In Display & Video 360, you can use insertion order YouTube reach and frequency optimization to deliver improved return on investment (ROI) for brand marketing goals. For reach optimization, this feature shifts deduplicated reach optimization from individual YouTube line items, to the insertion order level, leading to greater reach when evaluated at the insertion order level. For frequency optimization, this feature enables customers aiming to reach a specific weekly frequency or increase average weekly frequency, to do so across multiple YouTube line items.
On this page
- Reach optimization
- Frequency optimization
- Supported and unsupported line item types
- Activate reach and frequency optimization
- Limitations
- Frequently asked questions
Reach optimization
Opting into insertion order-level reach optimization allows multiple YouTube line items to optimize for reach together, rather than only individually. This enables improved reach per dollar when evaluated at the insertion order level, and is achieved because the reach driven one line item can influence how other line items behave. While the optimization of non-reach optimized YouTube or Demand Gen line items isn’t impacted by this setting, exposures from these line items do influence the serving behavior of the reach-optimized line items.
For example, if user A is reached through a YouTube video view line item, then a YouTube video efficient reach line item will try not to serve user A, thus driving greater unique reach when evaluated at the insertion order-level across both line items. This is demonstrated in the example and table below.
Example of optimization behavior
Without insertion-order level reach optimization enabled
- Line item 1: Reached user A, user B, and user C
- Line item 2: Reached user C, user D, and user E
- Total IO-level unique reach: 5 (overlap whereby user C is reached through both line item 1 and line item 2)
With insertion-order level reach optimization enabled
- Line item 1: Reached user A, user B, and user C
- Line item 2: Reached user D, user E, and user F
- Total IO-level unique reach: 6 (line item 2 knew that user C was already reached, so didn’t serve to that user and instead reached incremental user F)
Frequency optimization
Frequency optimization allows multiple YouTube line items that would normally optimize for reach, to instead optimize together towards an insertion order-level target frequency across all those line items. Compared to individual YouTube target frequency line items, this enables you to optimize across different ad formats (for example, bumper, skippable in-stream, in-feed and Shorts ad formats within YouTube efficient reach line items, and non-skippable in-stream ad formats within YouTube non-skippable reach line items), whilst still maintaining line item specific budgets.
Insertion order-level target frequency requires specifying a weekly goal target frequency between 2 and 7, which is the same range as what is supported in YouTube target frequency line items.
- Frequency caps set at the line item, insertion order or campaign levels.
- Contextual and other targetings applied to eligible YouTube line items within the insertion order. If applying targetings that are not supported within YouTube target frequency line items, your weekly target frequency may be less likely to be met.
Supported and unsupported line item types
Many YouTube line item subtypes are supported for insertion order level reach and frequency optimization, either by having their own serving behavior changed or by influencing the serving behavior of other line items.
| Line item type of subtype | Does this line item’s optimization behaviour change by enabling this feature? | Do exposures from these line items influence serving of optimized line items? |
|---|---|---|
|
Yes | Yes |
|
No | Yes |
|
No | No |
Activate reach and frequency optimization
Standard or Connected TV insertion orders
- Open your advertiser account in Display & Video 360.
- Select Campaigns in the left side menu.
- Open a campaign, then go to the Insertion orders tab.
- Access the insertion order that you want to update, or create a new insertion order using the Standard or Connected TV types.
- Under the “Optimization” section, select Control bid and budget at the line item level.
- This setting is necessary to be able to create YouTube & partners line items within the insertion order.
- Select either of the settings, depending on your optimization preference:
- Choose YouTube reach and frequency optimization.
- Select Maximize reach across eligible line items to enable YouTube & partners line items contained within this insertion order to optimize for deduplicated reach.
- Select Optimize for target frequency across eligible YouTube line items and set your frequency target to enable YouTube & partners line items contained within this insertion order to optimize towards an insertion order level frequency target.
- Choose YouTube reach and frequency optimization.
- Select Create.
YouTube Programmatic Guaranteed instant deals
- Open your advertiser account in Display & Video 360.
- Access the guaranteed instant deal that you want to update, or create a new deal.
- In the deal settings, navigate to the “Optimization” section.
- Select the YouTube reach and frequency optimization checkbox and choose an optimization type:
- Select Maximize reach across eligible items to allow eligible line items in this deal to optimize for deduplicated reach.
- Select Optimize towards a target frequency across eligible line items and set a frequency target to allow eligible line items in this deal to optimize towards an insertion order-level frequency target.
- Complete the deal setup.
Limitations
- Enabling or disabling insertion order-level reach and frequency optimization cannot be managed via Structured Data Files (SDF) or API.
- The YouTube reach and frequency optimization features are specific to YouTube & partners and Demand Gen line items. You can add other line item types (for example, video line items) to an insertion order using this feature, however it will have no impact on those line items.
- The YouTube reach and frequency optimization feature does not apply to the video partners inventory source within YouTube & partners line items. To ensure the optimizations are effective, we recommend disabling this inventory source in all YouTube & partners line items contained within the insertion order that is using the feature.
- The YouTube reach and frequency optimization feature is only available in standard and Connected TV insertion orders, and cannot be used with:
- Digital out-of-home (DOOH) insertion order types
- Insertion orders with goals of Clicks, Conversions, or Custom
- Insertion orders that do not support adding YouTube or Demand Gen line items, those using impression-based budgets, or using the “Automate bid & budget at insertion order level” optimization
- The reach optimization for YouTube Guaranteed instant deals is only available for deals containing multiple line items.
Frequently asked questions
How does insertion order YouTube reach optimization differ from applying frequency caps?
The key difference between applying an insertion order frequency cap and enabling insertion order YouTube reach optimization is that frequency caps are hard limits (and therefore can lead to underspend), whereas reach optimization aims to maximize reach whilst also spending the budget in full.
Additionally, unlike frequency caps, insertion order YouTube reach and frequency optimization only applies to YouTube and Demand Gen line items, and does not apply to Google Display Network inventory within those line items. YouTube reach optimization can be enabled alongside frequency caps, and if enabled at the campaign level this can be used to manage exposure holistically across multiple insertion orders and channels.
