Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings allow you to report on audience metrics for campaigns running across all digital screens. Video Solutions for Google Ad Manager allows you to deliver impressions based on Nielsen data, and provides reports to understand the demographics of your inventory and review campaign performance.
They are available to publishers in the U.S., Canada, and Japan.
* While Digital Ad Ratings supports Roku traffic, certification by Roku is required to populate Roku reporting. Ad Manager does not control this certification. See how to certify
Track and deliver impressions based on Nielsen data
When you create a video line item, you can select Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings as your provider for GRP tracking. Ad Manager then delivers impressions against the line item targeting and GRP audience you've selected, including age and gender.
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Create a video line item, and select Video inventory.
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In the "Delivery settings, select Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings as the GRP provider, and the age and gender settings that should define the audience, as measured by Nielsen.
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(Optional) When you enter the impression goal, you can choose In-target impressions BETA to define a specific Nielsen audience.
Ad Manager provides Nielsen audience guarantees on deals where you can select the in-target audience. If you choose to select an age range, you have the option of either:- Designating all ages as in-target (2–65+), or
- A minimum of 18 combined with any maximum age
Selecting an age range that includes a minimum age of less than 18 can only be combined with a maximum age of 65+ to represent all ages as in-target.
Define a Nielsen audience
By default, Nielsen measures impressions for OTT/CTV devices using a co-viewing methodology, in an attempt to account for multiple viewers potentially watching on the same Connected TV (CTV) device. Ad Manager allows you to deactivate this feature per line item and exclude OTT/CTV devices from Nielsen measurement, and instead use inferred measurement from other devices measured on the line item.*
If you've chosen to use "In-target impressions" as the impression goal, Ad Manager uses an "In-target CPM" cost type. In addition, you must:
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Choose the "Nielsen settings for connected devices", or how the line item should pace OTT/CTV impressions, relative to Nielsen co-viewing methodology:
- Exclude CTV pings
- Include CTV pings, pace with strict co-viewing (desktop and mobile only)
- Include CTV pings, pace with co-viewing
If you choose to adjust pacing for devices not measured by Nielsen (CTV devices), you can report on the number of "unmeasured" impressions by device category.
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(Optional) Select Apply true co-viewing to apply Nielsen's "Average number of viewers" to the in target percentage in pacing calculations for CTV devices. This is the number of viewers considered to be watching on the same device, according to Nielsen data. This can lead to applying an in-target ratio over 100%.
The "Average number of viewers" is measured by Nielsen.Example
In-target % = CTV impressions / ( impressions / average number of viewers)
In-target % = 80 / (100 / 1.5 ) = 120% - Choose the "Device categorization for pacing", which determines whether to pace the line item based on either Google or Nielsen device breakdown data. You can see the device breakdown from Google in historical reports, and from Nielsen in reach reports.
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Enter an "In-target ratio estimate", which is used in pacing calculations prior to receiving reporting data from Nielsen (approximately 3 days). This value should be greater than 1% and may exceed 100% for line items where co-viewing may be a factor. While there is no upper limit to this value, setting it too high may cause underdelivery, and setting it too low may cause overdelivery and may put delivery of other line items at risk.
For instance, if you set the in-target ratio estimate at 1% for a line item that has a 1M impression goal, Ad Manager paces the line item as if it had a total impression goal of 100M until a more accurate in-target ratio can be determined from Nielsen's reporting (approximately the first 3 days of delivery).
* The ability to deactivate co-viewing may not be activated for your network. To learn more, contact your account manager.
Pacing and impression adjustments
Ad Manager automatically adjusts impression goals in an attempt to meet your Digital Ad Ratings goals. For example, if your line item's impression goal works out to 1,000 impressions per day, and Digital Ad Ratings measures only 500 in-target impressions on day 1, based on the audience you've selected (including your co-viewing selection), then on day 2, Ad Manager might adjust the daily goal above 1,000 impressions to meet the guarantee.
Ad Manager adjustments are only made once per night, as soon as Nielsen data is updated.
If the estimated total impressions is not set high enough, and the maximum of 10 times the "Impressions in GRP audience" quantity is met, you can manually increase the "Estimated total impressions" to allow the line item more opportunities to serve impressions to the targeted audience.
Ad Manager doesn't use your GRP provider or audience settings to restrict ad serving or to change your targeting or impression goal. It does consider the configuration using a best-effort methodology and automatically adjusts the goal up or down in an attempt to fully deliver enough impressions to meet your goal, as measured by Nielsen.
Monitor your campaign to reduce wasted impressions
While Ad Manager makes adjustments to ensure you meet your goal, you should review the ratio of ad server impressions delivered to Nielsen impressions, and adjust your demographic targeting to reduce wasted impressions.
For example, Ad Manager might deliver 1,000,000 impressions, based on your line item targeting, but the number of impressions that qualified in the Nielsen demographics you've chosen, might have only been 900,000. In this instance, you should run a report to see where wasted impressions are being delivered, and update targeting.
The line item summary also displays the effective in-target ratio that has been applied throughout your campaign, and computes the estimated in-target impressions delivered.
