For YouTube TV ads, you can use the same targeting strategies that you use for YouTube video ads.
How YouTube TV targeting works
Available targeting options
The following targeting options are available for YouTube TV:
- Demographic targeting
- Gender
- User language
- Parental status
- Age
- Note: We also suggest targeting age bands instead of specific ages.
- Affinity segments
- Geo targeting
- Frequency capping
To activate demographic and affinity targeting, Google’s audience data is applied to YouTube TV inventory in the same manner as any other YouTube platform. YouTube TV is a logged-in experience, which gives YouTube a unique ability to use Google’s audience data on TV inventory.
Geo targeting
Geo targeting at the state, designated market area (DMA), and zip code level is available on YouTube TV. Geo targeting is recommended for local TV and digital advertising if you have key markets for your ads.
Best practices for geo targeting
- Use broad demo targeting only, such as ages “18–49” and “25–54”. Affinity targeting and exclusion lists aren't recommended.
- Reserve inventory early. Share estimates as early and often as possible to increase chances of securing your total budget.
- Avoid overly narrow targeting or short advertising periods. The narrower the targeting or the shorter the advertising period, the more volatile and restricted inventory will become, which will increase your chances of under-delivering. If you need to restrict your campaign to a specific DMA, you’re strongly recommended to avoid other targeting, such as affinity targeting.
- In instances of short advertising periods, we recommend delivering assets earlier than the 48-hour turnaround time requirement to prevent potential launch delays from causing under-delivery.
- Rotate creatives to minimize line items. Use Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) tags to rotate creatives, versus relying on unique line items, as it allows for greater flexibility.
- Avoid making significant changes. Changes to advertising periods, budgets, creative allocations, and targeting prompts the system to release and re-forecast all inventory, meaning any material changes increase the risk of losing all inventory.
Unavailable targeting options
The following targeting options aren’t available on YouTube TV:
- Ad pod positions: Targeting specific positions (for example, first or last) within an ad pod of multiple ads in a row.
- First position targeting: First position targeting won’t apply to YouTube TV ad impressions, but will apply to the rest of your YouTube Select impressions.
- Content: We don’t support network or program targeting, but you can exclude specific shows in a direct reservation buy or networks in a Google Ads or Display and Video 360 buy using an exclusion list. Learn more About YouTube TV exclusions.
- Remarketing lists: You can’t build remarketing lists from a YouTube TV ad and remarket the viewer on YouTube. The same principle applies for non-skippable ads on YouTube: collecting remarketing lists isn’t possible for YouTube Select non-skippable ads, because you can’t collect lists on forced views.
