As an advertiser or ad agency, you can buy specific placements on a reservation basis when you want to pay based on the number of impressions (also known as cost-per-thousand impressions or CPM). Reservation campaigns also let you buy impressions at a fixed rate.
Advertising on a reservation basis is best for promoting brand awareness, offering a new product or service, or re-branding a product or service.
About reservation campaigns
Now it’s possible to buy YouTube reservation ads directly in Google Ads Reservation or through Display and Video 360 Instant Reserve. Talk to your Google Representative to learn more and get access.
Your Google Representative can help you gain access to CPM Masthead campaigns within Google Ads. Reach out to your Google Representative if you’d like to create a CPM Masthead campaign. Learn more about how to Create a YouTube CPM Masthead campaign.
Other reservation products should still be bought through your Google Representative.
Benefits of advertising on a reservation basis
- More control: You can buy impressions at a fixed rate.
- High visibility: You can guarantee placement of your ad at the top of the YouTube Home feed through the YouTube Masthead.
- Premier inventory: You can access Youtube Select and target premier content on Youtube. Learn more about YouTube Select.
- Brand awareness: You can reach a wide audience.
Buying reservation advertising
Advertisers and agencies can buy reservation advertising on a fixed, cost-per-thousand-impressions basis. You can work with the Google advertising team or build your campaign in Google Ads or Display and Video 360 Instant Reserve to get a rate estimate and campaign impression goals.
Here are the ad formats you can buy:
- Non-skippable in-stream ad: This is a non-skippable format that plays before, during, or after a video. It's ideal if you want to communicate a simple, powerful message and get visibility. It forces the impression and won't accrue views on the video. Non-skippable video ads can have a max duration of 15 or 30 seconds. For Display and Video 360 Instant Reserve, non-skippable video ads can have a max duration of 60 seconds. Learn more about Display and Video 360 Instant Reserve deals for YouTube.
- Skippable in-stream ad: This ad appears when someone starts a video (pre-roll) or during long-form content and is skippable after 5 seconds. Although there is no length limit for the skippable in-stream ad, videos that are less than 3 minutes long typically perform better. This format increments the view count on the YouTube video ad.
- Shorts ads: Ads on Shorts are 6–60 second skippable video or image ads that show up between Shorts in the YouTube Shorts feed. Shorts ads that are part of reservation are available with YouTube Select Shorts. Reach out to your Google Ads representative to learn more about using reservation to show YouTube Shorts ads.
- Bumper ads: This is a non-skippable video ad that plays for 6 seconds. Learn more about how to create a video reach campaign with bumper ads.
- Masthead ad: This is a video ad that appears at the top of the YouTube homepage. The YouTube Home feed is a very important destination for viewers, and the Masthead ad allows you to be first and foremost in that home experience. Buying a Masthead ad means targeted reach across a campaign with budget and frequency controls. Masthead ads bought are available on YouTube across desktop, mobile apps, and the YouTube app for TV. Learn more about YouTube Masthead and how to Create a YouTube CPM Masthead campaign.
Targeting ads
Here are the content and audience targeting options for reservation ads that you can buy:
- Ad position: Ad position is a new targeting feature for premier reach campaigns. When first position serving is turned on, an ad from this campaign will be the first ad shown to your audience when they visit YouTube. First position targeting is available for 15 second non-skippable in-stream ads and Shorts ads only. First position targeting doesn't apply to campaigns running on YouTube TV.
- Demographics: You can reach people who are likely to be within the demographic groups you choose. For instance, you can reach potential customers based on long-term life facts or based on their recent purchase intent.
- Audience segments: You can reach people who've demonstrated interest in subjects and who are likely to view related content again. This type of targeting also facilitates connection with audiences that are similar to those targeted by offline campaigns. Also includes custom affinities that you can create directly in your Google Ads account.
- Premier content: YouTube Select Lineups are reservation products for eligible clients to target among the top 5% of popular channels on YouTube with the most passionate audiences in a given market. Lineups include only channels. These lineups can only be targeted when creating a premier reach reservation campaign. Learn more about YouTube Select.
- Topics: Advertisers can choose among YouTube video topics. For example, you can run reservation in-stream ads on family-oriented content. Topics targeting isn't supported for Masthead ads.
- Interests: Advertisers can target viewers interested in particular things, like sports and hobbies, as evidenced by their browsing patterns and watched content.
