Use assets with your YouTube campaign

About assets

You can use assets to help show additional information alongside your YouTube ads that can help you increase store visits and transactions. There are several types of assets available:  

Location and affiliate location assets

• Location assets: Location assets can help people find your business locations. To use location assets, you need to have a physical location you’re promoting, and that store needs to be listed in a Google Business Profile account.

• Affiliate location assets: Affiliate location assets let you promote third-party locations, or affiliates, that sell your products. If you sell your products through major retail chains or auto dealerships, you can use affiliate location assets to help people find nearby stores that sell your products.

Both asset options show a “teaser” of business information alongside your YouTube ad. When a user clicks or taps the asset, it expands to a location page that shows more business information, such as address, phone number, and store hours. The store shown in the asset is selected based on the user’s device location or a location they have shown interest in.

Sitelink assets

Sitelink assets add more links to your YouTube video action line items. Sitelink assets take people to specific pages on your site (for example a product, or store hours). When someone clicks or taps on your links, they go directly to what they want to know or buy. Each ad can show up to four sitelinks. People can browse and select sitelinks while watching your ad.

Sitelink assets give you the flexibility to change link text and URLs to keep them up to date for sales and special offers, without the need to create a new ad. Detailed data helps you evaluate how individual sitelinks perform compared to other parts of your ad. You have the option to specify the dates, days of week, or times of day your sitelinks are eligible to show.

How sitelinks appear

Sitelink assets appear below eligible ads that play before, during, or after another video on YouTube. Sitelinks only appear below eligible ads on mobile devices. You need at least two sitelink assets for the sitelinks to appear in the ad.

Get started with assets

You’ll manage all of your assets from the YouTube Assets tab in your Display & Video 360 advertiser.

Once you enable assets, they are eligible to appear across all line items in your advertiser that contain an eligible ad format.

Use location assets

Create a new location asset

Once you’ve linked a Google Business Profile account, the business listings in that account will automatically sync to Display & Video 360.

If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile account for your business, you can get started here.

New locations you add to Google Business Profile may take up to 24 hours to sync to your Display & Video 360 advertiser.

Use a Google Business Profile account you manage

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Location tab, click New location asset.

3. If you already manage a Google Business Profile account with the Google Account you use to sign in to Display & Video 360, you’ll see it as an option. Select this account.

   If you want to use a different account from the one you manage, click on the option to Link new account and then follow the instructions below to use a Google Business Profile account you don’t own.

4. (Optional) If you don’t want to sync all of the listings from your Google Business Profile account, select the option to Limit the listings synced with Display & Video 360. You can filter listings based on the business name or labels within Google Business Profile. You’ll see a count of the listings that match your filter.

5. Click Create.

Your listings will automatically be imported from Google Business Profile, and all of the listings will be eligible to show as location assets with your YouTube ads.

Use a Google Business Profile account you don’t manage

Step 1: Link the Google Business Profile account

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Location tab, click New location asset.

3. Select the option to Link new account.

4. Search for your business by domain to discover Google Business Profile accounts.

5. Click Link next to the Google Business Profile account that matches your business.

6. Click Request link once you’ve confirmed that the correct Google Business Profile account is showing in the preview.

Your request will be sent to the email address for the Google Business Profile account owner that you selected. 

Step 2: Import listings

Once the Google Business Profile account is linked to your Display & Video 360 advertiser, you’ll need to import listings:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Location tab, click New location asset.

3. Select the Google Business Profile account you want to use for your location assets.

4. (Optional) If you don’t want to sync all of the listings from your Google Business Profile account, select the option to Limit the listings synced with Display & Video 360. You can filter listings based on the business name or labels within Google Business Profile. You’ll see a count of the listings that match your filter.

5. Click Create.

Your listings will automatically be imported from Google Business Profile, and all of the listings will be eligible to show as location assets with your YouTube ads.

Link multiple Google Business Profile accounts

You can link multiple Google Business Profile accounts to Display & Video 360, but you can only set location assets from one account at a time. If you want to import locations from another account, you’ll need to remove your location assets and start over. 

You can see all of your linked Google Business Profile accounts from the Linked accounts tab of your Display & Video 360 advertiser.

A single Google Business Profile account can be linked to multiple advertisers. 

(Optional) Apply campaign filters to your location asset

Once you’ve added a location asset to your Display & Video 360 advertiser, the business locations you’ve selected become eligible to show across all YouTube & partners line items and ad groups with eligible formats.

You can filter the advertiser-level asset to specify how you want to apply the asset to specific line items or ad groups:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Location tab, click Apply campaign filter.

3. Select the option to apply the filter to line items or ad groups.

4. Choose the line items or ad groups you want to apply the filter to.

5. You can filter the location asset based on:

   1. All listings

   2. Synced listings with a specific Google Business Profile label or business name

   3. Specific listings you pick

   4. Choose “No location asset” if you don’t want assets to show with certain line items or ad groups.

6. Click Create.

You can follow the steps above to create multiple filters if you have different requirements for different line items or ad groups; you can opt some line items out of having any assets or limit the locations included in other line items.

(Optional) Edit what listings you import from Google Business Profile

Once you’ve added a location asset to your Display & Video 360 advertiser, you can edit what listings are imported from your linked Google Business Profile account:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. Click on your advertiser-level location asset.

3. On the page that appears, you can filter listings based on the business name or labels within Google Business Profile. You’ll see a count of the listings that match your filter.

4. Click Save.

Use affiliate location assets

Create a new affiliate location asset

Follow the instructions below to create a new affiliate location asset for your Display & Video 360 advertiser:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Affiliate location tab, click New affiliate location asset.

3. Select either general retailers or auto dealers in the dropdown. You can select multiple retailers, but you can’t specify the order the retailer’s locations will appear in an ad. The most relevant ad is served based on the user’s device location.

4. Choose the affiliate you want to include at the country level. Specific store locations cannot be excluded.

5. Click Save.

All of the affiliate locations will be eligible to show as assets with your YouTube ads.

(Optional) Apply campaign filters to your affiliate location asset

Once you’ve added an affiliate location asset to your Display & Video 360 advertiser, the affiliates you’ve selected become eligible to show across all line items and ad groups with eligible formats.

You can filter the advertiser-level asset to specify how you want to apply the asset to specific line items or ad groups:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Affiliate location tab, click Apply campaign filter.

3. Select the option to apply the filter to line items or ad groups.

4. Choose the line items or ad groups you want to opt in or out of location assets.

5. You can filter the affiliate location asset based on:

   1. All affiliate chains in the advertiser-level asset

   2. A subset of chains from the advertiser-level asset

   3. Choose “No affiliate chains” if you don’t want assets to show with certain line items or ad groups.

6. Click Create.

You can follow the steps above to create multiple filters if you have different requirements for different line items or ad groups; you can opt some line items out of having any assets or limit the affiliates included in other line items.

(Optional) Edit what affiliates are included in your asset

Once you’ve added an affiliate location asset to your Display & Video 360 advertiser, you can edit what chains are included in your asset:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. From the Affiliate location tab, click on your affiliate location asset.

3. On the page that appears, you can update the list of affiliates included in your asset.

4. Click Save.

Use sitelink assets

Add sitelink assets

To create a new sitelink asset for your Display & Video 360 advertiser:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.
2. Click the Sitelink tab, then Add sitelink asset.
3. From the "Add to" drop-down menu, choose the level you’d like to add the sitelink to: Line item or Ad group. Ad group-level sitelinks will always serve over line item-level sitelinks by default, or you can choose to show no sitelinks for an ad group. Assets can be associated to any ad group or line item, or to the entire advertiser. This means that a single asset can have multiple associations
4. Choose which sitelinks to use:
   • For an existing sitelink select Use existing and select the sitelinks that you’d like to add.
   • To create a new sitelink, click Create new then Create new sitelink asset. Fill out the sitelink text then enter additional text about your link in the Description fields (optional, but highly recommended). When you fill out both lines of description, your sitelink may be eligible to show with these details. Enter a final URL that people reach after clicking your ad. It should match what your ad promotes.
5. Click Save.

Remember to create at least two sitelinks. Sitelinks won't be able to show with your ads until at least two sitelinks are created and attached to the line item or ad group that the ad is a part of. 

Best practices

• Segment your statistics to see the number of clicks that occurred on the individual sitelink versus another part of the ad (for example, the headline, other sitelinks, or another asset). 

• Use Floodlight activities to optimize your landing pages for "light" conversion events such as a website visit or an "add to cart”.

• Keep link text short: Short links mean that more links can show, so stay within limits. Sitelink text is limited to 25 characters in most languages, or 12 characters in double-width languages (like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).

• Create links that reflect your site: Look at your website's navigation bars for easy sitelink ideas.

• Add descriptions: Descriptions for each link make your ad more helpful to people viewing your ad. They don’t reduce the number of links that can show.

Edit sitelink assets

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets. 
2. Click the Sitelink tab.
3. Click the specific sitelink you want to edit.
4. Make changes to the sitelink. Any changes you make will also be applied to any ad group or line item that shares this sitelink.
5. Click Save. 

Schedule sitelink assets

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets. 
2. Click the Sitelink tab.
3. Click the specific sitelink you want to edit.
4. Click Additional settings. Scroll to the advanced options section.
5. Set a start and end date to show your asset only during a specific timeframe.
6. Select the days and times you’d like your asset to show. Click Add to schedule additional days and times.
7. Click Save.

Set up device preferences for sitelink assets

If you’d like to optimize your sitelink assets to show on mobile devices, take these steps:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets. 
2. Click the Sitelink tab.
3. Click the specific sitelink you want to edit.
4. Click Additional settings. Scroll to the advanced options section.
5. Check Mobile to indicate your asset is optimized for mobile devices.
6. Click Save.

Reporting for YouTube assets

Asset reporting is available in the standard YouTube report. 

Upgraded dimensions:

• Sitelink Reporting: Data models for Sitelink assets were upgraded in 2022. 
  • Asset (upgraded)
  • Asset status (upgraded)
  • Asset Type (upgraded)
• Location and Affiliate Location Reporting: Data models for Location and Affiliate Location assets were upgraded in November 2023. 
  • Asset (upgraded Location)
  • Asset status (upgraded Location)
  • Asset type (upgraded Location)

Legacy dimensions: Historical data for legacy assets available in offline reports.

• Asset
• Asset Status
• Asset Type

Basic reporting for YouTube assets is also available from the YouTube Assets tab in your Display & Video 360 advertiser. Here you’ll see advertiser-level data for the entire time that your asset has been set, such as:

• Clicks

• Impressions

• Click-through rate

• Average CPC

Store visits conversions reporting

If visits to your physical locations are important to your business, you can use conversion tracking to help you see how your ad clicks and viewable impressions influence store visits.

Store visit conversions for YouTube in Display & Video 360 are only available to certain advertisers. For example, they are not available to advertisers with sensitive location categories related to healthcare, religion, adult content, and children.

If you’re eligible for store visits conversion reporting, your Display & Video 360 advertiser must also meet the following requirements in order to see data:

• Use a YouTube-enabled Floodlight activity for conversion tracking; and

• Have sufficient store visits data to attribute to ad click, YouTube: View, or viewable impressions traffic and pass our user privacy thresholds; and

• Have an active location asset or affiliate location asset.

Store visits conversion metrics are available for eligible advertisers in the YouTube Conversions report. Learn more about the requirements for store visits conversions.

Removing an association from your advertiser

You can remove associations from your advertiser by following these steps:

1. From your advertiser, expand Resources in the left menu and click YouTube Assets.

2. Navigate to the appropriate asset type tab.

3. Check the box next to your advertiser-level asset.

4. Select Action > Remove.

All selected assets will have their associations removed and will no longer serve with your YouTube ads. You can reassociate the asset to your line item later as needed. 

In the Sitelink tab you can sort your view by Associations or Assets. From the Associations view, you can unlink all sitelinks from an ad group or line item, or unlink a specific asset from an ad group or line item.

Note: If you remove all Location or Affiliate location assets from your advertiser, you won’t be able to track store visits conversions.

Remove a linked Google Business Profile account

If you’d like to remove the link between a Google Business Profile account and Display & Video 360, you need to reach out to the owner of the Google Business Profile account. They’ll be able to remove the link from Google Business Profile.

Limitations

• YouTube assets are available with YouTube in-stream formats shown in mobile apps.

• YouTube videos must be public to use with YouTube assets.

• You can enable either location assets or affiliate location assets per advertiser - not both.

• Sitelink assets can not serve with vertical videos. Use horizontal videos for YouTube ads containing sitelinks. 

• Affiliate location assets are not available for YouTube video action line items.