For video campaigns, the cost per view (CPV) bid strategy is available when you set up a video views or ad sequence campaign under the Awareness and consideration campaign objective.
With CPV bidding, you'll pay for video views and interactions (such as clicks on call-to-action overlays, cards and companion banners). A view is counted different for each ad format:
- In-stream ads: When someone watches 30 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with the ad, whichever comes first.
- In-feed ads: When a viewer clicks on a video thumbnail to watch your video ad or watches the ad autoplay for at least 10 seconds (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds).
- YouTube Shorts ads: When someone watches 10 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds) or clicks the call to action (CTA).
With traditional online text or image ads, customers on the web may view your ad, read its text and click your URL to go directly to your site. This type of interaction doesn't take interactive content like video ads into account. With CPV and video ads reporting, you can evaluate how engaged viewers are with your content, where they choose to watch your videos and when they drop off from watching your content.
This article describes how CPV bidding works.
How it works
There are two types of CPV bid: Target cost per view (tCPV) and maximum cost-per-view (max. CPV).
If you use a video view campaign with multi-format ads, your bid is target cost per view (tCPV). With tCPV, you set the average amount that you're willing to pay for each view that your campaign receives from the target CPV that you've set, we'll optimise bids to help get as many views as possible. Some views may cost more or less than your target. Learn more about video views.
If you use a video view campaign but you opt out of using multi-format video ads, or if you use video ad sequencing campaigns, your bid strategy will switch to maximum cost per view (maximum CPV). With maximum CPV, you set the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for each view that your campaign receives. Learn more about video views and about video ad sequencing.
How to decide what CPV bid amount to set
How do you know what CPV to set? You can base this amount on the view we estimate based on the campaign parameters and CPV bid that you set when building a new campaign. The estimation is available on the right-hand side of the screen in the campaign construction flow. The bid you set not only affects the amount of views your campaign receives, it also affects the budget utilisation of your campaign. Using a bid that is too low will inhibit your campaign from effectively participating in the auction. We recommend adjusting the bid based on the estimation for a satisfactory campaign delivery.
What you're charged
The CPV bid is optimised to charge you with the lowest amount available for a video view. Wherever possible, we'll try to charge you only what's necessary for your ad to appear on the page. The final amount that you actually pay for a view is called the actual CPV.
How CPV affects your Ad Rank
The CPV bid you set helps determine your ad's chances of winning the auction and appearing to viewers. For in-feed video ads running on YouTube search results, it can also affect your ad’s position among other ads on the search results page.
A higher CPV increases your ad's chances of appearing, and increases your ad's chances of appearing in a higher position compared to other ads, if applicable.
