YouTube Announces New Targeting Options for CTV Campaigns, Improved CTV Buying Tools

Connected TV has become a key video consumption trend, with YouTube reporting that CTV viewing – i.e. people watching YouTube content on their home TV sets – is now its fastest-growing content surface.

And with that comes new opportunity for advertisers, with the capacity to run TV-like ad campaigns for much lower cost, and with much more specific targeting, which could be hugely effective in building brand awareness and recognition.

And now, YouTube’s looking to provide more options on this front, with the addition of specific audience ‘guarantees’ for video campaigns, as well as improved processes for buying CTV inventory.

First off, on audience guarantees. Using Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) YouTube will now give advertisers the opportunity to maximize audience reach among specific target markets, based on vetted audience reach insights, in order to maximize your messaging.  

As explained by Google:

“When setting up your guaranteed deal, you can now choose a specific age and gender demographic, like adults ages 18 to 49, and pay only for the ad impressions that reach your target audience as measured by Nielsen DAR. This feature works for all types of video campaigns – including for connected TV ads – and comes at no additional cost for advertisers.”

The option essentially provides more control for your campaigns, in terms of exact audience reach. Nielsen’s DAR insights incorporate census-based data, advanced machine learning methodologies, and third-party datasets, to facilitate deduplicated insights to specific consumer segments, helping to ensure that you’re reaching exactly the right people with your ads.

That could be a big help, especially for brands that are looking to measure the resonance of their campaigns with specific audience subsets.

YouTube’s also looking to simplify CTV media buying, by providing more ways to purchase CTV inventory.

“To help CTV buyers deliver more coordinated ad campaigns, YouTube ads can now be purchased within Display & Video 360’s insertion order dedicated to connected TV ad buying. This simplified workflow features parameters designed specifically for CTV campaigns to help minimize technical blockers that typically limit reach on CTV devices. Because it puts YouTube side-by-side with other top CTV inventory, it also makes it easier to optimize for common goals or control ad frequency across your entire CTV media mix.”

That could make it easier to incorporate YouTube CTV inventory into your broader media mix, which is more aimed at larger-scale advertisers, but could also provide optimization opportunities for smaller brands too.

And again, with CTV viewing on the rise, it’s worth exploring your opportunities in this respect, and considering how TV-aligned messaging could help to improve your reach and resonance.

Indeed, according to eMarketer, CTV consumption is projected to steadily increase over the coming years.

Traditional TV is losing its appeal, as consumers get more accustomed to watching whatever they want, when they want it, while the shift to short-form video has also exacerbated the trend towards more compact video content, even on your home TV set.

And as younger generations get more accustomed to these new consumption trends, you can expect this to become a more embedded activity, which is why CTV trends should definitely be on your radar for media placement.

Audience guarantees are now available for Programmatic Guaranteed ads running with publishers on Google Ad Manager in the US, with more regions coming soon.