YouTube and Google Ads: A How-To on Bidding to Win

Of course YouTube is not a simple story quotBig Brands Fund Terror Through Online Advertsquot The Times London 292017 is not the kind of headline advertisers forget and it39s not like the story wasn39t followed by others of equal gravity As a result buying YouTube became wrapped up with the concept of brand safety social safety issue is a related but separate issue as advertisers needed to avoid juxtapositions with the worstThere are three routes to resolving the brand safety problem You can rely on Google39s extraordinary machine learning which is almost perfect in a use case where only quotactuallyquot perfect will do Alternatively you can choose to sail in the safer waters of YouTube Select the platform39s cloudily defined quotpremiumquot tier Lastly you can deploy a thirdparty brand safety or brandsuitability tool the difference between the two being the latter39s value in expanding inventory pools to recognize the tolerance of different advertisers and audiencesMany advertisers and agencies have determined that the path of least resistance for YouTube implementation is to buy YouTube Select on a reserve basis and to use DV360 Google DSP plus a brand safety tool to buy other inventory That adds up to a cocktail of integration with other DV360 buys safety and predictability It also might mean loss of opportunity and value MediaVillage readers who read our previous column about the Facebook auction will know that we prefer to unearth value by buying exclusively in the auction Almost always the auction creates pricing advantage and it allows us to assemble audiences from the most granular level in this case one video at a timeOur perspective is that granular buying strategies are most likely to yield granular analytics and by extension better attribution So if you know your KPIs you want flexibility and you are ready to use CTV as much like the web as TV then use the auction Once that39s decided you have to choose between DV360 and Google Ads If your goal is to optimize across multiple inventory sources then DV360 is a good enough choiceIf your goal is to maximize your outcomes across the entirety of the YouTube auction there are four specific reasons why you might opt for Google AdsThe reporting is better integrated and quicker allowing for faster and superior optimizationAll the tools we know and love from building search campaigns are native to Google AdsThere are planning buying and optimization APIs not available in DV360There is no platform fee for Google Ads which according to AdExchanger in June 2020 could save 13 vs DV360 That39s a great many impressions and a big savingsThere is a principle involved here In the linear era had advertisers been capable of analyzing audience delivery context and response on a spotbyspot basis they would have done so Some got close direct response advertisers knew very precisely which spots when and where made the call centers light up at the right price Many advertisers now look closely at search performance and web traffic in relation to TV audience delivery They only wish they could adjust all of weight timing and context on the fly in the pursuit of competitive advantage and even achieve the knowledge asymmetry that accrues when the buyer knows something a seller does not This is what you can get with Google AdsIf this sounds like hard work it is In the pursuit of competitive edge the juice has to be worth the squeeze As YouTube39s share of available impressions grows that seems to be the case here Google Ads in the auction backed by brand suitability deployment is not the easiest route but it is the one that offers the greatest potential for success It39s true that Google Ads gives a YouTubeonly view but the biggest inventory source with multiple unique characteristics deserves special attentionClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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YouTube and Google Ads: A How-To on Bidding to Win

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John Donahue

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YouTube and Google Ads: A How-To on Bidding to Win

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