Create a YouTube CPM Masthead campaign

YouTube Masthead campaigns drive wide reach and awareness with prominent ad placement for your brand, product, or service on the YouTube homepage. These high visibility ads live on the YouTube homepage for all devices that can access YouTube. Easily create a YouTube cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) Masthead campaign in Google Ads.

In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of creating a YouTube CPM Masthead campaign.

Note: For YouTube Cost-Per-Hour (CPH) Masthead or ads with any categories allowed with limitations, contact your Google sales representative.

Before you begin

For campaigns with content in sensitive categories, you’ll have to set your own targeting restrictions and your YouTube Masthead ad assets must comply with the YouTube masthead ad content requirements. Some alcohol-, gambling-, or politics-related content may be allowed if the content complies with Google Ads policies.

Benefits

Easy implementation: Add to an existing or create a new YouTube CPM Masthead campaign directly in Google Ads within minutes with the ability to customize.
Real-time reporting: You can access advanced reports and monitor your campaign’s progress as it happens.
Unified measurement capabilities: Measurement solutions like Brand Lift surveys can be applied across reservation and auction campaigns.

Instructions

Follow these steps to create your YouTube CPM Masthead campaign:

Step 1 of 5: Access Masthead in Google Ads

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
Click Campaigns.
Click the plus button , then select New campaign.
Select Brand awareness and reach.
Select Video as your campaign type.
Select Reservation.
Select Masthead.
Click Continue.

Step 2 of 5: Add your Masthead campaign name, budget, and serving dates

In the “Campaign settings” section, enter your campaign name.
Under “Budget and dates”, enter your budget type and amount.
Set your campaign’s start date.
- Note: You can’t select your campaign’s start time.
Select one of the following to set your campaign’s end date:
- Choose from the default selection.
- Enter a specific date.

Step 3 of 5: Add your desired Masthead campaign targeting

How to add demographics targeting, audience segments, and segment exclusions

In the “Ad group” section, click the Demographics drop down under “People”.
Select your demographic targeting.
Click the Audience segments drop down.
Select or browse your audience segments.
Click the Segment exclusions drop down.
Select or add your segment exclusions.

How to add additional targeting settings

In the “Campaign settings” section, click Additional settings under “Product feed”.
Click the Devices drop down.
Select “Show on all eligible devices (computers, mobile, tablet, and TV screens)”.
- Note: If you want to focus your reach on specific devices, select “Set specific targeting for devices”. However, “Device Models” are unavailable.
Click the Frequency capping drop down.
Select your cap frequency type and enter your desired values:
- Cap impression frequency: Limit how many times your Masthead ad can be shown to the same user

Step 4 of 5: Add, create, customize, and preview your Masthead ad

How to add your existing Masthead ad

In the “Ads” section, click the Already have a masthead ad drop down under “Create your video ads”.
Click Import your ad.
Enter the URL from the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool.
Click Import.

How to create a new Masthead ad

Under “Create your video ads”, search for your video or enter the URL from YouTube.
Enter your headline.
(Optional) Tick the call-to-action checkbox.
(Optional) Enter your call-to-action details.

How to customize your Masthead ad

In the “Ads” section, click the Customize your ad drop down under “Add a call-to-action”.
Select your primary video layout.
Select your supporting video and imagery.
Enter your supporting description text.
Set your autoplay timing.

Note: While there are many options to customize your ad, we recommend that you apply your customization or updates in the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool.

How to preview or update your Masthead ad

On the right-hand side panel of “Create your video ads”, click Preview ad on Masthead Preview Tool.
In the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool, you can apply your updates.
When you’re done, click Update preview.

Note: If you make any changes in the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool, you should import the new URL in your YouTube Masthead campaign in Google Ads to make sure your changes are up to date.

Learn more about YouTube Masthead asset guidelines.

Step 5 of 5: Get a quote of your Masthead campaign

Note: Before you request a quote, review the checkboxes under the "Ad policy restrictions" and indicate if your campaign includes restricted content (for example, alcohol-, gambling, or politics-related content).

In the "Quote" section, click Get quote. You'll receive a quote based on your current campaign's settings.
Click the Show price details drop down to review the details of your quote.
If you want a new quote, edit your campaign settings.
- (Optional) Under "Availability", you can also view the approximate number of impressions that you can get with the recommended budget. To accept, click Set budget to.
Under “Show price details”, tick the checkbox to acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions for your campaign.
- To review all terms and conditions before you create your campaign, click Expand all.
Under "Accept or hold quote", select one of the following:
- Accept quote: Confirm immediately
- Hold quote for 14 days: Hold for 14 days
Click Create campaign.

Note: You’ll only be charged for impressions actually delivered in all reservation campaigns, including Masthead. This means we won’t charge you for over delivered impressions, and you'll only pay for the impressions served in case your campaign didn't spend the entire budget.

Pacing of CPM Masthead campaigns

CPM Masthead delivery pacing might not be even or equally distributed among the flight days, even if the serving system tries to optimize delivery. The delivery pacing may vary due to various factors. For example, days with more campaigns or days with more traffic might have different pacing.

Interactions with CPH Masthead campaigns

All running YouTube CPM Masthead campaigns can experience serving gaps when existing Cost-Per-Hour (CPH) Masthead campaigns are also running in the same period. This means that the serving start of your YouTube CPM Masthead campaigns may begin later than your defined campaign start or may not serve during certain periods of time. This will be visible in the Google Ads hourly report.

For example, if your YouTube CPM Masthead campaign is scheduled to start its first day at 12 AM, but there’s an existing CPH Masthead campaign running from 12 AM to 1 AM, your CPM Masthead campaign will not start until the CPH Masthead campaign is finished. Your CPM Masthead campaign, however, will be able to pickup and still deliver as intended when the forecast returns with an available inventory. In the rare case of underdelivery on a CPM Masthead campaign, you will only be billed for the amount of impressions served. To guarantee delivery during a specific hour, use CPH Masthead.

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