With online video growing, it’s imperative for brands to deliver relevant video campaigns at scale. In fact, eMarketer predicts that U.S. programmatic Connected TV ad spend will reach $8.67B in 2022.

We recently shared how you can reach streaming audiences on Connected TV using Display & Video 360. Today, we're launching new features in Campaign Manager 360 to help you take further advantage of this massive shift to video.

We’re making it easier for you to set up and measure video campaigns across your entire media plan by automating workflows and offering video-centric trafficking capabilities. We’re also introducing new video measurement capabilities, so you can get the insights you need to make smarter decisions and optimize performance.

Work faster with the new publisher eligibility tool and publisher spec library

One of the most frustrating and time-consuming issues for ad operations teams is receiving a creative asset that doesn’t meet the minimum required specs or creative standards for a particular publisher. For example, the file size might be too low quality to generate necessary transcodes, requiring an entirely new creative. These challenges lead to inefficient workflows and delays in campaign launches.

To automate this process, we’re launching the publisher eligibility tool and publisher spec library in Campaign Manager 360.

The publisher eligibility tool validates the uploaded creative to ensure its attributes meet the minimum requirements for specific publishers. Now you can identify issues before they happen and see exactly what needs to be changed.

The new publisher spec library reduces the manual work needed to convert file formats to align to specific publisher specs. Instead, Campaign Manager 360 will automatically set video transcodes for each placement on your media buy and convert your video files to match each publisher’s creative specifications.

Advertisers and agencies like PMG have been streamlining their QA and video trafficking process with these tools.

New placement level video duration settings ensure that the length of a video meets the publisher’s duration requirements. In addition, video default ads now support multiple video creatives with different lengths and orientations, making it possible to use default video ads across any video campaign. If the existing video assigned to a placement or publisher can’t run, instead of missing the opportunity, you’ll automatically deliver a default video ad in its place.

Measure video inventory with engaged views and engaged view conversions

Impressions and view-through conversions are key metrics for video campaign performance, but without insights into watch time and viewability, it can be difficult to know exactly how your video ads are driving conversions.

Engaged views and engaged view conversions allow you to define what constitutes a high-quality video impression and measure its impact on both third-party inventory sources and on YouTube.

This helps you determine which video impressions and inventory sources are the most valuable, understand how users engage with your video ads across your media plan, and get deeper insights to drive your business objectives and campaign goals. Please reach out to your account team if you’re interested in these new metrics.

Get consistent measurement with custom viewability metrics for YouTube inventory

Finally, you’ve been asking for a way to get an apples-to-apples comparison of campaign performance for YouTube and other video sources. We’re adding the ability to set custom viewability metrics on YouTube inventory in Campaign Manager 360 so you can consistently measure viewability across different inventory.

With a simplified video campaign setup and more comprehensive video measurement, Campaign Manager 360 helps you to better reach your audience with relevant video ads at scale.

Automated bidding in Display & Video 360 helps advertisers improve performance by adjusting bids in real time to achieve the results they care about. Using Google’s advanced machine learning, it evaluates and tailors your bids for every auction to help predict the likelihood of a conversion.

Today we’re introducing improvements to the automated bidding solutions in Display & Video 360. First, we’re introducing a new interface where you can set Custom Bidding multipliers without writing any code. Second, we’re adding support for pay for viewable impressions to outcome based buying. Lastly, we’re introducing a new report to give you more insights into how automated bidding places bids to hit your goals.

Simplified setup for Custom Bidding

Custom Bidding is an automated bidding strategy that allows you to assign values to different events, such as a conversion or a purchase. Marketers told us that Custom Bidding delivers great results because it helps tailor their bidding to their unique goals, but we also learned that they can’t always use it because they might lack the technical resources to build the required scripts. In addition to uploading a custom script, you now have the option to select Floodlight activities and assign them the value you want in an easy-to-use interface. For example, you can assign a higher value to high-value purchases, so that your ads are tuned to specifically increase revenue instead of driving more transactions. In the future, you will also be able to use Analytics 360 goals in the same way.

Outcome based buying for branding campaigns

Up until now, outcome based buying only supported performance campaigns by allowing marketers to pay per click for campaigns that use target cost per acquisition (CPA) or maximize conversions strategies. To make better use of your branding budgets, we’ve introduced pay per viewable impressions (as measured by Active View) for your display and video campaigns. This allows you to optimize for maximize active view. So you’ll reduce budget waste and achieve better performance by only paying for impressions that are viewable instead of each impression.

Learn how automated bidding works for your campaigns

We’ve heard that you’d like to learn more about how the automated bidding algorithm places your bids. We’re introducing a new report, Bidding Insights, that will give you more visibility into how automated bidding is working. First, you will be able to monitor what the average cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) bid is based on the likelihood of an impression to lead to a conversion or a click. This way you’ll see that automated bidding is increasing your bids for impressions that generate better returns for you.

In addition, Bidding Insights will show you how many impressions you won based on their likelihood to lead to the outcome you selected for automated bidding. Bidding insights will become available after seven days of activity and after there is sufficient data to provide meaningful insights in all campaigns that are using automated bidding.

These new bidding features allow you to quickly adapt to consumer behavior by giving you more flexibility and customization for your bidding strategies across both brand and performance campaigns.

This post closes our Display & Video 360 product announcements series covering new features to support your business recovery and growth. Stay tuned for additional updates on Campaign Manager 360 soon.

Marketers and agencies sign annual deals with top publishers to simplify purchasing and negotiating inventory across multiple brands and campaigns. This includes annual upfronts and newfronts deals. Increasingly, marketers rely on Programmatic Guaranteed and other non-guaranteed deals to fulfill these commitments with Display & Video 360, because its frequency management capabilities improve performance while delivering consistent user experiences across channels.

To help media agency professionals more efficiently manage publisher deals, we’re introducing new tools to package, prioritize and monitor deals across partners and advertisers in Display & Video 360.

Let’s say you’ve negotiated a deal with a publisher and you’d like to use it across different partner accounts. Instead of going into each of Display & Video 360’s partner accounts and creating separate deals, you can now create one deal and then distribute impressions across partners and advertisers. You can also easily edit the deal and the changes will propagate to all Display & Video 360’s accounts you shared the deal with.

Package and prioritize deals across partner accounts

In addition to saving time creating and editing deals, you can also package the inventory to fit the needs of the brands you work with. You can take inventory from different deals, bundle them together and give access across partners and advertisers. For example, you can create a package for a special time of year (like Black Friday or major sporting event), a marketing objective or for always-on campaigns and share it across multiple partners. This way you don’t have to recreate the same package in multiple accounts. In addition, for preferred deals, you can prioritize access to the deal across partners and advertisers, giving you additional control in how you distribute impressions from the deal among your various campaigns.

Monitor publisher commitments in one place

When you commit to buying a fixed amount of ad inventory through a Programmatic Guaranteed or a non-guaranteed deal, you have to closely monitor its delivery so that you don’t waste your budgets. The ability to keep track of your spend at the publisher level is particularly relevant for your upfront deals that span across various properties and cover different advertisers and campaigns. So if these deals are running behind, it’s important to quickly reallocate impressions across campaigns. Now, you can easily monitor pacing for each publisher and deal in one place, identify delivery issues and reallocate impressions across accounts and campaigns before the deal expires.

To access these new tools, please contact your account team. In the future, we’re planning to add more controls and flexibility in how you manage your deals across partners.

Earlier this week, we announced new ways to help you easily capture connected TV and audio streamers' attention and understand what drives them to become customers.

To deliver a consistent user experience across these new channels and more established ones, it’s critical to control the overall number of times people see your ads.

Effective cross-channel frequency management can also reduce budget waste and help you make every ad dollar count. On average, we found that customers see a 6% reach gain when managing frequency in Display & Video 360.

But beyond averages, we heard that you needed a personalized assessment of the impact of cross-channel frequency management solutions on a campaign-by-campaign basis. We’re introducing two new tools that help you appraise the benefits of your own cross-channel frequency management strategy on an ongoing basis and at no cost.

Quantify the reach impact of cross-channel frequency management

First, we’re adding a dedicated data visualization for each campaign that spans across channels and has a frequency goal set at the campaign level. The visualization shows how much reach was gained due to effective frequency management at the campaign level. You can also access the same information at the advertiser or at partner level by creating an offline report in the standard Display & Video 360 reporting.

Having a real-time view of reach gains gives you more precision in evaluating your campaign performance. It also lets you assess the value of managing your programmatic campaigns across channels in a consolidated way. This leaves you better armed to defend marketing budgets.

With this new data visualization, you don’t need to set up an experiment with a test and control phase in order to see the impact of applying your frequency management strategy across media types. Display & Video 360 uses log data to automatically compare the reach obtained by a cross-channel campaign against the reach that you would have obtained with separate campaigns, each containing a single channel and its own frequency goal.

Measure the extra reach coming from Programmatic Guaranteed strategies

Display & Video 360 will now calculate for you the extra reach you get for each Programmatic Guaranteed deal using Display & Video 360's frequency management solutions. This new metric will help you get a better understanding of how Programmatic Guaranteed deals contribute to the incremental reach you get from applying frequency management across media.

This topline data point will be visible in a dashboard in the “My Inventory” tab. You’ll still be able to use Display & Video 360’s offline report to see budget savings reinvested and impressions passed due to frequency for each Programmatic Guaranteed deal.

Managing frequency without third-party cookies

We’re committed to building solutions that will let you maintain control over ad exposure in a way that respects user privacy even when third-party cookies and identifiers are missing. Since 2019, Display & Video 360’s cross-domain frequency management tools have been powered by machine learning technology. And recently, we’ve further evolved these models to enable advertisers to manage frequency on Firefox ETP and Microsoft Edge traffic. In the future, we’ll keep exploring innovative ways to protect users’ privacy while controlling users’ overexposure to ads and limiting media waste.

Connected TV (CTV) and audio streams flow into people’s screens with hours of entertainment. So successful brands like Adidas and Nestlé turn to programmatic technology as a way to connect with their viewing and listening audiences while simplifying the execution of CTV and audio ad strategies.

Last week, we introduced new Display & Video 360 tools to help you forecast the reach of your audio and CTV campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Today, we’re spotlighting three additional features that will help you easily capture the attention of CTV and audio streamers and understand what encourages them to become customers.

Pick the right context for your CTV ads

Reaching viewers based on their interests and passions remains one of the most promising opportunities of CTV advertising. That's why we invest in features like similar audiences for CTV devices that help you find new connected TV viewers who share similar attributes with the audiences you already know.

But we’ve heard many of you want to combine these new tactics with best-in-class techniques inspired by traditional TV advertising that give you confidence that your ads are displayed in a safe and relevant context.

To help you do just that, we’re soon integrating new CTV contextual signals in Display & Video 360. This will allow you to pick inventory by genre, length or livestream content.

Let’s say you want to associate your ad message to some of the highly anticipated sports events of the summer, like the Olympics or the U.S. Open. Using Display & Video 360, you’ll easily select CTV live inventory that falls under the “Sports” genre. Then you’ll also be able to verify that your ads served against content that is suitable for your brand.

Measure the sales impact of your CTV ads

As pandemic restrictions ease in some parts of the world, ad spending is rebounding. But advertisers’ preference still goes to ads that can prove they’re effective at moving products off the shelves.

This fall, we’re introducing sales lift measurement for CTV ads using Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) in the U.S. Harnessing sales data across NCS’s extensive retailer network, this feature will give you a chance to quantify how your CTV ad impressions led to offline sales. The report features useful metrics such as percentage sales lift, total incremental sales and return on ad spend that can inform future campaign optimization. This data will be available right in the Display & Video 360 interface, meaning that no pixel implementation or log file data crunching will be required.

And because the Display & Video 360 integration with NCS already covers all other digital environments, publishers and formats, you can now understand the incremental lift attributed to campaigns spanning across CTV apps, display, audio and more.

Create professional dynamic audio ads

On top of the big screen, people will also turn on their smart speakers and headphones this summer to enjoy live sports and music festivals, or to listen to a podcast while relaxing in a deck chair. Creating great audio ads can be a chicken-and-egg problem. How can you justify a big incremental creative investment if you haven’t yet proven you can run fantastic digital audio campaigns?

That’s where Display & Video 360 can help. With Audio Mixer, you could already assemble a multi-track audio ad using simple drag-and-drop editing features. Building on Audio Mixer, we’re adding new dynamic production capabilities so that you can build tailored audio ads, quickly and efficiently, at scale. This new dynamic production tool allows you to use various segmentation rules, like location, schedule or audience, to create customized, relevant ads, all from a single audio creative.

For example, you can create a back-to-school audio campaign that has customized offers for different markets. Once you record the audio asset, you can use the dynamic audio tool to create additional custom assets with local in-store promotions based on where the ads will run.

Both Audio Mixer and the dynamic production tool will also be available in the recently announced Ads Creative Studio.

As people shift to on-demand ways of consuming TV and audio content, advertisers need on-demand ways of buying ads on these channels. Stay flexible and relevant by simplifying the execution and measurement of your CTV and audio campaigns with Display & Video 360’s new tools.

Connected TV (CTV) and audio streams flow into people’s screens with hours of entertainment. So successful brands like Adidas and Nestlé turn to programmatic technology as a way to connect with their viewing and listening audiences while simplifying the execution of CTV and audio ad strategies.

Last week, we introduced new Display & Video 360 tools to help you forecast the reach of your audio and CTV campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Today, we’re spotlighting three additional features that will help you easily capture the attention of CTV and audio streamers and understand what encourages them to become customers.

Pick the right context for your CTV ads

Reaching viewers based on their interests and passions remains one of the most promising opportunities of CTV advertising. That's why we invest in features like similar audiences for CTV devices that help you find new connected TV viewers who share similar attributes with the audiences you already know.

But we’ve heard many of you want to combine these new tactics with best-in-class techniques inspired by traditional TV advertising that give you confidence that your ads are displayed in a safe and relevant context.

To help you do just that, we’re soon integrating new CTV contextual signals in Display & Video 360. This will allow you to pick inventory by genre, length or livestream content.

Let’s say you want to associate your ad message to some of the highly anticipated sports events of the summer, like the Olympics or the U.S. Open. Using Display & Video 360, you’ll easily select CTV live inventory that falls under the “Sports” genre. Then you’ll also be able to verify that your ads served against content that is suitable for your brand.

Measure the sales impact of your CTV ads

As pandemic restrictions ease in some parts of the world, ad spending is rebounding. But advertisers’ preference still goes to ads that can prove they’re effective at moving products off the shelves.

This fall, we’re introducing sales lift measurement for CTV ads using Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) in the U.S. Harnessing sales data across NCS’s extensive retailer network, this feature will give you a chance to quantify how your CTV ad impressions led to offline sales. The report features useful metrics such as percentage sales lift, total incremental sales and return on ad spend that can inform future campaign optimization. This data will be available right in the Display & Video 360 interface, meaning that no pixel implementation or log file data crunching will be required.

And because the Display & Video 360 integration with NCS already covers all other digital environments, publishers and formats, you can now understand the incremental lift attributed to campaigns spanning across CTV apps, display, audio and more.

Create professional dynamic audio ads

On top of the big screen, people will also turn on their smart speakers and headphones this summer to enjoy live sports and music festivals, or to listen to a podcast while relaxing in a deck chair. Creating great audio ads can be a chicken-and-egg problem. How can you justify a big incremental creative investment if you haven’t yet proven you can run fantastic digital audio campaigns?

That’s where Display & Video 360 can help. With Audio Mixer, you could already assemble a multi-track audio ad using simple drag-and-drop editing features. Building on Audio Mixer, we’re adding new dynamic production capabilities so that you can build tailored audio ads, quickly and efficiently, at scale. This new dynamic production tool allows you to use various segmentation rules, like location, schedule or audience, to create customized, relevant ads, all from a single audio creative.

For example, you can create a back-to-school audio campaign that has customized offers for different markets. Once you record the audio asset, you can use the dynamic audio tool to create additional custom assets with local in-store promotions based on where the ads will run.

Both Audio Mixer and the dynamic production tool will also be available in the recently announced Ads Creative Studio.

As people shift to on-demand ways of consuming TV and audio content, advertisers need on-demand ways of buying ads on these channels. Stay flexible and relevant by simplifying the execution and measurement of your CTV and audio campaigns with Display & Video 360’s new tools.

At Google Marketing Livestream this spring, we talked about how Google Marketing Platform can help you drive performance while protecting privacy. That’s when we raised the curtain on some Display & Video 360 product announcements designed to help you reach your customers wherever they are — including on connected TV and audio.

Today we're kicking off a series of articles about Display & Video 360 that cover these new features, as well as upcoming capabilities to support your business recovery and growth. This includes new TV and audio reach forecasting tools and new frequency metrics to help you quickly figure out where your audience is and how to reach them in the most cost-effective way. This series will also introduce new enterprise-level features designed to increase your productivity thanks to automated yet customizable technology. First up is planning.

Get more premium reach with Display & Video 360’s planning tools

Planning is no longer a one-time exercise; it needs to happen on an ongoing basis to keep up with your audience’s rapidly-changing habits. Planning solutions that are tightly connected to your media buying platform can let you more accurately and more quickly assess the potential reach of your plans.

To help media planners adjust to this new way of working, we’re introducing two Display & Video 360 tools that will help you estimate the reach of your campaigns in real-time across any inventory type – including traditional TV, connected TV (CTV) and even audio.

Plan your CTV and audio campaigns alongside your other media buys

Watching CTV and streaming audio are now mainstream behaviors. To help marketers make the most of this extra reach opportunity, we’re adding new signals in Display & Video 360’s reach planning tool so that you can plan the reach of your CTV and audio deals in real time. This will complement existing Display & Video 360 forecasting capabilities which already allow you to estimate the reach of your display and video programmatic deals as well as your CTV open auction buys.

Planners will now be able to more immediately answer questions like, “How much incremental reach could I get by combining a network CTV deal with YouTube reservation and open auction video or audio ads?” They’ll have the option to forecast the reach of their campaign either by picking from their custom list of available CTV and audio deals or by choosing publishers they’re considering adding to their media mix.

Strike the optimal mix of TV and digital media to maximize reach

Planning tools that span across traditional and CTV viewing can help you navigate the shift from linear TV to streaming more effectively. For example, TV in Google Ads Reach Planner lets advertisers like PepsiCo better plan for their reach and frequency goals by allocating optimal budgets across TV and YouTube.

We're bringing TV planning to Display & Video 360 users in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan and Vietnam. By combining actual historical TV and digital ads data into a single reach curve the tool will show the unduplicated reach of the entire plan across TV, YouTube, broadcast and cable networks on CTV and the rest of your digital campaigns. Display & Video 360 will use data from major single-source panels in each available country or region to understand the TV viewership and how it overlaps with digital media consumption.

We’ll start rolling out this TV planning functionality in beta in the fall. It will be fully self-service and you’ll only need some basic details about your media plan to get started: your core audience demographics, the duration of your campaign and your estimated TV discount so that we can return tailored estimates.

If your budgets are somewhat flexible, we’ll show two curves: one will show the reach you’d get by spending your entire budget on TV and the other will show the optimal reach you’d get by efficiently splitting your budgets across TV and digital. You’ll also be able to set a fixed TV budget and see a single curve showing the extra reach you could get by adding digital channels such as YouTube and CTV ads to the mix.

The growth of new media types alongside traditional TV has made forecasting reach and ad spend more difficult than ever. With Display & Video 360’s real-time forecasting solutions you’ll be able to approach show premieres seasons this fall with more serenity.