YouTube Advertising Strategy: How to Drive Results Across Every Format

In advertising performance circles, YouTube often gets lumped in with top-of-funnel tactics. A place to build brand awareness, push some video views, and maybe test a few creators (that’s about it).

Meanwhile, the platform has shifted underneath everyone’s feet, forcing a rethink in YouTube advertising strategy.

YouTube is doing a hell of a lot more than scaling attention. When you look deeper, it’s shaping decisions, capturing intent, and closing conversions.

And the advertisers who are failing to update their approach will (unfortunately) fall behind their competitors.

YouTube advertising has reach. But more importantly, it has range

Consumption is high, yes. But the format mix is what matters now.

• Shorts is growing at 2x year-on-year in Canada for example, with nearly half of users not active on TikTok or Reels. A massive opportunity for YouTube Shorts advertising.
  
  
• Over a billion hours of content are watched on TV screens daily. And now, thanks to connected TV ads linked to mobile, users can shop mid-video.
  ‍
• YouTube remains the most-watched digital platform among Gen Z. That’s not a niche audience.

But this is a deeper conversation than where users spend their time. How they behave once they’re there is ultimately what holds key behaviour signals. 

Every surface (short-form, long-form, in-feed, and CTV) now contributes to real performance metrics, each representing a unique YouTube ad format. Clicks, conversions, ROAS, brand lift, and search lift are all trackable and increasingly efficient.

From what we’ve observed, vertical video ads (in particular) are pulling ahead.

Google’s own tests show vertical assets in Video Action Campaigns generate up to 20% more conversions per dollar than landscape creatives. And yet, brands still run horizontal repurposed edits (content designed for other platforms) shoved into a format they were never built for.

“We found that when advertisers added a vertical creative asset to their Video action campaigns, they delivered 10–20% more conversions per dollar.” — YouTube Ads Product Team, via Social Media Today

We’re talking about a quality problem here, and it’s showing in results.

YouTube Shorts has become the fastest signal generator

Shorts-only campaigns, when set up with platform-native assets, now rival traditional video formats for both engagement and performance (in terms of YouTube ads performance).

Campaigns built this way with tight messaging, creator-led delivery, and fast hooks have started delivering high-quality signals at low cost.

The benefits are that impressions land faster, data feeds back sooner, and the format forces better creative discipline.

Essentially, this is not another place to dump TikToks. It’s an entirely different layer of intent.

Creative is where the gap shows

Creative accounts for 49% of incremental sales impact, but almost half of digital video ads are still considered unsuitable for the placements they run in.

This isn’t really a spend issue but more of a decision-making one.

Effective YouTube creative doesn’t really need polish, platform fit is more important. Lo-fi, fast-cut, native-feeling videos consistently outperform heavily produced edits, especially in Shorts and in-feed formats.

With tools like Flip Video or AI-generated voiceovers, there’s no excuse for creative that feels off. The best-performing ads on YouTube feel like they belong there. The worst ones feel like leftovers.

YouTube now supports the full customer journey

YouTube’s ad stack now supports the entire funnel. From awareness to conversions and post-purchase actions.

What you can’t ignore as an advertiser is that attribution has tightened, reach is expanding, and creative tooling is native with more precise YouTube ad targeting built in.

And for new placements like swipe-to-shop CTV, they’re changing how users act on what they watch.

YouTube isn’t a platform stuck in branding land; it’s an ecosystem capable of driving full-funnel results from first view to final purchase, while offering cheaper reach and more measurable outputs than other social platforms.

And yet, agency strategies often treat YouTube like a box to tick. One line in a media plan and one version of a hero video.

That’s the kind of gap we’re talking about, between how YouTube performs, and how it’s still being used.

Final thoughts

You shouldn't view YouTube as a “backup channel” anymore. See it like a performance driver hiding in plain sight.

The advertisers who treat it as secondary (repurposing creative, skipping formats, ignoring signals) will keep getting the same lukewarm results.

But for the brands willing to rethink their YouTube advertising strategy end to end, from asset creation to targeting structure to measurement, there’s serious upside.

Especially now that YouTube covers the full funnel, and every format counts.