In this article, youâll learn about Video campaign objectives and how they determine the campaign subtypes, ad formats, ad networks, and bidding strategies available to you when creating the campaign.
On this page
- Keep in mind
- Video campaign objectives
- Video campaign subtypes
- Available ad networks and ad formats for Video campaigns
- Compare campaign objectives
Keep in mind
When you create a Video campaign in Google Ads, you choose a campaign objective first. A campaign objective is the main thing you want your campaign to achieve for your business, for example, sales or website traffic.
Optimize your campaign as you create it
As you create your campaign, you may receive notifications based on your setting selections. These notifications may alert you of issues that can result in decreased performance or that may be significant enough to prevent you from publishing your campaign.
The campaign construction navigation menu that appears as you construct your campaign provides a holistic view of your construction progress and will call attention to notifications that you may want to address. Move between steps in the navigation menu to easily review and resolve potential issues with your targeting, bidding, budget, or other campaign settings. Learn how to Set up your campaign for success.
Video campaign objectives
When setting up your campaign, you can select the "YouTube reach, views, and engagements" campaign objective. Alternatively, if you donât have a YouTube objective in mind, you can select âCreate a campaign without guidanceâ. Learn more About campaign objectives in Google Ads
| Campaign Objective | Description |
|---|---|
| Sales | Drive sales online, in app, by phone, or in store. |
| Leads | Get leads and other conversions by encouraging customers to take action. |
| Website traffic | Get the right people to visit your website. |
| App promotion | Get more installs, engagement and pre-registration for your app. |
| YouTube reach, views, and engagements | Drive awareness and consideration of your product or brand (previously known as "Awareness and consideration"). |
| Local store visits and promotions | Drive visits to local stores, including restaurants and dealerships. |
| Create a campaign without guidance | You'll choose a campaign without a specific objective. |
Video campaign subtypes
After you choose the âYouTube reach, views, and engagementsâ objective, you can select a campaign goal that determines which metrics the campaign is optimized to deliver. Based on your campaign goal, you can choose the campaign subtype that specifies how you want to reach people, where the campaign runs, and which ad formats can be used in the campaign.
Below is a breakdown of the available Video campaign subtypes based on your overall goal and buying method.
Auction campaigns
| Goal | Campaign type | Campaign subtype |
| Reach | Video |
|
| Video views | Video | Video views |
|
YouTube subscriptions and engagements (Only available from the "Goals" panel) |
Demand Gen (Only shown in reporting) |
YouTube subscriptions and engagements (Only shown in reporting) |
Reservation campaigns
| Goal | Campaign type | Campaign subtype |
| Premier reach | Video |
|
| Masthead | â | |
|
Standard reach |
|
Sales, Leads, or Website traffic
- Drive conversions: Drive interactions and relevant conversions on your website. Also known as Video action campaigns.
YouTube reach, views, and engagements
- Video views: Get views and engagement from people likely to consider your brand. Pay only for views. Your ads can show as skippable in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts ads.
- Video reach: Get the most reach for your budget. How you choose to reach this goal determines your available ad formats.
- Efficient reach: Get the most reach for your budget using bumper, skippable in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts ads.
- Non-skippable reach: Reach people using bumper and 15-second non-skippable in-stream ads.
- Target frequency: Reach the same people multiple times using bumper, skippable in-stream, or non-skippable in-stream ads.
- Ad sequence: Tell your product or brandâs story to individual viewers with a series of skippable in-stream ads, non-skippable in-stream ads, bumper ads, or a mix of ads that are shown in a particular sequence.
- YouTube subscription and engagements: Get subscriptions and drive engagement on your YouTube channel with video ads designed to encourage valuable interactions.
- Audio reach: Reach people while they're listening to content on YouTube. Learn more about how to Create YouTube audio ads.
Available ad networks and ad formats for Video campaigns
The campaign objective and campaign subtype that you choose determines the ad networks where your ads can appear, and the ad formats that you can use in the campaign.
Ad networks
Ad networks are places where your ads can appear. Video ads can appear in the following places:
- YouTube
- Websites and apps on the Display Network (also known as Google video partners)
- Google TV
| YouTube | Video partners on the Display Network | Google TV |
Ad formats
Ad formats determine what your ads look like and how they behave to people who view them. Learn more About Video ad formats.
| Skippable in-stream | Non-skippable in-stream | Bumper | In-feed video |
Compare campaign objectives
Expand a section below to view the campaign subtypes, ad networks, ad formats, and bid strategies available for each objective.
Sales, Leads, or Website traffic
Drive conversions
| Networks |
(All networks are auto-selected). |
|
|---|---|---|
| Ad formats | ||
| Bid strategies |
Set bids on the cost-per-conversion (Target CPA). Automatically set bids to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget (Maximize conversions). |
|
YouTube reach, views, and engagements
Get views
| Networks |
(YouTube and YouTube video partners are auto-selected). |
|---|---|
| Ad formats | |
| Bid strategies | Set bids on video views or interactions with your video (Maximum CPV). |
Ad sequence
| Networks |
(YouTube is auto-selected). |
|---|---|
| Ad formats | |
| Bid strategies |
Set bids on the cost-per-thousand impressions (Target CPM). Set bids on video views or interactions with your video (Maximum CPV). |
Video reach campaigns
| Networks |
(YouTube and Google TV are auto-selected). |
(YouTube is auto-selected). |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad formats | "Efficient reach" |
"Non-skippable in-stream" |
"Target frequency" |
|
| Bid strategies | Set bids on the cost-per-thousand impressions (Target CPM). | |||
YouTube engagements
| Networks |
(YouTube is auto-selected). |
|---|---|
| Ad formats | |
| Bid strategies |
Set bids on the cost-per-conversion (Target CPA). Automatically set bids to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget (Maximize conversions). |
