Video action campaigns are a simple and cost-effective way to drive more conversions on and off YouTube, all in a single automated campaign. In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of Video action campaigns and how Video action campaigns work.
Benefits
- Drive more conversions: Expand campaigns to run on more places on and off YouTube and drive more conversions while still optimizing for the lowest CPA.
- Improve campaign performance: By combining inventory from YouTube, Google video partners, and more, Video action campaigns can help you drive improved performance for your campaigns by reaching new customers.
- Scale your campaigns easily: Video action campaigns make it easy to run your ads on mobile, desktop, and TV in one campaign, without having to set bids and budgets for each inventory source.
When to use
Video action campaigns may be a good choice for you if:
- You want to use video to drive action to your business, service, or product.
- You’re looking to increase scale or improve CPA performance and efficiency.
- You already use conversion tracking in your campaigns.
How it works
- Video action campaigns use the skippable in-stream and in-feed video ads formats.
- Your ads run on YouTube and on Google video partners so that you reach more people.
- The video that you include in the campaign should be at least 10 seconds in length.
- Ads included in your campaign can use a call-to-action (CTA), headline (both short and long), and a description in the creative.
- Some features aren’t supported on all ad formats included in Video action campaigns. For example, contextual targeting based on keyword, topic, and placement, is supported for skippable in-stream ads but isn’t supported for in-feed video ads that appear in the YouTube Home feed.
- You can add assets (for example, sitelinks or lead forms) or a product feed to your campaign to influence conversions. Keep in mind that adding assets or other creative options to the campaign may change the appearance or functionality of the ads included in the campaign.
Creative guidelines
*Ads can also appear in videos running on desktop and in the YouTube app on TV. Functionality may be different depending on the device.
You can use these format guidelines to create your video ads that will run across YouTube videos, YouTube Search Results, YouTube Watch Next, YouTube Home Feed, Shorts feed on mobile devices, and Google Video Partner websites, and apps.
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Recommended |
Accepted |
Callouts |
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Resolution |
1080p (Full HD) Recommended pixels (px) for HD:
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720p (Standard HD) Minimum px:
Minimum px for SD:
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For optimal quality, we do not recommend using SD. |
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Aspect ratio |
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For optimal quality, we do not recommend using SD. |
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Format |
.MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) |
.WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265) | Cannot accept audio files like MP3, WAV, or PCM files on YouTube. |
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File size |
≤256 GB | ||
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Length |
:15 | ≥:10 | |
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Number of videos |
5 | ≥1 |
3 different aspect ratios will count as 3 videos. |
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Headline/Description |
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≤15 character headline will run on in-stream inventory and ≤90 character headline will run on in-feed inventory. |
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Creative options (optional) |
You can add: Adding a creative option may change the overall appearance of the ad. Only one creative option can serve at a time in a single campaign.
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Vertical-friendly video ads
Optimize your App, Performance Max, and Video campaigns by having vertical videos in your creative assets as a best practice. The mobile-friendly, full-screen experience of vertical videos can help improve your campaign’s engagement with mobile video viewers.
For YouTube, vertical videos are supported in all video eligible campaigns with possible placements in-feed, in-stream, on YouTube Search, and YouTube Shorts. In some cases, just by adding a vertical video asset to a Video action campaign can deliver 10-20% more conversions compared to just having horizontal videos for YouTube Shorts.
Outside of YouTube, your ads also run on Google video partners to reach more people. A large share of Google video partners inventory is vertical-focused, like gaming and video apps, to further utilize your vertical and square video assets.
To start creating vertical video assets, learn more about video creation in Google Ads.
Check below how Video action campaigns look in different places on YouTube and Google video partners:
YouTube Home feed
Mobile
TV
Note: The QR code will appear when the "Skip Ad" button is displayed on your screen. Only some TVs support this ad.
YouTube watch page
Mobile
Desktop
TV
Note: The QR code will appear when the "Skip Ad" button is displayed on your screen. Only some TVs support this ad.
YouTube watch next
Mobile
YouTube search results
Desktop
Mobile
TV
Note: The QR code will appear when the "Skip Ad" button is displayed on your screen. Only some TVs support this ad.
