Did you know that you can buy YouTube subscribers using Google Ads? And yes, it is completely justified. In fact, there are two distinct ways to achieve this, of which we will explain in this article with their respective pros, cons, and tips for maximum effectiveness.
Let’s jump right in!
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How To Get YouTube Subscribers With Google Ads
There are Two main modes of campaign You can enable your Google ADS account to get more YouTube subscribers. There is a way Content promoted in YouTube Studio, powered by Google Ads. The second is done Directly through Google Ads using the Demand General campaign type. Everyone has their faults here.
Method 1: YouTube Promotions in YouTube Studio
The most direct way to get YouTube subscribers is directly in YouTube Studio. If you’ve promoted a post on Instagram or promoted a TechTalk video before, the process will be pretty familiar.
Here’s how you do it:
- Login In your YouTube Studio account studio.youtube.com.
- click But Content tab in the left-hand menu.
- Find the video you want to promote, tap the three dots next to it, and select promote.
- Choose one of three goals for your ad: Audience growthfor , for , for , . Video feedbackor Website visits. You’ll want to choose audience growth, especially for getting users.
- Complete the promotion setup By choosing your target location, budget and some other basic settings.
And just like that, you are running feed ads on YouTube to get subscribers. While this is undoubtedly the most user-friendly option, there is an alternative method that offers more transparency and control over your campaigns.
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Method 2: General campaign demand in Google Ads
In addition to promoting your content through YouTube Studio, creating a Demand Gen campaign directly in your Google Ads account is another viable option for most users.
Before you begin, make sure your YouTube account is linked to your Google Ads account. This is a prerequisite for Google to accurately track subscriptions and other YouTube engagements.
Here’s how to set up a Demand Gen campaign for YouTube users:
- In your Google Ads account, Click the + button To create a new campaign.
- Select the Demand General campaign optionand give your campaign a name. Don’t worry about auto-populated conversion goals.
- In the next step, Under the campaign objectiveyou’ll see a new option next to Clicks, Conversions, and Conversion Cost: YouTube engagements. Select this as a campaign objective. Google Ads will then automatically model your conversion action as a YouTube subscription, mirroring YouTube promotion behavior.
- Importantly, because this is a demand gen campaign, You get significantly more granular control. You can set your target CPA, define your budget, implement sophisticated audience targeting, and even test different types of ad creative to learn what resonates most effectively.
Examples of Real YouTube Subscriber Campaign Results
I was interested to see which of these methods would perform better for my own YouTube channel, so I conducted a direct comparison test. I set up two separate campaigns to promote the same video with the goal of getting YouTube subscribers. To make sure the tests were as fair as possible, I deliberately avoided targeting specific audiences in my Demand Gen campaign, opting instead for Google’s automatic optimization targeting.
An example How ad viewers can subscribe directly from YouTube content.
Here’s a performance comparison between the two modes during my week-long head-to-head test.
YouTube Promotion Performance:
- Price per subscriber: $1.00. I spent $35 and got 35 subscribers.
- Feedback: 11,365
- CPM: $ 3.08. These represent exceptionally low CPMs for YouTube – truly remarkable!
- Thoughts: 80
- View Rate:7% (fed in). I would classify this as a below average view rate, suggesting that the initial audience is not properly engaged with my content.
- CPV: $0.44. It falls on the cheap side of CPV that I would expect from a typical video campaign.
- Conversion rate: An impressive 44% of users who chose to watch my video also went on to subscribe! This was the most surprising statistic, showing that despite low view rates, people who engaged were much more likely to subscribe.
General Campaign Performance Demand:
- Price per subscriber: $2.19. I spent $52 and got 24 subscribers. This represents twice the CPA of a YouTube promotion, yet is remarkably cost-effective.
- Feedback: 17,471
- CPM: YouTube 3.00, less like YouTube promotion.
- Thoughts: 181
- View Rate:04% (fed in). I would classify this as an average view rate. Notably, this was almost 50% higher than the YouTube promotion view rate, suggesting greater alignment between this audience and my content.
- CPV: $0.29. This proved to be more economical than YouTube promotion, and more affordable than usually expected for a video campaign.
- Conversion rate: 13% of users who chose to watch my video also went on to subscribe. While still a very high conversion rate, it was significantly lower than the 44% conversion rate of the YouTube promotion.
My test shows that while both methods offered comparable CPMs, YouTube promotion implemented directly within YouTube Studio offered the most cost-effective approach to acquiring YouTube subscribers.
In contrast, the Demand Gen campaign achieved more effective impressions, but at a lower effective cost per subscriber. This difference highlights aspects you can consider when choosing the right campaign type for your goals.
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What to look for in YouTube user campaigns
If you’re considering Google Ads to get more YouTube subscribers, there are three important caveats to consider.
1. Transparency reporting
While setting up YouTube advertising is easy, you get very little campaign reporting within YouTube Studio. However, video ad expert Corey Hank showed me a great workaround. When you run a YouTube promotion, Google automatically creates a “hidden” demand gen campaign on your behalf.
To access it, open your Google Ads account (if you don’t already have one, Google will automatically create one for you!), then navigate to Insights and reportsfor , for , for , . Report Editorand Campaign performance report. There, you’ll uncover some hidden metrics about your campaign that aren’t revealed in YouTube Studio.
2. Customer Quality and Engagement
I got 59 new YouTube subscribers through the above examples. It’s too early to tell if these users will exhibit the same level of engagement with my content as the 4,200+ I’ve acquired organically. Seeing unusually high conversion rates from subscriber to subscriber suggests that these campaigns are targeting people who are more prone to subscribing to multiple channels, perhaps without a deep interest in specific content. Although I think my YouTube content is of high quality, I question whether it deserves a 44% conversion rate based entirely on its merits!
3. YouTube Partner Program Eligibility
It’s important to note that any paid views generated by YouTube promotions or Google Ads campaigns do not Contribute your watchtime eligibility to the YouTube Partner Program. However, the buyers you get do it Figure out the direction of your customers’ ability needs. Ideally, these paid users will ultimately contribute to your organic watch time by consuming more of your content, helping you meet the watch time criteria.
Start increasing your YouTube subscriber rate with Google Ads today
If you’re just starting out with YouTube, are close to the YouTube Partner Program subscriber limit, or believe it’s worth allocating a modest budget to acquire subscribers, then both of these strategies offer viable solutions with relatively low CPMs, affordable subscribers, and reliable metrics. This is a legitimate strategy to kickstart and accelerate your YouTube channel growth.
For more ways to enhance both your YouTube and Google Ads strategies, see how our solutions can help!