Efficient placement targeting is crucial for successful YouTube ad campaigns within Google Ads. However, it’s essential to understand the nuances of how it functions to maximize its potential.

Image source This guide will delve into the intricacies of YouTube ad placement targeting, covering:

• Choosing the appropriate network for optimal targeting.
• Selecting the most effective YouTube ad placement type based on your industry and advertising objectives.
• Methods for incorporating multiple placements into your ad group at a later stage.

Throughout this guide, we’ll highlight common pitfalls to avoid, ensuring you optimize your YouTube ad expenditure and achieve superior results. Let’s begin!

Network Selection: A Crucial First Step in YouTube Ad Targeting

Before exploring specific targeting options, it’s vital to understand network selection during campaign setup. Many advertisers are often mistaken about where their ads appear. Selecting the right network for your targeting is crucial to ensure your YouTube ad placements are not “misplaced.” The image below illustrates the potential display locations for your YouTube ads, encompassing YouTube search results, YouTube videos, and video partners on the Display Network.

YouTube Search Results

One network placement option is specifically targeting YouTube search results. YouTube, being the second largest search engine globally, presents a valuable advertising opportunity. By utilizing TrueView discovery ads, you can strategically position your video ads atop the YouTube search results page.

YouTube Videos

Placement targeting on specific YouTube channels and pages represents the most common approach for YouTube ads. This method accommodates both in-stream and discovery ad formats.

Video Partners on the Display Network

To broaden the reach of the “YouTube videos” network section within your campaign settings, enable the “Video partners on the Display Network” checkbox. This expands the visibility of your video ads by enabling their display on partner platforms within the Google Display Network. Hovering over the question mark icon provides further details from Google Ads regarding this option, indicating Google’s authority to extend the reach of video ads to specific websites and apps within the Display Network.

It’s worth noting that selecting video partners on the Display Network while excluding YouTube videos is not possible. However, choosing to display ads on video partners within the Display Network will still result in their appearance on YouTube.

Placement Optimization: Refining Your YouTube Ad Targeting Strategy

Within the campaign settings, navigate to the ad group creation section. Here, we’ll explore the available options for YouTube ad placement targeting. Let’s start by examining the ad group setup process during campaign creation. To locate the placement selection area, go to the “Content” section and choose “Placements.” This option is located alongside “Keywords” and “Topics” targeting.

As previously mentioned, your ads can extend beyond specific YouTube channels and videos. Let’s examine each placement option, using baseball as a research example to illustrate potential placement types for your video campaigns within Google Ads.

YouTube Channel Placements

If you have particular channel placements in mind, you can easily search for them. In our example, targeting the official baseball league channels is a logical choice. Simply input relevant keywords and select the “YouTube channels” option.

The results display the number of videos and total subscribers for each channel, providing an initial gauge of the potential reach your video ads can achieve through this specific placement targeting.

YouTube Video Placements

When researching channels, you might find that only specific videos align with your target audience. Similar to channel searches, you can utilize the search function to identify relevant YouTube videos based on your keywords. This provides insights into the video’s source channel and the number of views it has garnered.

An interesting observation is the recency of the videos displayed in the search results (as of the date of this post). Many are from games that occurred recently. This trend of frequently updated content is common in certain industries or themes. Depending on the industry, finding evergreen video content might require more research effort.

Video Lineup Placement Targeting

Video lineups, a relatively new addition to placement targeting options, offer 137 predefined selections. This targeting method caters to the increasing trend of YouTube viewership shifting towards TV devices, allowing advertisers to target specific themes of video content.

The first option, “Popular content worldwide,” provides brand awareness by placing your videos on trending YouTube content. Beyond popular content, the video lineups encompass specific topics and associated countries. Some examples include:

• Comedy
• Video games
• Cars
• Beauty
• Cooking
• Music
• Toys
• Gadgets
• Sports
• TV Genres
• Many others, including subcategories within the mentioned options.

Website Placement Targeting

Website targeting enables you to specify URLs and utilize keywords to discover websites within Google’s Display Network. For instance, searching for “baseball” yields results showcasing websites that are part of the Display Network. However, it’s crucial to understand that being part of the Display Network doesn’t guarantee that these websites offer video ad placements. This is where many advertisers encounter significant budget wastage.

While the selection options provide brief explanations regarding the potential display of these placements, the information remains somewhat ambiguous. However, more detailed insights are available in the Google Ads help page on targeting options for video ads. Google clarifies that adding Google Display Network placements may still result in your ads running on all eligible locations on YouTube and vice versa.

Despite this disclaimer, some accounts solely target specific websites without realizing that these sites might lack video ad space or that their bids are insufficient to secure ad display on those placements. Consequently, the placement targeting is disregarded, and Google resorts to other safety net targeting options applied to that specific ad group. This can lead to very specific placement targeting being ignored, resulting in video ads being displayed based on broader targeting criteria like affinity audiences or topics. Therefore, diligent monitoring of your placement reports is essential, especially after launching ad groups with website placement targeting.

App and App Category Targeting

You can also search for specific apps where you’d like your video ads to be displayed. For our baseball example, many specific baseball apps might emerge. However, it’s advisable to review each app placement within these app stores to determine the suitability of displaying your video ad on them. In our case, if the results predominantly feature games, it might not align with our advertising objectives.

Lastly, app categories offer a broader targeting option with 141 specific categories to choose from. These categories represent higher-level classifications. For instance, the closest match to baseball might be the broader “sports” category. While potentially too broad in this specific example, app categories can be beneficial for expanding reach in other scenarios.

Streamlining Placement Entry: Adding Multiple YouTube Ad Placements

Prior research might have already revealed specific channels, videos, or other placements where you want your video ad to appear for optimal results. Save these URLs during your research phase to simplify the process of adding them to your ad group later.

The “Enter multiple placements” option allows you to streamline this process. Simply paste your list of URLs into the placement field, and they will be added to your selections column. This enables you to upload and incorporate a comprehensive list of desired placements into your ad group quickly.

Making Informed Decisions: Achieving Confidence in Your YouTube Ad Targeting

As we’ve explored, even seemingly specific YouTube ad placement targeting has its complexities. Understanding how campaign settings influence ad display locations is crucial for making informed decisions. This empowers you to select placement targets strategically, ensuring your ads reach the intended audience. This knowledge will also ensure that your future YouTube ad placement targeting campaigns start strong and deliver optimal results.