Reservation campaigns allow you to buy an approximate number of impressions for a Video campaign at a fixed CPM and spend your entire budget for the length of the campaign. You can select "Reservation" as the buying plan when you create a campaign or you change the campaign's buying plan from auction to reservation.
Reservation is useful if you want:
- High visibility: You can guarantee placement of your ad at the top of the YouTube Home feed through the YouTube Masthead.
- Premier inventory: You can access YouTube Select to target premier content on YouTube. Learn more about YouTube Select.
- Reserved media: You can buy impressions at a fixed rate with delivery optimized by Google instead of manually adjusting your bid.
- Brand awareness: You can reach a wide audience using formats and capabilities not available in auction.
In this article, you'll learn how to set up a reservation campaign in Google Ads.
Before you begin
Reservation campaigns and Google Ads policies
To receive an accurate CPM quote, all content in your reservation campaign should comply with Google Ads policies.
Some alcohol-, gambling-, or politics-related content may be allowed if the content complies with Google Ads policies. To indicate if your reservation campaign includes this type of content, select the checkboxes in the "Ad policy restrictions" section when you create the campaign. This can help with generating a more accurate forecast for your campaign and preventing underdelivery. If you plan on running a reservation campaign with this type of content, review our policies first:
Reservation campaign planning
- Because reservation campaigns optimize for spending your budget at the quoted CPM, your campaign (and any ad groups and ads in the campaign) should be eligible to serve throughout the campaign dates. You should also upload your creatives to Google Ads at least 2 business days in advance of your campaign so that there's enough time to approve the creatives. Learn more about the ad approval process
- Make sure all the campaign details are right before you save the campaign. After you save your campaign, you won't be able to edit some settings (such as the ad schedule) and you won't be able to change the campaign buying type to auction.
- Make sure you understand the differences between the auction and reservation buying plans. To review the differences between both buying plans, expand the section below:
Differences between buying plans
Auction Reservation Buying plan Buy cost-effective ad space through bidding in the Google Ads auction Buy an approximate number of impressions at a fixed CPM and spend your entire budget Ad formats - Skippable in-stream
- Non-skippable in-stream
- Bumper
- In-feed video
- Outstream
- Audio (beta)
- Skippable in-stream
- Non-skippable in-stream
- Bumper
- Masthead
Learn more about how to Create a YouTube CPM Masthead campaignBidding (CPM) Fluctuates based on bid and auction conditions for a given campaign
Slightly lower CPM than reservationSecured at the time of the reservation for a given campaign
Slightly higher CPM than auction
Editing Edit any setting for campaigns, ad groups, or ads
Switch ads anytime
Change the buying plan to reservation after saving the campaign (if the campaign is eligible)
Edit most settings, such as budget or dates (a full list of settings can be found when you edit the campaign in Google Ads)
Some settings, like the ad schedule, can't be edited
Switch ads anytime (one ad must always be active and approved in ad review)
Can't pause the campaign or change the buying plan to "Auction" after saving the campaign
Only one ad format can be used per campaign
Targeting options All targeting options YouTube Select is only available via reservation premier reach
Most other targeting options, including negative keywords, are available, except:
- Remarketing
- Keywords
- Radius targeting
- Customer Match segments
- Similar segments
Placing a hold on a quote
You can choose to hold a CPM quote for up to 14 days (hold duration is dependent on campaign eligibility) when you create a reservation campaign. When you're ready to start the campaign, you can accept the quote in your campaign settings in Google Ads.
If you don't accept the quote before expiration, you'll need to request a new quote. Keep in mind that your new quote may be different from your previous quote (even if you use the same campaign settings).
If you edit the campaign, you'll have to request a new quote, and either accept the quote immediately or request a hold again.
Expiration
An active reservation campaign may automatically expire after 4 days from the schedule start date if:
- The campaign doesn't contain any ads.
- Ads in the campaign have been disapproved.
- Ad groups in the campaign are paused.
Google Ads lets you know when there's an issue with the campaign in a notification on the campaign settings page. To ensure that your campaign doesn't expire after 4 days, follow the instructions in the notification to fix the issue. If the campaign expires after 4 days, you should request a new quote for the campaign.
Instructions
Note: The instructions below are part of a new reservation user experience. The new reservation experience makes it easier to find the reservation portfolio and newly launched offerings in addition to the solutions that were available in the previous experience. To reserve YouTube inventory without leveraging special features or premier solutions, select standard reach. These campaigns will always be priced dynamically, and quoted CPM will fluctuate until booking is confirmed or held.
To access YouTube Select and other premier offerings, select premier reach. YouTube Select lineups will either have a fixed price (CPM price stays the same for a set period of the year) or dynamic price depending on the geography targeted. For more information, reach out to your sales representative.
To access CPM Masthead, select Masthead. This product will have a fixed price.
Set up a reservation campaign 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 for your campaign goal.
- Select Video for your campaign type.
- Select Reservation for how you want to buy ads.
- For YouTube Select lineups and other premier offerings, select premier reach.
- For Masthead with CPM bidding, select Masthead. Learn more about how to Create a YouTube CPM Masthead campaign.
- For standard reservation of YouTube inventory, select standard reach.
- For premier reach and standard reach, select your ad format:
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- Bumper ads
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Click Continue.
- For premier reach only, use placement targeting to select your YouTube Select lineup.
Reservation terms of service
We’re moving the Reservation terms of service from the campaign level page to the account settings page. Previously, these terms would need to be accepted during the construction of each campaign. With this time-saving change, you’ll only need to accept the terms of service once instead of multiple times.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon
.
- Click Account settings.
- Click the Reservation terms drop down.
- Click Reservation cancellation policy to review it.
- Click the acknowledgement checkbox to agree with terms of service and cancellation policy.
- Click Save.
