The YouTube Ads Guy

▶ 00:00  YouTube Ads · Management · Consulting · Coaching

The YouTube Ads Guy

I don't ask brands to believe in YouTube. I help them prove it.

I've been buying Google ads for over a decade, and I shifted my focus onto YouTube years before the industry followed. I've worked panels at YouTube events, and Google has published my results. Now I run, advise, and teach YouTube advertising for brands, agencies, and the people who buy media for them.

And the name wasn't my idea — after enough Slack channels and meetings where I got introduced as "the YouTube Ads guy," I stopped arguing and bought the domain.

Brandon Mangan speaking on stage at a YouTube advertising event
On stage at a YouTube event, alongside Raindrop founder Jacques Spitzer.
Google-published case study 10+ years on Google Ads $1M+/mo programs managed Incrementality-first measurement Google Ads Certified · Smart Marketer

▶ 01:12 · Who this is for

Four kinds of people land here

Brands

DTC and ecommerce teams that suspect YouTube should be a bigger part of their mix, and want it built by someone who's scaled it before.

Enterprises

Larger organizations that need senior YouTube strategy, measurement discipline, and a partner who's comfortable in rooms with data science teams.

Agencies

Shops that are strong on Search and social but need specialist depth on YouTube behind their account teams — advisory or white-glove.

Specialists

Media buyers and marketers expanding their knowledge base, from YouTube fundamentals to advanced measurement and creative strategy.

▶ 02:45 · Services

Three ways to work together

From an hour of straight talk to a fully managed YouTube program. Every engagement starts the same way: a first conversation where we look at your actual situation.

DONE WITH YOU

Consulting

Live-account consulting for teams that run their own media: audits, strategy sprints, campaign architecture, creative direction, and measurement design. I look at the account with you and tell you what I'd do, plainly.

  • Account & strategy audits
  • Campaign architecture reviews
  • Creative & offer strategy
  • Measurement & testing design
  • Ongoing advisory retainers
Start here: consulting and introductions begin with $100 for a first hour together. Prefer efficiency? Send your details ahead and we'll make it thirty focused minutes — I'll come with thoughts prepared.
DONE FOR YOU

Management

Complete YouTube ads management for brands that want it handled: strategy, campaign builds, creative briefing, optimization, and reporting that holds up in front of a CFO. Built on the same playbooks Google wrote up.

  • Full-funnel YouTube programs
  • Demand Gen & video campaign builds
  • Creative briefing & partner coordination
  • Incrementality-backed reporting
  • Scaling from first dollars to $1M+/mo
LEARN IT

Coaching & Team Training

For specialists sharpening their craft and for agency or in-house teams that want the capability in the building. One-on-one coaching, group training, and curriculum built from a decade of real accounts, not screenshots.

  • 1:1 coaching for media buyers
  • Group training for teams
  • YouTube fundamentals through advanced
  • Measurement & incrementality curriculum
  • Ongoing office-hours arrangements

▶ 05:30 · Track record

Named brands. Real numbers.

No anonymized "8-figure brand" case studies. These are the accounts, with the results, and one of them was written up by Google itself.

PUBLISHED BY GOOGLE · YOUTUBE ADVERTISING
12×Conversion lift
89%CPiA reduction
46%Budget lift, positive iROAS

Led Google and Microsoft ads through the run-up to Grüns' $1.2B acquisition by Unilever. We ran a waterfall series of incrementality tests to validate methodology, scaling aggressively into Q4 on the formats and media mixes the testing proved out. Google published it as an official YouTube advertising success story.

RETAIL EXPANSION + DTC
$2MSingle YouTube flight
+iROASOn national retail push

Coordinated a $2M YouTube flight supporting RTIC's national retail expansion — positive iROAS, and a nationwide retailer relationship on the other side of it. I also managed the full demand gen and DTC YouTube program behind their direct business.

EARLY VIDEO ACTION CAMPAIGNS ERA
YouTube spend scaled
50%YoY revenue growth

Scaled EF Ultimate Break's YouTube program from $25K to $125K a month — back when Video Action Campaigns had just become a campaign type and most buyers hadn't touched them. YouTube fed search and remarketing down-funnel and drove 50% year-over-year revenue growth.

Read the Google Case Study Published by Google · YouTube Advertising

▶ 08:14 · Measurement

The part most YouTube people skip

Every brand's real objection to YouTube isn't "does video work." It's "I can't see it in my attribution." That objection is legitimate — last-click was built to make YouTube look bad — and answering it properly is most of my job.

I've measured YouTube's incremental value from every seat at the table: Google's own testing frameworks, in-house data science teams, and independent incrementality platforms. Before that tooling existed, I engineered my own incrementality tests, because I needed answers the platforms weren't giving anyone yet.

The result is a practice where budget decisions rest on measured lift, not platform-reported ROAS. When YouTube earns more spend, I can show you why — and when it doesn't, I'll tell you that too.

GOOGLEIncrementality testing run with Google directly — from conversion, brand, and search lift studies to betas tying high-intent clicks to awareness-level views.
HAUSGeo-holdout incrementality studies with Haus to isolate YouTube's true contribution — mentioned in the YouTube case study.
DATA SCIENCEDirect collaboration with in-house data science teams on lift measurement and media mix questions.
MTAMulti-touch attribution with Northbeam, Triple Whale, and Converge — in my toolkit since they were first introduced to the ecommerce industry.
HOMEGROWNSelf-engineered holdout and matched-market tests, built before incrementality tooling was a product category.

▶ 11:02 · The story

I didn't add YouTube to the menu. I moved the practice there.

You can date a YouTube buyer by the formats they've lived through. Here's where I was for each one.

THE TRUEVIEW YEARS

Search first, like everybody

I cut my teeth on Search and Shopping — over a decade of holistic Google Ads management, eventually as a Senior Google Strategist at OMG Commerce running millions in monthly spend. YouTube was still "a branding play" in most rooms I sat in. I bought my first views when skippable in-stream was practically the whole menu, and learned early from people like Bryant Garvin, one of the first in-house leaders to make YouTube a real performance channel at Purple Mattress.

2020 · VIDEO ACTION CAMPAIGNS

The pivot, before it was obvious

When Video Action Campaigns made YouTube a true direct-response channel, I went in heavy while most buyers were still debating it. EF Ultimate Break was proof: $25K to $125K a month on YouTube, 50% YoY revenue growth, just after VACs became a campaign type.

2023 · DEMAND GEN

Running the playbook at scale

By the time VACs became Demand Gen, I'd been running the playbook for years. RTIC's $2M retail flight put real-world reps on the reach side of the platform — Video View and Video Reach campaigns (VVC/VRC) — alongside their full DTC YouTube program, and that sophistication fed directly into Grüns' incrementality-led scale-up that Google published. Along the way I've worked closely with Raindrop, the premier YouTube creative agency — that's their founder, Jacques Spitzer, on stage with me in the photo up top.

NOW

Management, consulting, and coaching

Today I run YouTube programs for brands, advise teams that run their own, and train the next wave of buyers — with measurement discipline holding the whole thing together. The formats keep changing. The fundamentals I teach don't.

▶ 13:40 · Bona fides

The company I keep

Creative Strategy & Content Production

Great media buying dies without great creative, and I come from the creative side of the table: years as a director of photography for brands like Interstate Batteries, Plantronics/Polycom, and Midtronics, plus dozens of CPG brands. I've worked closely with in-house production teams and vendors across the country — including Raindrop, the premier YouTube creative agency — and I build programs where media and creative talk to each other.

Smart Marketer

Google Ads Certified through Smart Marketer — the certification media buyers in the ecommerce world actually respect. I've attended their masterminds and been part of many of their programs over the years.

Google

Longstanding working relationships with Google's AGT and LCS teams, along with product and measurement leads — plus direct incrementality collaborations and an official Google-published YouTube advertising success story.

▶ 15:20 · FAQ

Fair questions

What does the $100 first hour include?

A working session, not a sales call. Bring your account, your questions, or your growth problem and we'll dig in together. If you send details ahead of time, we can compress it to thirty focused minutes — I'll show up with thoughts already prepared.

Do you manage accounts, or just consult?

The full spectrum. Coaching and discussion for specialists building their skills, live-account consulting for teams that run their own media, and complete done-for-you YouTube ads management for brands that want it handled.

How do you prove YouTube ads are actually working?

I use everything at my disposal to triangulate performance: multi-touch attribution, incrementality testing run with partners or in-house, and Google's own testing frameworks. I've measured lift alongside in-house data science teams and Haus, and I've used MTA platforms like Northbeam, Triple Whale, and Converge since they were first introduced to the ecommerce industry. Before that tooling existed, I engineered my own incrementality tests.

Who do you work with?

Brands and enterprises that want YouTube run or advised at a senior level, agencies that need specialist depth behind their teams, and individual media buyers expanding their knowledge base.

Do you train teams?

Yes. Group training is available for agency and in-house teams, from foundational YouTube ads curriculum to advanced measurement and creative strategy.

What size ad budgets do you work with?

Everything from first YouTube dollars to programs spending more than $1M a month. The strategy changes with scale; the measurement discipline doesn't.

▶ 17:55 · Book

Start with an hour

The easiest way to find out whether I can help is to talk about your actual situation. No deck, no discovery-call theater.

$100 / first hour

Or send your details ahead and we'll make it thirty focused minutes — I'll come with thoughts prepared. Either way, you leave with things you can act on whether or not we ever work together again.

Got it.

I'll get back to you within one business day — usually faster.