The YouTube Mockup Tool is another great, free tool Google offers to advertisers. This tool allows anyone with a Google login the ability to see what their video content would look as a YouTube ad when running video campaigns in Google Ads.

Let me show you how easy it is to test your videos in this tool.

How to Use the YouTube Mockup Tool

After you log in with your Google account, you will be able to get started. If you are brand new to the platform, you can click on the gray, plus button in the lower right-hand portion of your screen to begin the process.

Then you can drag and drop your .mov or .mp4 file to the main portion of the screen. You can also search and select the file if you do not remember the exact location.

After your video uploads, you can then select if you want the ad to be a TrueView ad, a fifteen-second ad, or a bumper ad. For the sake of this post, my video was over fifteen and six seconds. So my only option was to choose the TrueView ad mockup.

Now you can preview what your video ad would look like in two different formats: Mobile Portrait and Mobile Landscape. The options to preview for Laptop and Watch Pages are coming soon.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what the preview currently looks like. 

Mobile Portrait Video

Mobile Landscape Video

You Can’t Beat Free

Before you go out and spend a ton of money promoting your videos (Yes, I know you do not have to pay for every view with a TrueView in-stream ad), see how your video ad will actually look to the public.

You might see your video ad looks great. You may see certain, key elements of your videos look horrible on mobile devices.

This tool also makes it easier to show clients where the main call-to-action or attention grabbing scene first hits. If it shows up after a user can skip the ad, you can now visually show them how most users can miss the point of your video ad

I hope more features get added to the tool, like discovery ads or additional card elements, but for now, this is a nice tool to have in your toolbox. 

Have you tested this tool yet? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!