Infographic: The Beginner’s Guide to YouTube Advertising

Paid content distribution has quickly emerged as one of 2015’s biggest content marketing trends as brands push to get more eyeballs on their content. And no platform looms larger in this landscape than YouTube, which is quickly emerging as the King’s Landing of Google’s powerful advertising empire.

While YouTube’s advertising is best known for its skippable pre-roll ads, the platform offers myriad ways for brands to get their video content out there. Lucky for us, WhoIsHostingThis has detailed everything a beginner needs to know in the shiny infographic below.

For example, brands can position their videos in-slate (where viewers are given the option of choosing between three ads before watching a long video) or in-search (where a video is provided as a suggested search result). And best of all, they can choose to only pay when viewers choose to watch the ad.

The infographic cites some impressive numbers that should convert those who still think of YouTube as a hub for fuzzy cell phone videos. Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google? Or that it attracts over 1 billion unique users each month, and reaches more US adults than any cable network? And for those looking for ROI, consider this: Businesses that use YouTube ads see a 20 percent increase in website traffic, and 43 percent of brands’ new customers buy something they saw in a YouTube ad.

Check out all of those seductive stats in the infographic below.