish the brand or product in the first 5 seconds, usually with a logo or with narration.

Ads that are too self indulgent, not immediately interesting or clear are more likely to be skipped, they need to completely distract you from whatever you where originally looking at, even if it was just cat videos!

Also, this form of advertising will work best if it is targeted, so it's important to carefully choose the YouTube videos that your target audience are most likely to be watching. So a health related product could work well attached to a video about sport, food or celebrities.

Here are some successful ones that we love;

This is great and really catchy, which will encourage people to keep on watching. Although if people do click to skip it, then they've no idea what the brand is.



We laughed so much at this one, and watched it all the way through, it had us hooked from the start!



No matter what you think of Capital Radio, they've definitely ticked all the boxes. Logo in the first shot, catchy tune, MILLIONS of celebrities!

If you think that YouTube advertising is something that might work for your brand? Get in touch with us, we're happy to chat to you about it. Subscribe to our blog in the top right hand corner of this page for the latest updates and for more tips, news and advice sign up to our regular emails.