As 2021 begins, we’re still adapting to new ways of life, whether it’s working from home or streaming the latest TV shows and movies directly from our living rooms. In this new environment, businesses are also learning how to achieve goals while working more efficiently across distributed workforces, and it’s no different when it comes to publishers’ video monetization goals. As viewers spent 57% more time streaming video content this past year, video publishers and TV programmers adjusted quickly to measuring ad performance across screens to understand how to meet their goals, grow revenue and deliver a good viewing experience. 

However, video and over-the-top (OTT) measurement hasn’t always been easy due to the variety of devices and platforms, the lack of standardized signals and the reliance on traditional TV data and reservations. To help our partners more efficiently and effectively measure video and OTT inventory performance, we’re launching a suite of new video-first measurement and reporting tools in Google Ad Manager so they can understand what’s working best and earn more money.

Better understand your true video inventory availability

Video True Opportunities Reporting enables partners to understand the true inventory potential of every commercial break using time-based metrics that are built specifically for video. With this feature, you can easily define the ad duration which you consider to be an ad opportunity, let’s say 30 seconds. Then, you can report on the total number of ad opportunities in a video stream, the number of capped opportunities based on your max ads per pod settings, and the number of matched opportunities that were filled by direct or programmatic demand sources. Video True Opportunities will only measure commercial breaks that viewers actually watch, automatically adjusting for user drop-off that occurs on on-demand content. With a more accurate view into inventory availability and fill rates, you can understand mid-break drop-offs, unfilled ad time, and slate in live broadcasts, so that you can better optimize your video inventory.

You can also use this report with Ad Break Templates, a feature that enables you to use granular advertising rules to create a customized commercial break, so that you can understand ad opportunities based on how you sell your ads. Easily break down Video True Opportunities metrics by custom spots to see how your inventory is performing—whether it’s programmatic, sponsorships or inventory-shared ads. This information can help you determine where user drop-off or empty ad breaks have occurred, optimize your max ad settings and understand where fill rates may be low so that you can improve ad break performance and monetize more effectively across all of your demand partners.

We’ve also made enhancements to TV Forecasting that allow partners to more accurately project available video inventory and account for seasonality complexities like those caused by the unpredictable nature of COVID-19. First, we’ve integrated Video True Opportunities metrics into TV Forecasting, like ad duration and ad opportunities, so that partners can use these new data points to understand future inventory availability. Next, partners can now customize and adjust ad requests based on reference points. For example, if you’re planning to premiere a new season of an existing show in January 2021, but the previous season premiered in November 2019, you can tell Ad Manager to use the traffic spikes or ad request characteristics from the 2019 premiere as a reference point instead of the previous year’s January to more accurately inform the forecasted inventory availability in 2021. 

Explore, measure and package your inventory based on content insights

Content has become an even more critical inventory signal across OTT devices due to device fragmentation. To give partners a new content-aware way to explore, measure and package their video inventory, we’re making the Video Content Explorer UI more widely available and adding new insights cards. The new audience insights card offers demographic breakdowns of content based on your first-party audience data so that you can understand what audiences are watching your content and more effectively value your inventory. Additional insights cards also reveal details into the top devices your content was viewed on, which content is driving the highest impressions, and the sell-through performance of ads on your content. This information can help you optimize your ads across devices and demographics, and understand where there are opportunities to increase monetization of specific content. Moving forward, this screen will be Ad Manager’s primary content hub, where we’ll add more content packaging capabilities, audience insights sources and monetization features.

Increase OTT impression value with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings 

Part of what makes TV content so valuable is the fact that it’s often a shared viewing experience, with families and friends viewing together in the same room. To help our partners accurately measure this viewership, we've integrated with Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings product suite, which provides OTT measurement of select platforms that is inclusive of co-viewing. Using Nielsen data, you can measure and receive credit for multiple impressions on your OTT inventory that reflects co-viewing. Additionally, using Google Ad Manager’s demographic pacing features, it’s possible to have your line item impression goals update automatically based on Nielsen in-demo rates and advertiser requirements.

As we look at the year ahead, we’ll continue building even more advanced video measurement and reporting features, like automated video notifications, new insights cards and video content packaging, so that you can have more actionable insights and sell your video inventory as efficiently as possible. 

As 2021 begins, we’re still adapting to new ways of life, whether it’s working from home or streaming the latest TV shows and movies directly from our living rooms. In this new environment, businesses are also learning how to achieve goals while working more efficiently across distributed workforces, and it’s no different when it comes to publishers’ video monetization goals. As viewers spent 57% more time streaming video content this past year, video publishers and TV programmers adjusted quickly to measuring ad performance across screens to understand how to meet their goals, grow revenue and deliver a good viewing experience. 

However, video and over-the-top (OTT) measurement hasn’t always been easy due to the variety of devices and platforms, the lack of standardized signals and the reliance on traditional TV data and reservations. To help our partners more efficiently and effectively measure video and OTT inventory performance, we’re launching a suite of new video-first measurement and reporting tools in Google Ad Manager so they can understand what’s working best and earn more money.

Better understand your true video inventory availability

Video True Opportunities Reporting enables partners to understand the true inventory potential of every commercial break using time-based metrics that are built specifically for video. With this feature, you can easily define the ad duration which you consider to be an ad opportunity, let’s say 30 seconds. Then, you can report on the total number of ad opportunities in a video stream, the number of capped opportunities based on your max ads per pod settings, and the number of matched opportunities that were filled by direct or programmatic demand sources. Video True Opportunities will only measure commercial breaks that viewers actually watch, automatically adjusting for user drop-off that occurs on on-demand content. With a more accurate view into inventory availability and fill rates, you can understand mid-break drop-offs, unfilled ad time, and slate in live broadcasts, so that you can better optimize your video inventory.

You can also use this report with Ad Break Templates, a feature that enables you to use granular advertising rules to create a customized commercial break, so that you can understand ad opportunities based on how you sell your ads. Easily break down Video True Opportunities metrics by custom spots to see how your inventory is performing—whether it’s programmatic, sponsorships or inventory-shared ads. This information can help you determine where user drop-off or empty ad breaks have occurred, optimize your max ad settings and understand where fill rates may be low so that you can improve ad break performance and monetize more effectively across all of your demand partners.

We’ve also made enhancements to TV Forecasting that allow partners to more accurately project available video inventory and account for seasonality complexities like those caused by the unpredictable nature of COVID-19. First, we’ve integrated Video True Opportunities metrics into TV Forecasting, like ad duration and ad opportunities, so that partners can use these new data points to understand future inventory availability. Next, partners can now customize and adjust ad requests based on reference points. For example, if you’re planning to premiere a new season of an existing show in January 2021, but the previous season premiered in November 2019, you can tell Ad Manager to use the traffic spikes or ad request characteristics from the 2019 premiere as a reference point instead of the previous year’s January to more accurately inform the forecasted inventory availability in 2021. 

Explore, measure and package your inventory based on content insights

Content has become an even more critical inventory signal across OTT devices due to device fragmentation. To give partners a new content-aware way to explore, measure and package their video inventory, we’re making the Video Content Explorer UI more widely available and adding new insights cards. The new audience insights card offers demographic breakdowns of content based on your first-party audience data so that you can understand what audiences are watching your content and more effectively value your inventory. Additional insights cards also reveal details into the top devices your content was viewed on, which content is driving the highest impressions, and the sell-through performance of ads on your content. This information can help you optimize your ads across devices and demographics, and understand where there are opportunities to increase monetization of specific content. Moving forward, this screen will be Ad Manager’s primary content hub, where we’ll add more content packaging capabilities, audience insights sources and monetization features.

Increase OTT impression value with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings 

Part of what makes TV content so valuable is the fact that it’s often a shared viewing experience, with families and friends viewing together in the same room. To help our partners accurately measure this viewership, we've integrated with Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings product suite, which provides OTT measurement of select platforms that is inclusive of co-viewing. Using Nielsen data, you can measure and receive credit for multiple impressions on your OTT inventory that reflects co-viewing. Additionally, using Google Ad Manager’s demographic pacing features, it’s possible to have your line item impression goals update automatically based on Nielsen in-demo rates and advertiser requirements.

As we look at the year ahead, we’ll continue building even more advanced video measurement and reporting features, like automated video notifications, new insights cards and video content packaging, so that you can have more actionable insights and sell your video inventory as efficiently as possible. 

In our new reality of live events—whether it’s sports, concerts, or performances—we enjoy the excitement from the comfort and safety of our own homes. Over-the-top (OTT) streaming has become even more important during this time, offering viewers access to relevant information and entertainment on a variety of devices. But delivering a great viewing experience during live events can be especially challenging for the ads ecosystem, since there can be millions of concurrent viewers, unknown commercial break times, and ad request spikes that occur simultaneously. This can make it difficult for the ads ecosystem to scale with the high demand of viewership spikes, which can lead to choppy ads, repetitive ads, or house or slate placeholder ads—all resulting in a poor user experience.

With an uptick in live streaming as more sports events resume globally, we’re announcing new features in Google Ad Manager’s Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) to help programmers, distributors, and sports leagues power their live events with seamless, broadcast-quality ads across screens. This includes working closely with our partners, like Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation (ABC TV), Major League Baseball (MLB), NASCAR, SonyLiv, Univision, and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to power their live sports events with relevant ads. 

Deliver high-quality ad experiences at scale with DAI Prefetch

Google Ad Manager’s DAI, which is the first server-side ad insertion (SSAI) solution to be accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC), is launching DAI Prefetch for live events. This feature uses a 2-staged approach, first allowing partners to prefetch a portion of their next ad break, say the first ad for each viewer, at the end of the prior ad break. Then, when the ad break begins, Ad Manager serves the first ad that was prefetched and in parallel fetches the subsequent ads based on information such as ad break duration or custom parameters related to events in a game like a goal or touchdown. DAI Prefetch distributes ad requests more evenly and accommodates longer ad decisioning times, which helps solve for surges in traffic during live events. This enables partners to deliver a high-quality ad experience to millions of concurrent viewers while maximizing fill rates and revenue, and increases the ability for the broader ads ecosystem to handle the scale of large live events.

Sports partners globally like SonyLiv and ABC TV (JP) are using Dynamic Ad Insertion with prefetch to successfully monetize their live events. SonyLiv uses DAI to deliver ads to its livestream viewers across screens, including for its India tour of West Indies 2019 cricket match. And ABC TV uses DAI and DAI Prefetch to power ads for livestream events, including their Japanese National High School Baseball Championship Tournament known as Summer Koshien. 

“We were able to use DAI to provide a quality user experience and absolutely no buffering—even with sudden traffic spikes during the live event,” says Yasuharu Ikeda, Section Chief of Content Strategy Department, General Programming Division at ABC TV.

Grow demand with Early Break Notification API

We’re also launching an Early Break Notification API in Ad Manager’s DAI to make it easier for partners to use real-time ad break data to monetize live events. This API lets partners send ad break data to Ad Manager, such as program information from SCTE-35 or custom parameters, in advance of an ad break so that they can deliver relevant ads and adhere to brand safety requirements. Data may include program ID, break number, or custom parameters such as whether the ad break is at half-time or the end of a game. This enables partners to deliver ads based on these circumstances, such as a food delivery ad, sponsorship ad, or an ad based on who won the game. Sending ad break data in advance also provides additional ad decisioning time across programmatic demand sources, which is especially important during live events and can help partners increase fill rates. Partners can use DAI Prefetch and Early Break Notification API together to optimize for a great viewing experience while maximizing yield.

Resuming live streamed sports with our partners

Google Ad Manager’s DAI has already delivered relevant ads to more than 1 million concurrent livestream viewers at the same time during multiple events, including during the recent UEFA Champions League final, which was broadcast by Univision and four of our other partners across three continents.¹ Now, as sports return and viewership grows as live streamed games become the primary way for fans to watch sporting events, we’re working closely with our partners to help them continue to deliver broadcast-quality viewing experiences with DAI. 

Partners like NASCAR, WWE, Univision, and MLB are using DAI to power ads for their live sporting events. For example, NASCAR Digital Media uses DAI to deliver ads for its in-car camera streams on NASCAR.com during live races including the Daytona 500. WWE is planning to expand its use of DAI to power live events on its network. Univision is using DAI for its live broadcasts of UEFA League games and other sporting events. And MLB is using DAI on MLB.tv to power out-of-market live streamed games.

“With sports back in full swing, we’re using Dynamic Ad Insertion to deliver high-quality, relevant ad experiences to our fans across screens, whether they’re watching MLB.tv on TV, mobile or web,” says Jason Gaedtke, Chief Technology Officer, MLB.

To help our partners continue to identify the best way to use Dynamic Ad Insertion to power their live events, we’ve published a DAI best practice guide, which offers implementation and live event best practices. As more live events resume, we’ll be ready to provide our partners with advanced technology, global support, and best practices to grow their businesses.

¹  Google Ad Manager Internal Data, Global, August 2019 - August 2020

More people are streaming TV content than ever before—often through connected TV devices like streaming sticks and boxes, smart TVs, and gaming consoles. In fact, over the past year Google Ad Manager has seen a nearly 3x increase in the number of connected TV ad requests.¹ This fast pace of growth, as users shift from traditional TV to digital over-the-top (OTT) streaming, creates an opportunity for partners to grow connected TV revenue, but has also resulted in challenges in scaling connected TV ads across the ecosystem. The lack of connected TV standards and programmatic signals is making it difficult for the ecosystem to verify, reach, and measure connected TV inventory, and even worse, is leading to an increased threat of fraudulent activity.

With Ad Manager, we’re focused on enabling our partners to deliver a good viewing experience while preserving the safety, trust, and relevancy of the ads on our systems. For connected TV, it's no different and we're continuing to take a standards-driven approach as the ecosystem develops. Today we're sharing a set of new Ad Manager features that help partners scale connected TV revenue safely and effectively by leveraging industry standards and programmatic signals. 

Verify and increase the value of your connected TV inventory

To help programmers and distributors monetize connected TV ads at scale while respecting our Ad Manager video publisher policies, we’re introducing new features that help verify their inventory is authentically represented. Our new Programmatic Access Library (PAL), currently in beta, is an easy-to-implement lightweight SDK alternative for partners who are unable to integrate with our Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDK due to technical limitations or complex video setups. While the IMA SDK remains our recommended default monetization solution with all safeguards and access to demand in place, PAL offers partners with more technical setups the ability to securely pass programmatic signals, enable inventory verifications against fraud, and streamline workflows that don’t require content to be manually tagged. This ensures that all partners—regardless of their technical setup or how they choose to work with us—can programmatically monetize connected TV inventory on our platform. 

We’re also integrating additional connected TV app identification capabilities into Ad Manager that ensure each ad request is coming from a connected TV app's content owner or authorized seller. While we work with the IAB Tech Lab to scale the adoption of the app-ads.txt standard for connected TV, this beta feature offers extra verifications for partners and devices that haven’t yet integrated with the standard. It increases device categorization and ensures signals like app name, app/bundle ID, and Identifier for Advertising (IFA) values are passed to Authorized Buyers, including Google Ads and Display & Video 360, and Open Bidders so that connected TV inventory is authentically represented across all demand channels.  

Grow advertiser demand for connected TV inventory

To make it easier for our partners to unlock advertiser demand, we’re launching features to enable viewability measurement and frequency capping on connected TV inventory. With inferred viewability measurement for connected TV, viewability is assigned to connected TV inventory so that it’s eligible for advertising campaigns that may have viewability goals. As an interim solution until an industry standard is available, this can enable advertisers to discover and run ads on desirable connected TV content and help partners grow more revenue. 

We’re building on Ad Manager’s existing integration with the IAB Tech Lab’s IFA standard by adding support for Session ID. This allows partners to implement a temporary IAB Tech Lab-compliant connected TV advertising identifier if the device doesn’t currently support an IFA value for advertising. Session ID helps partners adhere to advertisers’ frequency cap settings and measure campaign reach, which also minimizes the number of repetitive ads users see on connected TVs and results in a better viewing experience. By satisfying these common advertiser requirements, Session ID can help increase advertiser demand for our partners’ connected TV inventory. 

Increase user trust and transparency in your connected TV inventory

Ad Manager’s connected TV solutions also help partners provide more transparency and control to viewers, which can increase trust in their connected TV content and inventory. As a part of this, we’re launching ‘Why this Ad’ settings for ads on connected TVs which provides viewers with more information on why an ad is being shown to them on connected TV content. This provides more transparency to viewers about the ads they see and even gives them the option to mute certain ads, which results in a better viewing experience that will keep them coming back to your content.  

These new Ad Manager features help our partners scale their connected TV monetization using industry standards and programmatic signals, increase advertisers’ ability to discover and reach new audiences on premium connected TV inventory, and provide more transparency to users. As viewership on connected TV continues to gain momentum, we’ll be working with the industry to increase adoption of standards like app-ads.txt and building for a safer and more sustainable connected TV future for everyone.

¹ Google Ad Manager Internal Data, Global, 2H '18 vs. 2H '19

More people are streaming TV content than ever before—often through connected TV devices like streaming sticks and boxes, smart TVs, and gaming consoles. In fact, over the past year Google Ad Manager has seen a nearly 3x increase in the number of connected TV ad requests.¹ This fast pace of growth, as users shift from traditional TV to digital over-the-top (OTT) streaming, creates an opportunity for partners to grow connected TV revenue, but has also resulted in challenges in scaling connected TV ads across the ecosystem. The lack of connected TV standards and programmatic signals is making it difficult for the ecosystem to verify, reach, and measure connected TV inventory, and even worse, is leading to an increased threat of fraudulent activity.

With Ad Manager, we’re focused on enabling our partners to deliver a good viewing experience while preserving the safety, trust, and relevancy of the ads on our systems. For connected TV, it's no different and we're continuing to take a standards-driven approach as the ecosystem develops. Today we're sharing a set of new Ad Manager features that help partners scale connected TV revenue safely and effectively by leveraging industry standards and programmatic signals. 

Verify and increase the value of your connected TV inventory

To help programmers and distributors monetize connected TV ads at scale while respecting our Ad Manager video publisher policies, we’re introducing new features that help verify their inventory is authentically represented. Our new Programmatic Access Library (PAL), currently in beta, is an easy-to-implement lightweight SDK alternative for partners who are unable to integrate with our Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDK due to technical limitations or complex video setups. While the IMA SDK remains our recommended default monetization solution with all safeguards and access to demand in place, PAL offers partners with more technical setups the ability to securely pass programmatic signals, enable inventory verifications against fraud, and streamline workflows that don’t require content to be manually tagged. This ensures that all partners—regardless of their technical setup or how they choose to work with us—can programmatically monetize connected TV inventory on our platform. 

We’re also integrating additional connected TV app identification capabilities into Ad Manager that ensure each ad request is coming from a connected TV app's content owner or authorized seller. While we work with the IAB Tech Lab to scale the adoption of the app-ads.txt standard for connected TV, this beta feature offers extra verifications for partners and devices that haven’t yet integrated with the standard. It increases device categorization and ensures signals like app name, app/bundle ID, and Identifier for Advertising (IFA) values are passed to Authorized Buyers, including Google Ads and Display & Video 360, and Open Bidders so that connected TV inventory is authentically represented across all demand channels.  

Grow advertiser demand for connected TV inventory

To make it easier for our partners to unlock advertiser demand, we’re launching features to enable viewability measurement and frequency capping on connected TV inventory. With inferred viewability measurement for connected TV, viewability is assigned to connected TV inventory so that it’s eligible for advertising campaigns that may have viewability goals. As an interim solution until an industry standard is available, this can enable advertisers to discover and run ads on desirable connected TV content and help partners grow more revenue. 

We’re building on Ad Manager’s existing integration with the IAB Tech Lab’s IFA standard by adding support for Session ID. This allows partners to implement a temporary IAB Tech Lab-compliant connected TV advertising identifier if the device doesn’t currently support an IFA value for advertising. Session ID helps partners adhere to advertisers’ frequency cap settings and measure campaign reach, which also minimizes the number of repetitive ads users see on connected TVs and results in a better viewing experience. By satisfying these common advertiser requirements, Session ID can help increase advertiser demand for our partners’ connected TV inventory. 

Increase user trust and transparency in your connected TV inventory

Ad Manager’s connected TV solutions also help partners provide more transparency and control to viewers, which can increase trust in their connected TV content and inventory. As a part of this, we’re launching ‘Why this Ad’ settings for ads on connected TVs which provides viewers with more information on why an ad is being shown to them on connected TV content. This provides more transparency to viewers about the ads they see and even gives them the option to mute certain ads, which results in a better viewing experience that will keep them coming back to your content.  

These new Ad Manager features help our partners scale their connected TV monetization using industry standards and programmatic signals, increase advertisers’ ability to discover and reach new audiences on premium connected TV inventory, and provide more transparency to users. As viewership on connected TV continues to gain momentum, we’ll be working with the industry to increase adoption of standards like app-ads.txt and building for a safer and more sustainable connected TV future for everyone.

¹ Google Ad Manager Internal Data, Global, 2H '18 vs. 2H '19

More people are streaming TV content than ever before—often through connected TV devices like streaming sticks and boxes, smart TVs, and gaming consoles. In fact, over the past year Google Ad Manager has seen a nearly 3x increase in the number of connected TV ad requests.¹ This fast pace of growth, as users shift from traditional TV to digital over-the-top (OTT) streaming, creates an opportunity for partners to grow connected TV revenue, but has also resulted in challenges in scaling connected TV ads across the ecosystem. The lack of connected TV standards and programmatic signals is making it difficult for the ecosystem to verify, reach, and measure connected TV inventory, and even worse, is leading to an increased threat of fraudulent activity.

With Ad Manager, we’re focused on enabling our partners to deliver a good viewing experience while preserving the safety, trust, and relevancy of the ads on our systems. For connected TV, it's no different and we're continuing to take a standards-driven approach as the ecosystem develops. Today we're sharing a set of new Ad Manager features that help partners scale connected TV revenue safely and effectively by leveraging industry standards and programmatic signals. 

Verify and increase the value of your connected TV inventory

To help programmers and distributors monetize connected TV ads at scale while respecting our Ad Manager video publisher policies, we’re introducing new features that help verify their inventory is authentically represented. Our new Programmatic Access Library (PAL), currently in beta, is an easy-to-implement lightweight SDK alternative for partners who are unable to integrate with our Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDK due to technical limitations or complex video setups. While the IMA SDK remains our recommended default monetization solution with all safeguards and access to demand in place, PAL offers partners with more technical setups the ability to securely pass programmatic signals, enable inventory verifications against fraud, and streamline workflows that don’t require content to be manually tagged. This ensures that all partners—regardless of their technical setup or how they choose to work with us—can programmatically monetize connected TV inventory on our platform. 

We’re also integrating additional connected TV app identification capabilities into Ad Manager that ensure each ad request is coming from a connected TV app's content owner or authorized seller. While we work with the IAB Tech Lab to scale the adoption of the app-ads.txt standard for connected TV, this beta feature offers extra verifications for partners and devices that haven’t yet integrated with the standard. It increases device categorization and ensures signals like app name, app/bundle ID, and Identifier for Advertising (IFA) values are passed to Authorized Buyers, including Google Ads and Display & Video 360, and Open Bidders so that connected TV inventory is authentically represented across all demand channels.  

Grow advertiser demand for connected TV inventory

To make it easier for our partners to unlock advertiser demand, we’re launching features to enable viewability measurement and frequency capping on connected TV inventory. With inferred viewability measurement for connected TV, viewability is assigned to connected TV inventory so that it’s eligible for advertising campaigns that may have viewability goals. As an interim solution until an industry standard is available, this can enable advertisers to discover and run ads on desirable connected TV content and help partners grow more revenue. 

We’re building on Ad Manager’s existing integration with the IAB Tech Lab’s IFA standard by adding support for Session ID. This allows partners to implement a temporary IAB Tech Lab-compliant connected TV advertising identifier if the device doesn’t currently support an IFA value for advertising. Session ID helps partners adhere to advertisers’ frequency cap settings and measure campaign reach, which also minimizes the number of repetitive ads users see on connected TVs and results in a better viewing experience. By satisfying these common advertiser requirements, Session ID can help increase advertiser demand for our partners’ connected TV inventory. 

Increase user trust and transparency in your connected TV inventory

Ad Manager’s connected TV solutions also help partners provide more transparency and control to viewers, which can increase trust in their connected TV content and inventory. As a part of this, we’re launching ‘Why this Ad’ settings for ads on connected TVs which provides viewers with more information on why an ad is being shown to them on connected TV content. This provides more transparency to viewers about the ads they see and even gives them the option to mute certain ads, which results in a better viewing experience that will keep them coming back to your content.  

These new Ad Manager features help our partners scale their connected TV monetization using industry standards and programmatic signals, increase advertisers’ ability to discover and reach new audiences on premium connected TV inventory, and provide more transparency to users. As viewership on connected TV continues to gain momentum, we’ll be working with the industry to increase adoption of standards like app-ads.txt and building for a safer and more sustainable connected TV future for everyone.

¹ Google Ad Manager Internal Data, Global, 2H '18 vs. 2H '19

The TV industry is going through a digital transformation as viewers watch more content in their living room on over-the-top (OTT) and streaming services. In fact, in the first half of this year, we saw connected TVs become the leading device in North America for Ad Manager programmer partners.¹ As TV converges with digital, we’ve been developing new advanced TV solutions that combine the flexibility and precision of digital with the scale and control of TV to help innovative media companies like Disney, Univision, and many more deliver seamless, personalized, and measurable ads. Today we’re adding new features to our advanced TV solutions for programmers including inventory sharing, ad break templates, TV forecasting and pacing, and real-time reporting.

Seamless ad experiences between programmers and distributors with inventory sharing

Programmers often have complex inventory sharing agreements with many content distributors, including traditional TV operators and digital distribution partners like virtual multi-channel video programming distributors (vMVPD) and OTT services, in which they share a portion of their ad inventory. To help remove some complexity, Ad Manager has launched a new inventory sharing feature that allows programmers and distributors to configure flexible inventory sharing rules in an easy-to-use workflow. Partners are now able to manage rules—like category exclusions, frequency caps, or yield management—across different inventory shares even when a distributor is using a different ad server from their programming partner. By bringing the automation of digital to traditional inventory sharing agreements, partners can deliver seamless ad experiences in all the places their content is available.

Personalized ad experiences with ad break templates

Ad Manager’s Smarter Ad Breaks suite offers partners the ability to deliver personalized ad experiences to viewers, while maximizing revenue and yield across both reservation and programmatic ads. We’re enhancing this product suite with the launch of Ad Break Templates which brings more TV-like control with digital flexibility to every commercial break. Ad Break Templates allow partners to craft a truly customized ad experience with an easy drag-and-drop functionality where they can specify the order, length, and type of ad spot in each commercial break for both live and on-demand content. Whether starting with a sponsorship ad, ending with a bumper ad, or designating a specific spot where a programmatic ad appears, Ad Break Templates give publishers the control they need for their commercial breaks. These templates can also be applied to future commercial breaks once they see what’s working best.

Our Smarter Ad Breaks suite is not only making it easier for partners to customize their commercial breaks, but also to increase revenue. Partners using Smarter Ad Breaks have seen over 50 percent revenue uplift compared to video ads served in a traditional manner.² 

Measurable ad experiences with TV forecasting and real-time reporting

Live events like sports have become especially popular in streaming environments because they allow viewers to watch anywhere, but they can be challenging to monetize due to unpredictable viewership spikes. Ad Manager's TV forecasting now makes it possible for partners to accurately pace their TV inventory according to historical data and custom curves. Partners can fine tune their forecasts to account for peaks and valleys of season premieres, finales, live events, and everything in-between. This means sports streaming companies can more precisely pace ads in their live college football games ahead of time, so that they're not over or under sold, and can earn the most money from every commercial break. 

Building on our TV forecasting capabilities, Ad Manager’s new real-time reporting feature allows programmers to validate that their campaigns are running as expected during an event. Live events are known for having a large amount of high-valued inventory available to fill in a short period of time, and any delivery issues can result in substantial missed ad opportunities. Real-time reporting provides partners a way to quickly identify and fix ad delivery issues in real time across their live and on-demand content. So when the basketball playoffs or the big college football matchup are streaming, people continue to have a broadcast-quality viewing experience and partners can continue to grow revenue. 

These features are only the beginning of a truly converged TV and digital future. As we look ahead, we’ll continue to see our TV programming partners leverage more digital benefits, like the ability to use programmatic guaranteed to complement their TV sales and upfronts. And we’ll be focused on continuing to develop more digital-first ad features made for TV that empower our partners, today and in the future. 

^1. Google Ad Manager, Ad Exchange, internal data, Q4 2018 - Q1 2019.

^2. Google Ad Manager, internal data, March 2018