Dear CMO, It’s Time for You to Start Advertising on YouTube

YouTube is the largest video platform in the world. Two billion users. More streaming time than Netflix. Thirty-five billion dollars in ad revenue and growing. If you want to be where the eyeballs are — and where they’re still going — this is the place. So why don’t marketers learn how to use it?

How YouTube changed the rulebook

The migration from linear to cable, from digital to social, and now to creator-driven video distribution is a massive shift. YouTube has been at the center of it from the beginning. 

We started with shaky, home-style videos. Today, anyone has the tools to make broadcast-grade content, and creators have audiences that rival or surpass traditional media.

But YouTube hasn’t lost the authenticity that made creator-driven content attractive in the first place. Its combination of professionalism and authenticity is what keeps people coming back. And wherever people are watching, advertisers need to be.

The old debate about whether YouTube counts as “premium” content feels outdated. Attention is what makes something premium, and YouTube has it in spades. Your buyers are there, but you’re not reaching out to them. 

YouTube also provides some uniquely tangible insights for marketers, especially where its skippable ads are concerned. Letting users opt out was a risky bet at the time, but it paid off, and not just for the platform. Advertisers know when someone chooses to watch their work. That engagement signal is powerful, and it’s something most other platforms can’t replicate.

I could go on, but it hardly matters because too many marketers still hesitate. Some say YouTube doesn’t fit their playbook, especially on the B2B and ABM side, and prefer to stick with familiar channels that do. Others do use YouTube, but they rely too much on Google’s off-the-shelf ad products, or they employ limited tactics. Both groups are missing out on growth, period.

Two hurdles to overcome

Let’s look at the latter situation first. Google has arguably done a great job of building intuitive, AI-driven tools into DV360 and Google Ads. Push the button, let the algorithm work, and you’ll see some performance. But it’s important to remember that those tools have to serve two masters: advertisers and Google’s own monetization. 

Specialists and independent partners aren’t carrying Google’s conflicts of interest. They can focus entirely on performance, building proprietary layers on top of YouTube’s infrastructure to find the right audiences, optimize creative, and deliver outcomes. In short, no trade-offs.

But for B2B marketers, there’s a broader hesitation to try YouTube in the first place. Our ABM playbooks are built around surgical targeting: customer files, granular segments, matching, and retargeting. On the open web, those tactics work. On YouTube, not always. It’s a walled garden. Some of the tools you’re used to just aren’t available. That’s the hard truth.

The mistake is assuming that means YouTube isn’t worth it. 

Everyone you want to reach is already on YouTube. You just need to adapt. That means using lookalike modeling, experimenting with new creative formats, and being open to discovering audiences you didn’t know were there. If you don’t know how to do it, there are specialists out there who do.

Because here’s the thing: your future customers won’t always look like your current customers. YouTube is the best place to find out who else is responding to your message. You should treat it not just as a reach channel, but as a learning channel.

Maybe more importantly, just because YouTube might not match the ABM performance from your other channels, why should you leave all the untapped growth there on the table?

The CTV comparison

A lot of attention is directed at CTV right now. There’s opportunity there, sure. But there’s also fragmentation, messy plumbing, and heavy reliance on probabilistic models tied to IP addresses. If privacy legislation clamps down on that, much of the signal CTV depends on could disappear.

Meanwhile, YouTube already owns a larger share of streaming time than anyone else. Thirteen percent of all streaming in North America goes to YouTube — more than Netflix — and that doesn’t even include YouTube TV, their cable offering. And unlike Netflix, the majority of YouTube’s audience is ad-supported. If you want reach, scale, and signal, YouTube is the leader, not an option.

How to get started

If you’re a marketer who hasn’t touched YouTube yet, where should you begin? The answer is simple: start with a pilot, but don’t go in half-heartedly. Budget equals data, and data equals insight. Tossing a couple of thousand dollars at YouTube won’t tell you anything. You need enough spend — think $50,000 a month — to generate data you can actually learn from.

That learning is the real prize. Different ad formats can all be tested at scale: six seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, long-form. The insights you pull here can sharpen your approach across every other channel, from search to display to CTV.

And you don’t have to do it alone. Specialists like Nomology are built to help you enter this new playing field.

In conclusion

YouTube isn’t the future of video. It’s the now. The growth is already here. The audience is already here. The ad revenue is already in the tens of billions. It should be higher.

The marketers who learn to put YouTube to work now, those who adapt their playbooks, who treat it as both a reach channel and a research lab, are going to reap huge rewards. The ones who keep treating it as optional or a set-it-and-forget-it add-on will keep losing out.

And for agencies, YouTube is an untapped offering. Too many either push clients back into Google’s automated systems or avoid the platform altogether. That leaves a gap — and gaps are opportunities. Here’s your chance to seriously stand out.

If your north star is growth, YouTube belongs in your mix. Don’t wait for the industry to catch up. The eyeballs are already there.