YouTube videos are getting longer and viewers have advertisers to thank for that. A recent article from The Verge highlighted how popular creators are putting out videos upwards of 30 minutes long. The reason, of course, is that they can fit more ads in longer videos, which means more money for them.

Now let's see how marketers are taking advantage of the platform. Here's a peek at what we found when we analyzed over 233 million ad impressions and nearly 1 million clicks for ads on the platform. Be sure to read the Q2 2019 PPC Benchmark Report for additional ad performance trends. Check out our Benchmark Report page for the latest reports by quarter.

YouTube CPC, CPM, & CTR for Q2 2018 at-a-glance

• Median CPC was $2.33
• Median CPM was $8.00
• Median CTR was 0.38%

YouTube CPC keeps declining

We found that median CPC dropped $0.15 from last quarter and is down $1.40 Y/Y.

Key Takeaways

• CPC decreased by 6% since Q4 2019
• CPC decreased by 37% year over year since Q2 2018

YouTube CPM jumps up slightly

We found that median CPM increased to $8.00 but is 28% lower compared to the same time last year.

Key Takeaways

• CPM increased by 6% since Q1 2019
• CPM decreased by 28% year over year since Q2 2018

YouTube CTR continues to shoot up

Median CTR for ads on YouTube jumped up 23% in the second quarter, and is considerably higher Y/Y, coming in at 0.38%.

Key Takeaways

• CTR increased by 22.6% since Q1 2019
• CTR increased by 22.6% year over year  since Q2 2018

YouTube ad trends Q2 2019

Google Home gets YouTube Music access: Though you can’t request specific songs, Google Home smart speakers can now play music from YouTube Music’s free ad-supported tier. Before, to listen to YouTube music on your smart speaker you’d have to be subscribed to Google’s paid YouTube Music Premium service for $9.99 a month. But, be prepared to hear plenty of ads for YouTube Music Premium in between songs on the curated playlists.

"Video is something that we have only scratched the surface with from a paid media perspective but YouTube's new lead forms sound like a potentially exciting new ad product."
- Andrew Hamilton, Senior Director of Marketing at eCornell

Brands can stream content from YouTube to native display ads Advertisers who use YouTube live streams now have an option to extend their branded content. A new template in Google Web Designer lets brands stream content from YouTube to native display ads. The ad units feature standard YouTube controls for watching, pausing, and sharing. The live stream ad test capabilities are available across screens and devices.

Download the entire report for all the stats on CPM, CPC, and CTR benchmarks for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Google Display Network, Twitter, and Bing Ads.