After you create your video ad in Google Ads, you can preview what the ad will look like to viewers on YouTube. You can also send a preview of the ad to people before publishing the ad.
You can preview your YouTube in-stream video ads on desktop, mobile, and Connected TV (CTV).
On this page
Preview your video ads
Check how your video ads will be shown across different video formats and share their previews with others using the “preview gallery”. You can preview your video ad within your existing campaigns in the “Ads” table and during campaign creation.
Preview your video ad within your existing campaigns
- Go to Ads within the Campaigns menu
.
- Under the “Ad” column, select the video ad you want to preview to open the preview gallery.
- The “Preview gallery” side pane displays previews based on the device type you select. You can switch between the mobile, desktop, and Connected TV icons at the top right to preview your video ad on those respective platforms.
- Select View ad on YouTube to watch a preview of your video ad on YouTube on your device.
.Preview your video ad during campaign creation
- Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu
- Follow the steps in Create a Video campaign.
- When you reach the ”Create your video ads” section or the ad editing screen, select View preview gallery to open the "Preview gallery".
- In the “Preview gallery” side pane, select View on YouTube to view an individual ad on YouTube.
You can switch between mobile, desktop, and CTV or use the share icon to share the previews externally.
Considerations around previews for video ads
- The shareable link reflects current previews. If you make any changes, you’ll need to create another link for the changes to show up in the previews.
- The shareable link is valid for 14 days.
- You only need to generate a single link to share up to 5 creatives from a multiple-creative ad group. Anyone reviewing the external link can use the provided radio buttons to filter and navigate between the different creatives.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you preview your video ad on Connected TV:
- Make sure that you’re on a desktop device, as it's unsupported on mobile devices.
- You can interact with your preview video ad. Use your spacebar to pause or unpause the video ad.
- Some functionality of TV ads, like the “Send to phone” action, isn't available in previews.
