Wasted $600 on a YouTube ad campaign that went nowhere

I tried running a YouTube ad campaign last November for my small ecommerce store selling handmade leather wallets. Spent about $600 over three weeks targeting people interested in leatherworking and men's accessories. The views looked good at first, like 12,000 impressions, but I got exactly 4 clicks to my site and zero sales. The problem I think was that YouTube ads just get skipped. Nobody watches them, they click away after 5 seconds. I went back to Facebook ads and Google Shopping and got way better results for half the money. Has anyone else had better luck with YouTube ads or is it just a waste for small businesses?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahchen1d ago

Retargeting viewers who watched at least 30 seconds worked way better for me.

ellis.charles1d ago

yeah thats interesting @noahchen because my buddy runs a small supplement brand and he tried both approaches. he did the 30 second retargeting thing and his cost per sale dropped like crazy compared to just hitting anyone who clicked. he was spending so much on people who bounced in 5 seconds before. after he switched to the 30 second threshold his roas went from like 1.2 to 2.8 in two weeks. but he said the key was also excluding people who watched the whole video since they already converted. he's been telling everyone to test that cutoff point.