YouTube ads are short video adverts that play before, during or alongside videos on YouTube, in the Shorts feed and across Google’s video partner sites. You buy them through Google Ads, you set your own budget, and you can start small. For a local business, that means you can put a 15 second video in front of people in your town who are interested in what you sell, without a TV budget.

This guide covers the six main ad formats and how long each one can be, how buying works, what YouTube advertising costs in the UK, how targeting works and how to make an ad people actually watch. Ad formats and rules change, so we’ve checked everything against Google’s own help pages for 2026.

Six YouTube ad formats cover almost everything

When people ask about the types of YouTube ads, they’re usually talking about these six. Each one suits a different job, from quick brand reminders to longer stories that drive enquiries.

Format	Length	Can viewers skip?	Where it shows	How you pay
Skippable in-stream	No maximum, under 3 minutes recommended	Yes, after 5 seconds	Before, during or after YouTube videos and on Google video partners	Per view (CPV) or per thousand impressions, depending on bidding
Non-skippable in-stream	Up to 60 seconds (15 to 30 seconds is the common choice)	No	Before, during or after YouTube videos and on Google video partners	Per thousand impressions (target CPM)
Bumper	Up to 6 seconds	No	Before, during or after YouTube videos and on Google video partners	Per thousand impressions (target CPM)
In-feed	No maximum	Viewers choose to click and watch	YouTube search results, Watch Next and the Home feed	Per click or per view
Shorts ads	Under 60 seconds recommended, vertical	Yes, by swiping	Between Shorts in the Shorts feed	Per view or per thousand impressions
Masthead	No maximum, over 10 seconds recommended	Autoplays without sound	Top of the YouTube Home feed	Reserved in advance through a Google sales rep

Skippable in-stream ads

This is the classic YouTube advert, and the workhorse for most small businesses. Viewers can skip after 5 seconds. If you bid on a cost per view (CPV) basis, you only pay when someone watches 30 seconds (or the whole ad if it’s shorter) or clicks it. That makes it forgiving: people who skip straight away cost you nothing.

Non-skippable in-stream and bumper ads

These play in full, so your whole message gets seen. Bumpers are 6 seconds at most, which is enough for one idea and a logo. Both are bought on impressions, so they’re mainly for reach and awareness rather than clicks. They work well together: a longer skippable ad to tell the story, then bumpers to remind people of it.

In-feed ads

In-feed ads look like a recommended video, with a thumbnail and a headline, and appear in search results and alongside other videos. Nobody has the ad forced on them. They click because they want to watch, which makes this a good format for tutorials, product demos and longer explainers.

Shorts ads

Shorts ads sit between Shorts in the vertical feed, and viewers can swipe past them immediately. They need to be shot or edited in 9:16 portrait and grab attention in the first second. If your business already makes Reels or TikToks, you probably have material that will work here.

Masthead

The masthead is the big ad at the top of the YouTube home feed. It’s sold on a reservation basis through Google’s sales team and is aimed at major brand launches, so most small businesses can safely ignore it.

You buy YouTube ads through Google Ads

There’s no separate YouTube ad platform. You upload your video to a YouTube channel (it can be unlisted), then build a campaign in Google Ads that uses it. The campaign type you pick decides which formats you get.

• Video campaigns are where you choose a goal such as reach or views. Reach campaigns use bumpers, non-skippable and skippable ads to show your video to as many people as possible. View campaigns focus on getting people to actually watch.
• Demand Gen campaigns run your video and image ads across YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail and the Display Network, and can be set to bid for clicks or conversions. This is usually the better choice if you want website visits, enquiries or sales.
• Performance Max campaigns can also place your video on YouTube, but you get less control over where it shows.

Google adds and renames campaign options fairly often, so the exact menu you see may differ slightly from these labels. The principle stays the same: pick the goal first, and Google offers the formats and bidding that match.

How much YouTube ads cost in the UK depends on you

There’s no fixed price list. YouTube ads run on an auction, so what you pay depends on your audience, your competitors, the time of year and how good your ad is. You set a daily or campaign budget and never spend more than that.

As a rough guide, and it does vary a lot:

• Cost per view on skippable ads often lands somewhere between a few pence and around 20p.
• Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for reach formats like bumpers and non-skippable ads is often in the region of a few pounds to the low teens.
• Busy periods such as November and December push prices up, as do narrow or highly competitive audiences.

For a small local business, a test budget of £10 to £30 a day for two to four weeks is usually enough to see whether the format works for you. Treat any figure you read online, including ours, as a starting point rather than a promise. Your own first month of data will tell you far more.

Targeting decides who sees your ad

Good targeting matters more than a big budget. Google Ads gives you a few main levers:

• Location: target a town, a county or a radius around your shop or office. Essential for local businesses.
• Demographics: age, gender, parental status and household income (where available).
• Audiences: people interested in topics like home improvement or fitness, people actively researching a purchase, or people who have searched for certain terms on Google.
• Your data: people who’ve visited your website, watched your videos or are on your customer list. Remarketing to these people is often the cheapest win.
• Content: show ads on specific topics, keywords or channels.

Start broad enough for Google to find people, then narrow down once you can see which audiences watch and click.

Small business ads win in the first five seconds

You don’t need a film crew to make a YouTube ad that works. You do need to respect how people watch. These tips make the biggest difference:

1. Show your brand and the point early. On a skippable ad, assume most people only see 5 seconds. Get your name, your face or your product on screen straight away.
2. Talk to one person. A local plumber speaking to camera about a common problem usually beats a slick montage.
3. Design for sound off and sound on. Add captions so the message lands either way.
4. Make versions for each format. A 30 second horizontal cut, a 15 second cut, a 6 second bumper and a vertical edit for Shorts can all come from one shoot.
5. Give one clear next step. Book a quote, visit the shop, call today. Add a call to action button and a matching landing page.
6. Test two or three versions. Change the opening line or the first shot and see which keeps people watching longer.

If you’d like help shooting or editing, our video production team can plan one shoot that gives you every cut you need.

Measure the numbers that match your goal

Google Ads reports plenty of figures. Focus on the ones that tie back to why you’re advertising:

• Awareness: unique reach, frequency and cost per thousand impressions.
• Interest: view rate, average watch time and how many people watch to 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
• Action: clicks, website visits, enquiries and sales, measured with conversion tracking set up properly.

A cheap view that never leads anywhere isn’t a bargain. Make sure conversion tracking is in place before you spend, so you can judge YouTube on the same terms as the rest of your Google Ads and PPC activity. Google’s video ad formats help page is worth bookmarking too, as specs do change.

Related reading: Instagram Reels vs. YouTube Shorts: Which Wins for ROI? and How to Advertise on Google: A Practical Guide for Businesses Ready to Make It Work.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum budget for YouTube ads?

Google doesn’t set a hard minimum for most campaigns. In practice, around £10 a day gives you enough data to learn from. Below that, results come in so slowly that it’s hard to tell what’s working.

Do I pay if someone skips my YouTube ad?

Not on cost per view bidding. You pay when someone watches 30 seconds (or the full ad if shorter) or interacts with it. On impression based bidding you pay for the ad being shown, whether or not it’s skipped.

How long should a YouTube ad be?

For most small businesses, 15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot for skippable ads, plus a 6 second bumper version. Longer ads can work for demos and how-to content, especially as in-feed ads.

Can I run YouTube ads without a YouTube channel?

You need a channel to host the video, but it doesn’t have to be active or have subscribers. The video can be unlisted so it only appears as an ad.

Get your YouTube advertising working harder

Delivered Social plans, films and manages YouTube campaigns for businesses across Surrey, Hampshire and beyond. We’ll pick the right formats, set up proper tracking and keep tuning until the numbers make sense. Take a look at our Google Ads management and video services, or get in touch with our team for a chat about your goals.