How to Buy YouTube TV Ads in Display and Video 360

At InfoTrust, we consistently get questions about buying ads on YouTube TV. It seems as if the world knows you can do it in Display & Video 360 (DV360), but beyond that Google hasn’t made it the clearest.

This article details how to use Display & Video 360 (DV360) to purchase YouTube TV ad inventory, including information on enabling YouTube Instant Reserve.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, there are a couple of required steps that you must take:

• Enable Marketplace: If you do not see the Marketplace under Inventory in the left menu, you’ll need to enable it. You can reach out to your DV360 rep to get it enabled. At InfoTrust, we ensure all of our advertisers have access to Marketplace right away.
• Accept Terms: In your DV360 partner’s Advertiser Configurations, you will need to accept the “Terms & Conditions for accessing Google & partner inventory” agreement and apply it to whichever advertisers will be purchasing YouTube. You won’t be able to create YouTube TV Instant Deals until you’ve accepted these terms.

Enabling YouTube Instant Reserve

YouTube Instant Reserve allows advertisers to secure premium YouTube TV inventory through programmatic direct deals within DV360. Here’s how to get started:

• Contact Google or Certified Reseller Representative: Reach out to your DV360 rep to request YouTube Instant Reserve. They can submit the request to whitelist DV360 Instant Deals for your Advertiser.
• Provide Necessary Information:
  • The company name of the advertiser (i.e. the agency’s client who wants to advertise on YouTube TV, not the agency)
  • Any Google Ads Accounts (or MCCs) that are associated with the same advertiser
  • The DV360 partner and advertisers to enable
• The Waiting Game: Your representative submits a form to Google requesting YouTube Instant Reserve be enabled on your DV360 advertisers. Then you wait. If all goes smoothly you may be ready to buy some YouTube TV in a matter of days. If there’s some clarifications needed, there may be a few weeks of back and forth.

Once YouTube Instant Reserve is available, you can set up an Instant Reserve deal for YouTube TV. At this point, you can lean on information found in Google Support pages, but for ease we’ve put YouTube TV related information below:

Requesting the YouTube Instant Reserve Quote for YouTube TV

1. Navigate to Inventory > Marketplace.
2. Select YouTube from the list of publisher profiles.
3. Click Create instant reservation at the top or center of the page.
4. Add basic details about the deal, including:

• The name of the deal.
• The DV360 Advertiser that will be using the deal.
• The DV360 Campaign that will be using the deal. The campaign must be from the selected advertiser. The deal won’t be affected by the campaign’s budget or flight dates.
• Choose In-stream as the Ad format. This will allow you to target YouTube Select (including YouTube TV).

5. Click Next.

6. Select any policy restrictions that apply to the advertiser using this deal based on our restricted products policies. Ad content related to restricted products may limit the reach of your campaign. Without this information, your Instant Reserve quote might be inaccurate and the deal might not serve.

7. Add Targeting.

• Target the YouTube TV or YouTube TV Sports YouTube Select lineups.
  • Only Bumper or non-skippable ad formats are supported for YouTube TV.
• Inventory source and device targeting are set automatically based on the ad format you selected. You can set other line item-level targeting options. Additional types of targeting are available in the line item’s ad groups.

8. Configure the settings for the deal:

• Pick flight dates for the deal. An Instant Reserve deal will spend over the entire length of the flight.
• Enter the budget for the deal.
• Enter a name for your ad group and choose an ad format.
  • You may have the option to choose a duration for non-skippable ads. Non-skippable ads (30 sec or less) and non-skippable ads (60 sec or less) only show on YouTube TV or connected TV devices.
    • InfoTrust note: 30-second and 60-second ads are standard lengths for linear television. Unlike ads on YouTube which can be nearly any length, you will need to conform your ads to industry standards for YouTube TV.

9. Optional settings for configuration include, but are not limited to:

• Device Type. Select mobile, desktop, tablet, or connected TV device type if you want to only target certain device types. Uncheck a device type if you want to exclude it.
  • Eg. You only want to appear on Connected TV devices as opposed to an OTT app on mobile devices.

• Frequency cap
• Floodlight activity you want to use to count conversions.
• Additional targeting
• Select creative for an ad (can be completed after the reservation has been made)

10. Click Estimate Quote in the Instant Reserve quote section on the right. You’ll see the budget, fixed CPM, and impressions based on the settings you’ve entered.

11. Click Get final quote to see the final terms of your deal once you’ve finished making any adjustments.

12. Review the final terms of the deal and choose whether you’d like to accept and reserve, or hold the quote. Holds allow you to reserve the inventory and quoted CPM for 72 hours (or longer, depending on the product and proposed start date). If a hold is not reserved within the stated time frame it will automatically expire and you’ll need to request a new quote, which may be different.

13. Check the box I acknowledge and agree… to accept the terms of the deal. After you’ve accepted the terms, click Accept or Hold quote.

After you’ve accepted, you’ll see a finalized deal in Inventory > My Inventory. For holds, you can view your deal in Inventory > My Inventory and accept the hold in Line item details. Learn more about accepting a hold or editing a hold.

After you’ve configured the deal, an insertion order and line item with the same name as your deal are automatically set up in the selected DV360 advertiser under the campaign you selected. Instant Reserve deals for YouTube will be grouped with YouTube and partners line items.

YouTube TV and InfoTrust

Still feeling a bit lost? Do you need access to DV360 to activate your YouTube TV strategy?

At InfoTrust, we specialize in helping organizations navigate the complexities of digital advertising and analytics. Our expertise in Google Marketing Platform (GMP) solutions, including  Display & Video 360 (DV360), Google Campaign Manager 360 (CM360), Search Ads 360 (SA360), and Google Analytics 360 ensures that you have the right tools and strategy in place to maximize your digital marketing efforts.

By partnering with InfoTrust, you gain access to:

• Industry-leading expertise in platform implementation
• Advanced data enablement strategies for to your business
• Expert guidance on selecting the right GMP tools
• Comprehensive training for both media and analytics teams
• Advanced data enrichment for media enablement
• Data governance and privacy compliance expertise