Good to see this is helping you guys. I get the impression generally in the community that people see promoted videos as being kind of cheesy. The thing is though, the way YouTube works, without some initial views it's near impossible to get ranked in searches. If you aren't ranked in searches then you can't get those gateway videos that launch your channel. This is why so many people give up on YouTube, because to me, 0-100 subs was more difficult than 100-1000. Youtubers system favors popular channels and tends to hide small ones. An ad can help you overcome this.
And thanks to the mods for moving the thread.