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YouTube Shorts ads are the video ads you see between Shorts when you’re scrolling on YouTube. They are vertical, they take up the full screen, and people can swipe them away. Google says Shorts gets over 50 billion views every day, and India has around 500 million YouTube users, so a lot of your customers are probably already watching.
We’ll go through how these ads work, how to set them up, what they cost in India, and what usually works in the video. It’s for anyone who runs ads on their own or is thinking about getting someone to do it.
What are YouTube Shorts ads
When someone scrolls through Shorts, an ad can show up between two normal videos. It fills the screen and has a button that takes the person to your website or offer. If they don’t like it, they just swipe, the same as any other video. This is why ads that look like regular Shorts usually do better than ads that look like a TV commercial.
A while back, a lot of advertisers used video action campaigns for this. Google moved those into Demand Gen, and the last ones were supposed to move by April 2026. So if you want leads or sales now, demand gen campaigns are one of the main ways to get YouTube Shorts ads running.
How do Demand Gen campaigns work with Shorts
Demand Gen campaigns serve your ads on YouTube (in-stream, in-feed and Shorts), Discover, Gmail and Google’s video partners.
You make one campaign, add your videos and images, and Google picks where they show.
The thing a lot of people miss is that you can’t buy only Shorts with demand gen campaigns. Google says this on its own help page. Shorts is one of the places the ad can appear; that’s all. You can turn off some channels in the channel controls, but you can’t make it Shorts-only. Once the campaign has run for a couple of weeks, look at the channel breakdown in the reports and see how Shorts did compared to the other places.
How to run ads on YouTube Shorts, step by step
This is how to run ads on YouTube Shorts using a demand gen campaign in Google Ads.
- Set up tracking before anything else. Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics 4 and track what actions you would like users to take, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. Google uses all that data to optimization, without which the campaign will just guess.
- Create a video in the vertical format (9:16) and upload it to your YouTube channel.
- On Google Ads, click New campaign, select a goal such as sales, leads or website traffic, and then select Demand Gen as the campaign type.
- Set the budget and bid. If you have no conversion data yet, maximise clicks or maximise conversions is okay to begin with. You can switch to a target cost per lead later when there’s some data.
- Select the target audience. It can be based on your email list, website visitors, custom audience segments, lookalike audience or whatever else works for you.
- Set the locations too.
- Add your assets. I’d upload two or three versions of the video, a few images, headlines, descriptions, your logo, and a button text like “Shop now” or “Get a quote”.
- Publish it. For the first few days, just check that it’s spending and that nothing got disapproved. Give it about two weeks before you decide if it’s working.
YouTube ad costs in India:
There’s no fixed price because YouTube sells ads through an auction. So your YouTube ads cost changes with who you’re targeting, how many other advertisers want the same people, the time of year, and how good your video is. These are the rough ranges some India guides gave for 2026:
| Format: | Rough cost in India: |
| Shorts ads | ₹350 to ₹450 per 1,000 impressions |
| Skippable in-stream | ₹2 to ₹3 per view |
| Bumper ads | ₹250 to ₹400 per 1,000 impressions |
| Non-skippable in-stream | ₹500 to ₹900 per 1,000 impressions |
We wouldn’t take these too seriously, since different guides give different numbers. Cost per click in India is quoted anywhere between ₹2 and ₹30 or more, which is a big gap. Finance and B2B ads cost more than most, and Q4 is usually more expensive too, especially around the festive months.
To see how a test might work, say you spend ₹1,000 a day for 14 days. It will be ₹14,000. With ₹400 per 1,000 impressions, it is expected to have 35,000 impressions. If one person out of a hundred clicks on the ad, there will be 350 clicks at the cost of ₹40 per click.
These numbers are only to show how the maths works. Your own results can be very different.
Also, the YouTube ads cost isn’t only the ad spend. Production, editing and other agency services could affect the budget.
YouTube ads for small businesses: where to start
For YouTube ads for small businesses, we think the testing budget matters more than the exact rate. You don’t have to invest heavily, but keep it focused. Choose one item and one promotion.
Show it to people in your city or nearby areas first instead of all of India. Run it for two to three weeks on a small daily budget, and don’t decide anything before that.
Your video shouldn’t be too polished. An amateur video taken on a phone with shots of your store, your employees, or your work will look more genuine than a polished video. If your customers speak Hindi or any other language, use it in the video and the advertisement text. Also, lead users to a relevant landing page that opens quickly on mobile and has a single call-to-action, like a form.
How do we handle YouTube ads at 360 Digital Idea
We have 10+ years of experience in digital marketing, YouTube and Demand. Gen ads are part of the PPC services we offer. When a small business comes to us for YouTube ads for small businesses, we usually check two things first. One is whether the tracking is working, and the other is whether the landing page opens fast on a phone. We’d rather fix those before spending more on the ad.
Best practices for YouTube Shorts ads:
Everything else is pretty straightforward, but it is commonly overlooked.
- Show either the product or the issue at hand in the first 2–3 seconds. Avoid using the standard logo intro; nobody wants to wait for that.
- Use the entire vertical screen, and make sure not to put anything essential, including text, near the bottom-right corner, where the Shorts controls and subtitles appear.
- Include subtitles, as many users watch videos without sound.
- Have only one message and only one promotion in your video. Adding multiple things just confuses people.
- Make the video seem like an average short video with actual people speaking normally.
- Test three or four versions. After a few weeks, get rid of the weak one and create another one.
- State clearly what the people should do next. Instead of “Contact us”, use something like “Book now” or “Get a quote”.
- Try not to change the budget and audience every day, because big changes can reset what Google has learned.
If you don’t have a video yet, our team can also help with the video and photo shoot, so the video and the ad setup get done together.
Mistakes that waste money:
Some of them are playing a horizontal video in a vertical format, focusing only on views rather than leads or sales, setting up untracked advertisements, and sending all the traffic to the website’s homepage. Everything is fixable when you realise that.
Final thoughts
Running advertisements for YouTube Shorts doesn’t require much effort and doesn’t cost too much to test as long as you’ve got the basics figured out. It needs the tracking, vertical video with a quick message, and a matching landing page. When you have the knowledge about advertising on YouTube Shorts, everything will be testing and waiting a little bit. We would recommend treating the first month as a testing period, figuring out the way that works and investing more money into it. If you need some help with that, you can schedule a free consultation with us, and we’ll check your account or campaign together.
FAQs
Q1. What are YouTube Shorts ads?
They are vertical, full-screen video ads that show between Shorts. People can swipe past them or tap the button to go to your website.
Q2. How to run ads on YouTube Shorts?
Make a demand gen campaign in Google Ads, set up conversion tracking, upload vertical videos and images, pick your audience and budget, and publish it. The steps above go through each part.
Q3. How much do YouTube Shorts ads cost in India?
There’s no fixed rate. The estimated price range of YouTube ad costs in 2026 is around ₹350 – ₹450 for every 1,000 impressions of Shorts videos, but your YouTube ad cost will vary according to your target audience and season, as well as the video itself.
Q4. Can I run only Shorts ads?
Not with Demand Gen campaigns. Google says you can’t buy Shorts alone there, so your ads also show in other places like YouTube in-stream, Discover and Gmail.
Q5. Are YouTube ads for small businesses worth it?
They can be, if you start with one offer, a small local audience and proper tracking. Try it as a test for two to three weeks before you put in more money.
Q6. What is the difference between Demand Gen and Performance Max?
Demand Gen campaigns are made for feeds like YouTube, Discover and Gmail, where people are just browsing, and you want to get their interest. Performance Max runs on more Google channels, including Search, and focuses more on conversions.
Q7. What video size and length should I use?
Use vertical 9:16 for Shorts. We’d keep it under 30 seconds and put the main message in the first few seconds. By including the 16:9 and 1:1 aspect ratios, you provide Demand Gen with more ways to run your ad.
Q8. How long will it take to see results?
Wait for at least two weeks before making any significant changes. In the first few days, Google is mostly learning who responds to your ad.
