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Marketing Academy · Field Work●Paid Ads
All projects·From: YouTube Ads
CoreSimulation· 45 minutes

The 21-Day Launch: Simulating a YouTube Ads Rollout Under Budget Pressure

Duolingo

Objective: Practice the sequence of judgment calls across a 21-day YouTube campaign launch: when to leave the auction alone, when creative fatigue demands a refresh, how to keep cold/warm/hot audiences from overlapping, and how to read Brand Lift signals against last-click data.

You're running paid video for Duolingo's new certification product launch. Budget is £4,000 over 21 days, and the growth lead checks the dashboard with you at three points along the way.

At each checkpoint, read the dashboard, apply the lesson's frameworks, and pick the action a disciplined YouTube advertiser would actually take, not the one that feels most urgent.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Ads
FreeBuild and run the simulated campaign structure and read the dashboard metrics

Free to open an account; this simulation only requires reading sample dashboards, no real spend needed to complete it

Google Analytics 4(optional)
FreeReference for how conversion events would be tracked in the live-track extension

Free tier covers everything a learner needs to connect conversion tracking

The process

Simulation

Day 3, first look

Day 3 of 21

You launched the skippable in-stream campaign three days ago and open the dashboard for the first time. The growth lead is asking whether it's working.

Sample output
Skippable in-stream · Cold audience ad group · Day 3 of 21

  Impressions   142,000
  CPV           £0.041
  CTR           0.52%
  View rate     27.8%
  Spend         £480 of £4,000
Spend to date:£480 of £4,000
Budget remaining:£3,520

CPV is running above the £0.02-0.03 benchmark and CTR is slightly under the 0.65% average. Three days in, what do you do?

Run this for real insteadOptional

The simulation above is a complete project on its own, free, no account or spend required. This is only for learners who want to test the same decisions against a real live account.

Minimum spend:£300
Minimum duration:14 days
Setup steps
  1. Create a skippable in-stream campaign in Google Ads with one cold-audience ad group
  2. Upload at least 2 creative variants from day one
  3. Connect Google Analytics 4 and import at least one conversion event before launch
Check-in schedule: Check the dashboard on day 3, day 10, and day 14, using this simulation's three checkpoints as the review structure.

Final deliverable

A completed 4-checkpoint decision log stating which action was taken at each stage and the lesson passage that justified it, plus a final exec-summary paragraph using the full measurement picture.

See a reference example
Sample output
Peloton connected-fitness launch, decision log (excerpt)

DAY 3: Logged CPV/CTR against benchmark, no changes made.
DAY 10: Shipped 2 new creative variants after a 4-point view-rate dip.
DAY 16: Launched hot cart-abandoner ad group with exclusions against cold/warm.
DAY 21: Reported clicks (41) + view-through (188) + branded search lift (+134%) in the exec summary.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

  • Picks the optimal option at the day-3 checkpoint (no premature bid or targeting changes)
  • Refreshes creative in response to the declining view-rate signal rather than waiting past the point fatigue is visible
  • Sets exclusions when launching the hot audience tier
  • Reports view-through conversions and branded search alongside click conversions in the final verdict