YouTube Video Promotion
Updated 29 August 2026
Video promotion runs your upload as a real YouTube ad — in-stream before other videos and in-feed beside search results — priced at 0.60¢ per view worldwide and 1.32¢ in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. A $99 weekly budget delivers about 16,500 views worldwide.
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Cost per view by audience
| Audience | Cost per view | $99/week | $250/week | $500/week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | 0.60¢ | 17K | 42K | 88K |
| US / UK / CA / AU | 1.32¢ | 7.5K | 19K | 40K |
| Europe | 1.08¢ | 9.2K | 23K | 49K |
| Asia | 0.54¢ | 18K | 46K | 97K |
| Latin America | 0.48¢ | 21K | 52K | 110K |
| India | 0.42¢ | 24K | 60K | 125K |
Best for
- ✓Launching a video with early momentum instead of a slow trickle
- ✓Building watch hours towards the 4,000-hour monetisation threshold
- ✓Reaching a country or language your organic audience does not cover
- ✓Reviving an older video that still holds attention well
- ✓Giving a new channel the audience data the algorithm lacks
Where your video appears
In-stream plays your video before or during someone else's. The first five seconds carry the campaign, because that is when the skip button appears. A view counts once someone watches 30 seconds, or the whole ad if it is shorter — so everyone counted actually stayed.
In-feed shows your video as a suggestion in search results and the home feed. The click is voluntary, so these viewers arrive warmer, watch longer and subscribe more often. The thumbnail does the work.
What a campaign produces besides views
A week of delivery gives you a retention curve built on strangers rather than subscribers, an audience breakdown by country and age, watch time that counts towards monetisation, and subscribers at roughly one per 200–400 well-matched viewers.
That data keeps working after the campaign. Once YouTube knows who finishes your video, it can recommend it without you spending anything more.
Which video to promote
The one with the best retention, not the newest one. Ads amplify whatever signal already exists — a video that holds viewers converts ad spend into subscribers several times more efficiently than an average upload. If half your viewers leave in the first fifteen seconds, re-cut the opening before spending.
Questions
How much does YouTube video promotion cost?+
0.60¢ per view worldwide, 1.32¢ in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and 0.42¢ in India. Minimum weekly budget $29, with volume bonuses from $500.
Do these views count as real YouTube views?+
Yes. They appear in your public view count and in Analytics with full watch-time data, and they count towards monetisation watch hours.
Will promotion hurt my channel?+
No. Advertising is a product YouTube sells; running ads on your own content is what the platform is built for.
How fast does delivery start?+
Most campaigns go live within a few hours and deliver every day of the week.
Can I change the budget mid-campaign?+
Yes. Add budget at any time and the projected views rise at the same rate; cancel and the unspent part returns to your balance.