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YouTube › Help articles › Ad Specs Guide › Ad Placement › Standard YouTube Video Ad (YVA) 

Ad Specs Guide



Standard YouTube Video Ad (YVA)

Standard YouTube Video Ad (YVA)

Assets Overview

Asset Required/Optional Dimension File Type Max File Size Max Frame Rate Max Animation Comments
Video URL Required N/A YouTube Video URL N/A N/A N/A Must upload video to YouTube
Video Backup Image Required 300x250 JPG, static GIF 50Kb 24 30s N/A
Video Companion Banner Required 300x35 JPG, static GIF, SWF 50Kb 24 30s N/A
Watch Page Companion Ad Optional 300x250 JPG, static GIF, SWF with Backup JPG/GIF 50Kb 24 30s Bonus for Homepage buys only
Custom Title Card for the Video Optional 300x185
300x215*		 JPG, static GIF 50Kb N/A N/A

*If using the autohide feature

How YouTube Video Ads Work

The Standard YouTube Video Ad (YVA) is a 300x250 video ad and can function either two ways:

  • Autoplay - the video's first 30 seconds will autoplay on load without sound
    • Can only run on YouTube homepage and search pages
    • A title card or mid-section thumbnail will appear while the video buffers
    • Semi-transparent play button remains on top of video during autoplay
    • Text below play button states, "Replay with Sound"
    • After 30 second autoplay, video stops
  • Click to play - the video only plays after user clicks play button (no autoplay)
    • Can run on homepage, search or browse pages (any page with a 300 x 250 space except for watch pages)

For both ad types, if the user clicks the Video title or the Video author, they will be directed to the YouTube watch page / channel page.

Required Assets

  • Video: Video must be uploaded to YouTube per instructions below with a watch page URL provided
  • 300x35 Video Companion Banner: Clicks through to provided destination URL

Optional Assets

  • 300x250 Watch Page Companion Ad: Banner ad placed next to uploaded YouTube video on watch page
  • 300x185 Custom Title Card Thumbnail: Highly recommend using automatically generated mid-section thumbnail as this can improve click-to-play rate. If using the autohide feature the Custom Title Card Thumbnail has a size of 300x215.
  • The click to play button will be appear on the center of your video. The dimensions of this button are 88x60px for click-to-play and 70x47px for autoplay and autoplay expandable. Please keep this in mind when selecting or creating your thumbnail.

Creative Submission and Turn-around Time

  • Assets received by YouTube no later than 4 (four) business days prior to campaign start date sent to your Account Manager and Media Manager
  • Maximum of 2 creative revisions for site-served creative is allowed per 6 week period for active campaigns
  • Maximum of 3 creatives per site-served placement
  • Maximum of 5 creatives per third-party served placement

YouTube Video Ad

Technical Specifications:

The client must upload the video for the Video Ad unit manually to YouTube and provide its watch page URL to the appropriate Account and Media Managers

Please reference our help pages on best practices for optimizing your video and uploading your video

If you would like your video to be hidden from the public, you can make it unlisted by following the instructions here.

As a best practice, we recommend videos are no longer than 2-3 minutes.

Reporting Metrics

  • Video Impressions
  • Video Click to Play Rate
  • Video Click to Full Screen Rate
  • Video Quartile Reporting (25%, 50%, 75%, 100% watched)
  • Video Click Through Rate

Community Metrics

  • Clicks to Watch or Channel page

Third Party Tracking Capabilities

  • Third-party impression (1x1) tracking
  • Third-party play (1x1) tracking
  • Third-party 1x1 pixel tracking for Brand studies

We will only accept third party redirect/tracking pixels from a certified ad serving vendor. Please refer to the full list of approved vendors.

Additional Details and Recommendations

  • If autoplay format is selected, the number of impressions equals the number of autoplays and do not count toward YouTube view count
  • Video play is user-initiated
  • YouTube will render the player and community metrics at the bottom based on video ID provided
  • We highly recommend a maximum of 2 minutes for video ads
  • Videos must not be modified after 3PM (PST) the day before the campaign launch date
  • The Video Control Buttons can be set to “auto-hide”, so that the User does not see them all the time

Video Companion Banner

Technical Specifications:

Formatting
Dimensions 300x35
Formats: .SWF (with backup GIF/JPG), Rich Media, JPG, or static GIF
For flash creatives - a new layer, in addition to the background layer, should serve as the background. Otherwise, the .SWF may adopt the background layer of our video player
Flash Versions: Flash 10 (AS3 only)
Max Frame Rate: 24 fps
Max File Size: 50 Kb

Attributes
Max Animation Time: 30 seconds
Audio: No sound
Border: Must have complete border
Mouseover Policy: No rollover animation/buttons are allowed. If included, rollover will not function

Reporting Metrics

  • Click through tracking to external websites
  • Video click through via 300x35 banner

Third-Party Tracking Capabilities

  • We only accept click redirect tracking - no 1x1 pixel tracking allowed

Additional Details and Recommendations

  • We highly recommend including a strong, compelling call to action

Watch Page Companion Ad - Optional

The 300x250 Companion Display Ad can be either Standard Display or Rich Media. Please reference their individual pages for a complete list of specs.

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