About video assets for Performance Max campaigns

Video ads are critical to the success of your campaign and can increase your campaign performance. Upload video assets when you build your asset group to help make your ads eligible to run on additional video inventory. You can also create a video in the Asset library or let Google AI create a video using your existing assets.

Video specifications

In addition to the requirements listed in the table below, all video assets must meet the following requirements:

  • HD video for optimal quality
  • MPG (MPEignored2 or MPEignored4) formats
  • At least one vertical video between 10-60 seconds for Shorts eligibility
  • Audio files like MP3, WAV, or PCM files are not accepted on YouTube
  Ratio Required Recommended Maximum
Horizontal
16:9
1 video, 10 seconds or longer 5 horizontal videos

Vertical
9:16
1 video, 10 seconds or longer 5 vertical videos

Square
1:1
1 video, 10 seconds or longer 5 square videos

Tip: Google automatically resizes your video ads to increase your performance by platform and improve ad strength. If you don’t plan to upload a video, consider how your other creative assets will appear if resized.

If you don't add a video to your Performance Max asset group, then one or more videos may be auto-generated from the assets in your asset group. For Performance Max campaigns with Merchant Center, a video may also be generated based on the Merchant Center text and images provided in your feed. Google AI may also flip your uploaded videos to transform horizontal videos into square or vertical versions so they may serve on YouTube Shorts.

If you don't have video assets and don't want to use the auto-generated videos, you can use the Google Ads video creation tool to create a video that you can use in your Performance Max campaign. Learn how to Create a video using the Asset library.

Want to build your own video?

If you don’t have a video asset and don’t want to use the auto-generated videos, you can use the Google Ads video creation tool to create a video for use in your Performance Max campaign. Advertisers may also upload a YouTube Shorts-eligible video (vertical format, greater than or equal to 10-60 seconds in length), which may be eligible to serve on YouTube Shorts. To learn how to create videos in Google Ads, visit Create a video using Asset library.

Google may automatically resize your video ads to increase your performance by platform and improve ad strength. After you’ve created and uploaded your creative assets, horizontal videos may be scaled to square (1:1) or vertical (9:16) aspect ratios for YouTube Instream and YouTube shorts. Google will review each video to ensure that quality isn’t lost.

Note: Performance Max campaigns that use auto-generated videos may show customers who visit your landing page a different product than the one featured in your video. This difference may be caused when the product linked in your Final URL doesn’t match the product in your campaign videos. If you’d like to restrict the landing page and ensure that the product a customer clicks is the product that they viewed, limit the products shown in your asset groups to the most relevant landing page using product filters.
Recommended

Can also accept

Additional information

Resolution 1080p (Full HD)
Recommended pixels (px) for HD:
1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
1080 x 1920px (vertical)
1080 x 1080px (square)
For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD

Aspect ratio

16:9 for horizontal
9:16 for vertical
1:1 for square
For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD
Format

.MPG (MPEignored2 or MPEignored4)

Can’t accept audio files like MP3, WAV, or PCM files on YouTube

File size

≤256 GB -

Ad length

Video orientations and best practice ad lengths (1) horizontal ≥:10 (1) vertical ≥:10 (1) square ≥:10

We recommend having at least one vertical video between :10- :60 for Shorts eligibility

After you upload your assets, be sure to monitor how they’re performing. Wait about 2-3 weeks to check on your Ad strength and Asset group status, then evaluate if you need to replace low-performing assets. Learn more about Asset group best practices.

Flip video ads

Each video is reviewed before publishing to ensure that there are no issues, such as cropped text or logos, poor focus, loss of the original message and aesthetic intent from the video, or legal disclaimer cut off. Flip video ads serve only when the source video’s privacy settings are either public or unlisted.

When your Flip video ad is added to the campaign, you can view it by visiting your Performance Max asset group or Video action campaign. Learn more about Flip video ads.

Asset report

The asset report lists each asset used in a Performance Max campaign and allows you to compare performance across a variety of assets. You’ll need to set up a Performance Max campaign to view your asset report. Learn more About asset reporting in Performance Max.

Note: Performance Max campaigns don't support dedicated companion banners. Instead, the campaign will either use your YouTube channel banner or gray triangles. Learn more about how to Create a companion banner for a video ad.

Shorten video ads

Get shorter versions of your video ads without editing them yourself. Google AI intelligently selects key moments in your video and creates shorter versions while keeping your original’s video message and appearance. Additional versions of your video run automatically if they pass a quality review.

Related links

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?
true
Achieve your advertising goals today!

Attend our Performance Max Masterclass, a livestream workshop session bringing together industry and Google ads PMax experts.

Register now

Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu
9923212623244228277
true
Search Help Center
true
true
true
true
true
73067
false
false
false