About video rule signals

When creating rules for video projects, you can select from a variety of signals to help you reach your intended audience. If your project contains variants that are customized for different groups, you would create rules using signals that reflect these groups in order to show each group the right message.

Parts of a rule

Rules are made up of:

• Signals – Signals determine when a rule applies according to audience traits or the viewing context, such as the viewer's geographic location or the topic of the page where the ad appears.
• Variants – Variants are the customized versions of your ad that you want shown when the signals match.

For example, you may want parents to see a different variant than cooking enthusiasts. You would create two rules, one for each variant: one with the "Parents" demographic signal, and the other with the "Cooking Enthusiasts" audience signal.

You can combine signals, even of different types, to define the right target for your message. If a rule includes multiple signals of the same type, the rule will apply when any of those signals match. If a rule includes multiple signals of different types, the rule will apply when all of the signal types match.

Signal types

Ads Creative Studio includes different types of signals for video projects, depending on the platform.

Signal type	Google Ads	Campaign Manager 360
Audience
Demographic
Language
Location
Schedule
Topic
Custom signal

Audience

Select affinity and in-market audiences to define who should see your ad according to their interests.

Learn more about audience targeting in Google Ads.

Affinity audiences

Affinity audiences let you reach people based on their lifestyles, passions, and habits.

In-market audiences and life events

In-market audiences are useful for reaching people who are actively researching or planning a purchase.

Demographic

Select your demographic targeting from the following categories:

• Gender
• Age
• Parental status

Household income targeting is not available in Ads Creative Studio, but may be available directly within Google Ads after the project has been imported.

Learn more about demographic targeting in Google Ads.

Language

You can select the languages your customers speak. Your ads will show to customers with these language preferences, or on sites with these languages.

The full list of languages can be browsed or searched within Ads Creative Studio.

Learn more about language targeting in Google Ads or in Campaign Manager 360.

Location

If your message is specific to certain geographic areas, you can select those places as target locations.

The full list of locations can be searched within Ads Creative Studio by state, city, postal code, airport, or university.

Learn more about targeting geographic locations in Google Ads or in Campaign Manager 360.

Schedule

Specify the times and days of the week when you want to serve your ad. You can set the schedule according to the user's local time, or in Eastern Time.

Learn more about time and day targeting in Campaign Manager 360.

Topic

Select topics to show ads on content that's about specific subjects.

Learn more about topic targeting in Google Ads.

Custom signal

For video projects, you can also add custom signals. You may want to use custom signals if the segment that you want to target isn't supported as a signal in Ads Creative Studio, or if you're unsure of the exact signals that you should use. Custom signals can serve as placeholders to reference later while building the campaign so that you can still add rules and assign variants based on these custom signals.

You define custom signals by entering your own text when adding a custom signal. Any previously defined custom signals for this project will be listed in a drop-down when you click the text field, so that you can select from them.

Exporting custom signals

Like any other signals, custom signals will be exported with the project.