Google Ads Introduces New CTV Ad Features, Helping Marketers Track Better

Google's Display & Video 360 platform has announced new features to assist advertisers in planning, purchasing, and measuring connected TV (CTV) campaigns.

With more advertisers prioritizing CTV campaigns, the new features include TV functionality to evaluate the unique and incremental reach of streaming publishers such as YouTube, Hulu, and Roku.

Here's more information on Google's CTV campaign updates:

Update to Reach Planner

Reach Planner is a tool in Display & Video 360 that assists advertisers in forecasting campaign reach and expected performance.

Reach Planner is also used by advertisers to find new publishers and CTV inventory, allowing for more efficient budget allocation decisions.

Advertisers can now evaluate the unique and incremental reach of streaming publishers such as YouTube, Hulu, and Roku, in addition to linear TV, using Reach Planner's new TV functionality.

Advertisers can use Deal ID forecasting to predict how their campaigns will perform before spending money.

Updates to the Marketplace

The marketplace at Display & Video 360 assists advertisers in locating CTV inventory to meet their campaign objectives.

Recently, an audience filter was added to help advertisers find inventory packages and view forecasting against third-party audiences.

Advertisers can use their first-party audience lists to connect with people they already know, then broaden the reach of their CTV campaigns to reach groups like "sports enthusiasts" via Google audiences.

A New Report to Identify Overlap

Unique Reach Overlap, a new report in Display & Video 360, assists advertisers in identifying duplicate reach across publishers, campaigns, and devices.

This data can be used to set campaign-level frequency caps to reduce overlap. This report is available for all Display & Video 360 accounts as well as Campaign Manager 360 accounts worldwide.

People's attention has shifted significantly towards streaming media in recent years. According to Leichtman Research Group's survey, 87% of US TV households own a connected TV. This figure represents a nearly 50% increase over the previous decade. It demands marketers focus more on CTV campaigns as it gives advertisers a prime opportunity to engage with audiences.

With Google’s new feature update, it is apparent how Google adapts to the growing need for CTV advertisements.

As measurement and analytics tools become more granular, marketers can determine whether their efforts are worthwhile or if they have placed their eggs in the wrong basket. As a result, marketers can change and better plan their strategy in order to boost the effectiveness of the campaign, drive their reach, and improve conversions.

Among all the new features, we believe these two are the most impactful.

Reach Planner now supports Deal ID forecasting: It means advertisers will no longer need to spend money on campaigns that may not possibly drive better results. Deal ID forecasting will assist them in gaining insights into how their campaigns may perform even before they spend money, allowing advertisers to make their campaigns more cost-effective and optimise their ads more effectively. Besides, it uses data that is updated every week and is based on the commercial reach of the campaign. Thus, it will be highly advantageous for marketers to forecast and plan their ad spends proactively.

Unique Reach Overlap Report: As people subscribe to more streaming services, it's critical to manage ad frequency across CTV apps. But while measuring the unique reach, duplication often occurs. Google Display & Video 360’s newly added Unique Reach Overlap report addresses this issue and will help advertisers identify the duplication of unique reach across publishers, campaigns, and devices. We believe, it will be highly helpful for advertisers to reduce media waste and improve reach.

In essence, we believe Google’s newly added features in CTV advertising will possibly make it easy for advertisers to take their CTV campaigns to the next level. No surprise, even if it encourages advertisers to increase their marketing budgets for CTV advertising in the future, as it appears demanding and hopeful.