How to run Google and YouTube ads for a game
1 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
In Google Ads, a video campaign shows your trailer before or between YouTube videos, or your vertical clips in Shorts. Target by topics and channels in your genre, by people searching for games like yours, or by custom audiences built from those searches. Make the first five seconds count, since in-stream ads are skippable. Search ads on your game's name also protect it once people look for it. Judge results on extra wishlists in Steamworks.
Five seconds before the skip
Skippable in-stream ads charge mostly for views past the skip, so the opening has to earn the rest. Open on gameplay, not a logo.
Formats
- In-stream: your trailer before or during videos; 16:9.
- Shorts: vertical clips between Shorts; 9:16.
- In-feed: a thumbnail in search results and recommendations.
- Search: text ads on searches for your game or genre.
Targeting
Topics and placements on gaming channels in your genre; custom audiences from searches for comparable games; countries where your price and language fit.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay drafts Google campaigns on your own ad account, created paused, with creatives cut from your real gameplay; you press Launch. Free in beta until 1 December 2026.