About video views

With the video views subtype, you can get more views for your video ads at a lower cost by showing your ads in the places where they perform best.

Video views simplifies the views buying experience. You set the average bid amount that you’re willing to pay for a view and we’ll automatically find as many views as we can using in-feed video ads, skippable in-stream video ads and Shorts ads.

In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of video views, how it works, and how to create it in your Google Ads account.

On this page

• Benefits of video views
• How video views works
• Create a video view campaign
• Creative guidelines

Benefits of video views

• Set your campaign up easily with a simplified process as you no longer need to think about formats and format combinations.
• Get more return on investment (ROI) with more potential views for the same budget, as your videos can serve on various ad formats using Google AI.
• Build brand consideration by showing your ads when viewers are browsing and discovering, watching long-form content and enjoying and discovering short-form content.

How video views works

Some video ads perform better using certain ad formats. The video views campaign uses multi-format video ads, which mix and match your video ads across multiple ad formats to determine where they perform best.

If you don't want to use multi-format video ads, you can still use skippable in-stream ads or in-feed video ads in separate ad groups. However, using different ad groups with the same settings can result in your ads competing with each other and lower the total number of potential views that your campaign can receive. Using multi-format video ads ensures that your ads will serve on all formats, in one ad group, maximising the total number of views that you can get.

Shorts ads are only available for multi-format ad campaigns, in a mix with in-stream and in-feed video ads.

Ad formats under video views

• Skippable in-stream ads play before, during or after other videos. After five seconds, users have the option to skip the rest of the ad. To count as a view, users must engage with or watch your video ad for at least 30 seconds or until the end of the ad if it’s less than 30 seconds.
• In-feed video ads appear as thumbnails, consisting of a video image and some text. Users can watch the video ad autoplay inline or click on the thumbnail to watch the video ad on a larger screen. To count as a view, users must click on the thumbnail or watch the ad autoplay for at least 10 seconds or until the end of the ad if it’s less than 10 seconds.
  • Note: In most cases, in-feed video ads don’t count as views unless someone clicks on the ad. With video views, a view is counted when an in-feed video ad autoplays for at least 10 seconds or until the end of the ad, if it’s less than 10 seconds. This increases overall campaign views and can give you more information about who is paying attention to your ads to help you improve the performance of your future campaigns.
• Shorts ads play on YouTube Shorts, YouTube’s short-form video feed. Users can skip the ad anytime. To count as a view, users must watch the video ad play for at least 10 seconds or until the end of the ad, if it’s less than 10 seconds.

Learn more About video ad formats.

Bid strategy

The bid strategy for video views is target cost per view (CPV). With target CPV, you set the average amount that you're willing to pay for each view that your campaign receives.

From the target CPV that you've set, we'll optimise bids to help get as many views as possible. Some views may cost more or less than your target. Learn more About cost per view (CPV) bidding.

If you opt out of using multi-format video ads, your bid strategy will switch to maximum cost per view (Maximum CPV). With Maximum CPV, you set the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for each view that your campaign receives.

Create a video view campaign

Watch our Google Ads tutorial video to learn how to set up your video view campaign.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Click the plus button , then select New campaign.
5. Select Product and brand consideration as your campaign objective.
6. Select the Video campaign type.
7. Select Video views as your campaign subtype.
8. Click Continue.
9. Enter a campaign name.
10. (Recommend) We recommend enabling multi-format ads by checking the box 'Get more views with multi-format video ads' in the 'Multi-format ads' section. You can select the inventory that you want your campaign to serve in the section. The available ads are:
    • In-stream ads skippable
    • In-feed ads
    • Shorts ads.

You must have at least one inventory selected. We recommend using all three inventories as it will maximise the views that you can get for your campaign.

11. In the 'Bid strategy' section, target CPV will automatically be selected. This allows you to set the average amount that you’re willing to pay for a view.
    • Note: When you opt out of using multi-format video ads, Maximum CPV will be automatically selected as your bid strategy. With Maximum CPV, you set the most that you’re willing to pay each time that your ad is viewed. Post campaign creation, there's no option to edit a bid in the 'Ad group' column. You're only able to edit and adjust bids in the 'Ad group' tab.
12. Enter additional details about your campaign, such as the budget.
13. Set up campaign targeting to reach people searching for your brand or business.
14. The tick box in the 'Multi-format video ads' section will be checked by default. If you want to opt out from using multi-format video ads, untick the tick box.
    • Note: When you opt out from using multi-format video ads, you can only use in-stream ads or in-feed video ads. Shorts ads are only available with multi-format ad campaigns. Opting out of multi-format video ads to use format-specific ads may reduce the number of views for your budget.
15. Create your ads. For the video views campaign subtype, you can add up to five videos. Based on the video that you added, we’ll recommend that you add videos with different orientations to help you get more views.
16. Review your campaign settings. If everything looks good, click Continue to campaign.
17. Click Create campaign.

Creative guidelines

Related links

• Create a video campaign
• Tips for optimising your video campaign
• Expand your reach to YouTube users