YouTube Shorts Ads: How to Run Google Ads on YouTube Shorts
The campaign types that actually serve the Shorts feed, the 9:16 asset specs Google publishes, how long a Shorts ad should be, and how to produce enough vertical creative to find a winner. Start with your product URL.
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YouTube Shorts ads are the video ads that appear between clips in the Shorts feed. You do not buy the placement directly. You run a Google Ads campaign that can serve Shorts, usually a Demand Gen campaign or a Video campaign with a sales or leads goal, and you upload vertical 9:16 assets so Google has creative that fits the feed. A video asset can be up to three minutes, but only the first 60 seconds plays in Shorts, and 15 to 30 seconds is what performs. The bottleneck is almost never the campaign setup. It is having enough vertical, captioned, native-looking creative to test, which is exactly what an AI ad generator is for.
9:16
The vertical aspect ratio Google recommends for the Shorts feed
60s
The maximum that will actually play inside Shorts, even if your asset is longer
15 to 30s
The length that performs for Demand Gen creative in short-form feeds
3 seconds
The window you get before the thumb moves. The hook has to land here
What are YouTube Shorts ads?
Shorts ads are vertical video ads served between organic clips in YouTube's short-form feed. To the viewer they look like another Short: full screen, sound often off, one thumb-flick away from being gone. To the advertiser they are inventory inside Google Ads, reached through campaign types that include Shorts among their placements rather than through a checkbox labeled "Shorts".
That distinction trips people up constantly. Advertisers go looking for a Shorts campaign type, do not find one, and conclude they cannot advertise there. What actually determines whether you show up in the Shorts feed is your campaign objective and the assets you give Google. Upload only a 16:9 landscape film and you have handed the system nothing that belongs in a vertical feed, so you will see your budget flow to the Home feed and in-stream instead. Upload a proper 9:16 cut and Shorts inventory opens up.
The creative rules that follow are not YouTube-specific. Shorts, Reels, and TikTok are the same viewing posture: vertical, muted by default, scrolling fast, deeply allergic to anything that announces itself as an ad in the first second. A UGC-style video where a person opens with a problem and shows the product by second five outperforms polished brand film in all three. That is why a single vertical master usually runs across every short-form placement you buy, and why the volume of variants you can test matters more than the polish of any one of them.
How to run ads on YouTube Shorts: campaign options
Google moves campaign names around, so treat these as the current routes to Shorts inventory rather than permanent labels, and check the placement report once you are live.
| Campaign route | Serves Shorts | Best goal | Creative it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand Gen | Yes, alongside Discover and Gmail | Mid and lower funnel demand, ecommerce sales | Vertical 9:16 video plus a full image set: landscape, square, and portrait |
| Video campaign, sales or leads goal | Yes, as part of the video inventory mix | Direct response and conversions | Vertical 9:16 video with a clear call to action and captions |
| Video campaign, awareness goal | Yes, but reach is spread across surfaces | Reach and brand recall | Short vertical cuts, brand visible early |
| Performance Max | Yes, YouTube is one of its channels | Full-funnel automation across Google inventory | Feed the asset group vertical video, or it defaults to weaker auto-assets |
| App campaigns | Yes, for app installs | Mobile app installs and in-app actions | Vertical video showing the app in use |
The honest summary: every one of these routes can put you in the Shorts feed, and none of them will if your only asset is a landscape video. Creative decides placement far more than campaign choice does.
YouTube Shorts ad specs
Per Google's published Shorts asset guidance, current as of July 2026. Verify against Google Ads Help before a large launch, because asset requirements shift.
| Asset | Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 vertical recommended | Vertical assets outperform landscape on Shorts. Letterboxed 16:9 reads as an ad instantly |
| Video length | Up to 3 minutes, but only the first 60 seconds plays in the Shorts feed | Build for under 60 seconds. Google recommends it, and viewer behavior enforces it |
| Recommended ad length | 15 to 30 seconds for Demand Gen | Longer assets tend to get pushed to the Home feed, where engagement drops |
| Additional video ratios | 16:9 landscape and 1:1 square | Upload the full set so one campaign can serve Shorts, in-stream, and feed surfaces |
| Image files | Up to 5MB, JPG, PNG, or non-animated GIF | Animated GIFs are rejected. Keep a compressed set ready |
| Image ratios | 1.91:1 landscape, 1:1 square, 4:5 portrait | Google suggests at least 3 landscape, 3 square, and 1 portrait per asset group |
| Captions | Not required, strongly advised | The Shorts feed is watched muted constantly. Burn the captions in rather than relying on auto-captions |
Every video UGCGen generates comes out in 9:16 with captions already burned in, so the Shorts asset is the default output rather than a re-export job. The same file drops straight into a TikTok ad and an Instagram Reels placement, and the 16:9 and 1:1 cuts for the rest of the asset group come from the same generation.
Four rules for YouTube Shorts ad creative
Hook in three seconds
Open on a problem, a result, or a face mid-sentence. Never open on a logo. If the first frame looks like an ad, the thumb is already moving.
Show the product by second five
Shorts viewers will not wait through a setup. Get the thing on screen early, in a hand, in use, in context.
Write for the sound being off
Burned-in captions, not auto-captions. The line that carries the offer has to be legible without audio.
Ship variants, not a masterpiece
One Short will not tell you anything. Five hooks against the same product will. Generate them, run them, kill four.
The reason performance teams reach for AI generation on this placement specifically: Shorts burns creative fast. A hook that works for a fortnight stops working, and the account needs a replacement ready. Filming five vertical variants a week is not realistic for most brands. Generating them from a product URL is, and the honest trade is that the AI presenter is not a real customer holding your product. For that proof shot, hire a human through a UGC creator marketplace once a hook has earned it.
Shorts ads versus the rest of your short-form buy
YouTube Shorts
Google intent and audience data behind a TikTok-shaped feed. Strong for ecommerce Demand Gen, and the least crowded of the three for many US categories.
TikTok
The native home of the format and the highest tolerance for rough, creator-style video. Polished brand film underperforms hardest here. See TikTok ad generator.
Instagram Reels
Same vertical cut, older and higher-income US audience on average. Often the best-converting of the three for considered purchases. See Instagram ad generator.
YouTube in-stream
Landscape, pre-roll, viewer already committed to watching something. A different creative brief entirely. See YouTube ad generator.
Facebook feed
4:5 or 1:1, scroll-driven, captions mandatory. The vertical master crops down cleanly. See Facebook ad generator.
The practical move
Generate one vertical master, export the ratio set, and run the same hook across Shorts, TikTok, and Reels. Whichever placement pays back, feed it more variants.
YouTube Shorts ads, answered
How do I advertise on YouTube Shorts?
You do not buy a standalone Shorts placement. You run a Google Ads campaign that serves the Shorts feed, most commonly a Demand Gen campaign or a Video campaign with a sales or leads goal, and you upload a vertical 9:16 video asset so Google has something native to serve. Shorts inventory is selected by the campaign and asset mix, so the vertical creative is what actually gets you in the feed.
How long can a YouTube Shorts ad be?
A video ad asset can run up to three minutes, but only the first 60 seconds plays inside the Shorts feed, so anything past a minute is wasted on this placement. Google recommends keeping Shorts creative under 60 seconds, and in practice 15 to 30 seconds performs best for Demand Gen, with the hook landing in the first three seconds.
What are the YouTube Shorts ad specs?
Vertical video at a 9:16 aspect ratio is the recommended and best-performing format for the Shorts feed. Google advises uploading a mix of ratios so the campaign can serve other surfaces too: 16:9 landscape, 1:1 square, and 9:16 vertical. Images cap at 5MB in JPG, PNG, or non-animated GIF, and Google recommends at least three landscape, three square, and one portrait image per asset group.
Do YouTube Shorts ads work for ecommerce?
They work when the creative is native. Shorts viewers are scrolling a short-form feed with the same reflexes they use on TikTok, so a repurposed 16:9 TV spot with letterboxing dies there. A vertical, captioned, presenter-led video that opens with a problem and shows the product within five seconds is the format that earns the watch, and it is the same creative that works on Reels and TikTok.
How much do YouTube Shorts ads cost?
There is no fixed Shorts rate. You bid through Google Ads and pay on the campaign bidding model, so your cost depends on your goal, audience, and competition rather than on the placement. The controllable cost is creative: producing enough vertical variants to find a winner is usually the real constraint, which is why brands generate Shorts creative rather than film every version.
What is the difference between YouTube Shorts ads and regular YouTube ads?
Regular YouTube ads run before or during long-form landscape video, where a viewer has already committed to watching something and a 16:9 skippable ad fits the context. Shorts ads appear between vertical clips in an infinite feed, where the thumb is already moving. The buying is similar, the creative rules are not: Shorts needs 9:16, captions, and a hook in three seconds.
Can I use the same creative for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Reels?
Largely yes, and most performance teams do. All three are vertical 9:16 short-form feeds with sound-off viewing and the same three-second attention window. Export one master vertical cut with burned-in captions, keep platform watermarks and platform slang out of it, and the file runs on all three.
Generate the vertical creative your Shorts campaign is missing
Paste a product URL and get a 9:16 presenter-led ad with captions burned in, ready to upload as a Demand Gen asset. Then generate four more hooks and let the campaign pick the winner.
Make a Shorts ad