Manage video ads

With AdWords for video, ads and targeting groups are equal within a campaign, and therefore very flexible. This system uses the targeting group concept instead of ad groups:

• Campaigns: A campaign contains one or more ads, and up to 10 targeting groups. Each campaign contains targeting (location, language, networks), and pricing (bids and budget) information.
• Targeting groups: A targeting group is a set of targeting methods that apply to all ads, or an ad subgroup, in the campaign. Each targeting group contains additional targeting information (keywords, content keywords, placements, etc.) and pricing information (default, or True-View format-specific bids). All targeting groups in a campaign apply to all ads in the campaign by default, and you can also assign specific targeting groups to specific ads.
• Ads: A single ad contains one video and the ad text for the selected formats. This allows a single ad to appear in up to four different video ad formats and the networks that show these formats. There can be multiple ads in one campaign.

In standard AdWords campaigns, there is a nested structure to campaigns, ads, and targeting:

• Campaigns: A campaign contains one or more ad groups. Each campaign contains targeting (location, language, networks) and pricing (bids and budget) information.
• Ad groups: Each ad group contains additional targeting information (keywords, placements), pricing information (default, keyword, or placement bids) and at least one ad. Ad groups are linked at the campaign level only.
• Ads: Ads contain one set of text and content. There can be multiple ads in one ad group, but they aren’t associated with a campaign. They’re linked at the ad group level only.

Compare the differences between a targeting group and an ad group

To add a targeting group from the Targets tab:

1. First, make sure you’re in the campaign for which you want to create targeting groups.
2. Click All targeting groups to see all targeting groups associated with ads in the campaign.
3. Click the New targeting group btn above the table. You can create up to 10 targeting groups.
4. Name your targeting group.
5. Select your cost-per-view (CPV) bid:
   • You can select a default max CPV bid for all ads in the campaign.
   • You can also click Customize bids per format to set an individual CPV bid per TrueView video ad format.
   • Get updated traffic estimates: If you change your bid or any targeting options on the page, your traffic estimates will update. Press “Enter” after you change the amount in the bid field to trigger the update.

Next, let us know how you’d like to reach viewers:

1. Reach people on YouTube and the Google Display Network:

   YouTube and the Google Display Network offer a few ways to reach particular audiences:

   1. Demographic: Reach people by their age or gender.
   2. Topics: Reach people based on general web content categories.
   3. Interests: Pick from available categories to reach people interested in these topics, even when they may be visiting pages about other topics. Learn more about interest-based audiences.
      • Affinity audiences: Select from these audiences to reach potential new customers and make them aware of your business.
      • In-market audiences: Select from these audiences to find consumers who are researching and actively considering buying products or services like those you offer.These audiences are designed for advertisers focused on getting conversions from highly qualified customers. In-market audiences can help drive remarketing performance and reach consumers close to completing a purchase.

   Advanced audience options: You can also select even more targeting criteria, but be careful! Using too many of these can limit your ad’s exposure. Additional options include:

   • Shows ads on specific content (managed placements): Add unique websites or placements within those websites. For example, you can target an entire high traffic blog or the homepage of a popular news site.
   • Remarket to viewers (remarketing lists): Reach viewers based on their past interactions with your videos or YouTube channel. If you’ve linked your YouTube account to your AdWords account already, we’ll create custom ones for you automatically. Learn more about remarketing lists for YouTube.
     • Video remarketing list: Remarketing lists we’ve created for you will appear here, grouped by channel.
     • AdWords remarketing list: Remarketing lists you’ve created before will appear here. If you don’t have any remarketing lists, and don’t want to link your YouTube account, click Manage lists. This will open a new browser where you can create a new remarketing list for your account.
   • Keywords: Enter keywords that will help match your ads to web content, videos, or YouTube search queries. These keywords will apply differently based on your video campaign’s network settings.
2. Click Save targeting group.

Don’t forget, you can have many targeting groups in a given campaign, and they can be tied to more than one individual ad (and an ad can be tied to more than one targeting group).

By default, when you make a new ad, AdWords for video assumes you want the ad applying to all available targeting groups. And yes, the reverse is also true — if you make a new targeting group, the system also assumes you want the targeting group to apply to all existing ads. You can always change these settings if you want more control over where your video ads appear.

Before you can edit your targeting groups, you’ll need to get to the Targets tab of your video campaign:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at adwords.google.com/video.
2. Select the campaign you’d like to edit.
3. Click the Targets tab to see all targeting groups for the campaign.
   

4. Switch targeting type views: Your screen will default to showing you all of your targeting groups. From either the campaign-level Targets tab, or within a specific targeting group, you can switch to other target views using the target criteria links at the top. If you can’t see one of the targeting options below, click Show more criteriaabove the table.
   • Keywords tab
   • Topics
   • Demographics
   • Placements

• To edit your targeting group bid: Place your cursor over the bid and click the pencil icon to edit.
• By clicking on a targeting group within Targets tab, a filter for the selected targeting group is enabled. You can then edit the targets within the targeting group.
• Pause or resume targets: You can select one or more existing targets in the list, and then enable or pause them.
• Add targets: You can also add a new target within each type by clicking the Add btn above the targets list.

You’ll use the Targets tab to review the performance of the targeting groups you’ve previously created for a campaign. Each targeting group contains different targeting types and applies to all video ads in the campaign. The tab is only available at the individual video campaign level.

Prevent your ads from showing in certain cases

You can add campaign-level negatives to your campaign to do this, across multiple types of targeting options: Keywords, Placements, Topics, Interests & Remarketing, Categories. Category exclusions let you exclude video content by different age groups.

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com/video
2. Click the Campaigns tab, then select the specific campaign where you’d like to add YouTube placements from the navigation menu.
3. Click the Targets tab.
   

4. Expand the Negative targets plusbox at the bottom of the page.
5. Select an exclusion type at the campaign or targeting group level above the exclusions tables: Demographics, topics, interests, keywords, categories, placements, and remarketing lists.
   

6. You can exclude specific videos or channels from your overall targeting group with placement exclusions:
   • Videos: Use the URL format www.youtube.com/video/[VIDEO ID]. For example:www.youtube.com/video/12345abcdefgHIJwhere 12345abcdefgHIJ is the ID of the video. You can find the ID of the video by looking at the URL of the actual video while watching it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12345abcdefgHIJ. (The video ID is the long alpha-numeric code within the Watch page URL after “v=”.)
   • Channel pages: Enter the URL of the channel. For example: www.youtube.com/user/UserName. To exclude all the video content within a channel, you’ll need to exclude each video individually.

By default, all new ads are enabled to show for all existing targeting groups within a campaign. This means a new ad will appear in each case where all the methods for a targeting group apply. You can change this when editing your ads and targeting groups after you first create a video campaign on either the Ads or Targets tab.

On the Ads tab

1. Click Edit next to the ad, or +Video ad above the table.
2. Click Edit under “Targeting > Enable ad for …”
3. Select the applicable targeting groups for your ad.
4. Click Save.

Why would you want to do this? Let’s say you have Ad A and Ad B. If you enable both for this targeting group, both ads will show for all the eligible formats when they meet all targeting methods (for example: placement, demographic, keyword, or topic targeting) for this targeting group. If you only want Ad B to appear when all methods are met for this targeting group, you would edit your settings to remove Ad A from the list of enabled ads for this targeting group.

After you’ve enabled your ad to appear for specific targeting groups, you can pause or enable the ad for the targeting group at any time from the Ads tab.

On the Targets tab

1. Click Edit next to the targeting group or +New targeting group above the table.
2. Click Edit under “Enable targeting for …”
3. Select the applicable ads for your targeting groups.
4. Click Save.

Why would you want to do this? Let’s say you have Targeting Group A and Targeting Group B. If your ad is enabled for both, all the eligible formats for your ad will be shown when all methods are met for Targeting Group A, and when all methods are met for Targeting Group B. If you only want your ad to appear when all methods are met for Targeting Group B, you’d edit your settings to remove Targeting Group A from the list of enabled targeting groups for the ad.

Video ad formats in AdWords for video