Google Ads Editor lets you create and manage TrueView video campaigns, and edit your video campaign settings. TrueView video ads are an interactive way to engage your customers on YouTube and across the Internet. While TrueView for action campaigns are supported, including calls-to-action (CTA), and headline text, TrueView for shopping campaigns aren’t supported.
Create a video campaign
- In the account tree, select the account where you want the video campaign to appear.
- In the type list, select Campaigns.
- Click Add campaign above the data view.
- Select the new campaign in the data view.
- Select either Video, Video - Drive actions, Video - Bumper ads, or Video - Outstream from the “Campaign type” drop-down menu.
Edit a video campaign
- In the account tree, select the account that has the campaign you’d like to edit.
- In the type list, select Campaigns.
- Select the campaign you’d like to edit.
Next, you can change your settings, such as adding content exclusions, which let you specify where you don’t want to show your ads.
- To add content exclusions, click Edit under the “Content exclusions” section.
- Select the categories of sites, content, or ad placements where you don’t want to show your ads.
- Click OK.
You can change your network settings by clicking Video settings and selecting Youtube or Include video partners. You can change your bid strategy to “Manual CPV” using the drop-down menu under the “Bid strategy” section.
With video ads, you have the option to set either a Daily budget or a Campaign Total budget. Keep in mind that you can’t change the budget type once a campaign is created.
Google Ads will try to spend your total budget evenly over the duration of your campaign while taking into account higher and lower traffic days to optimize your campaign’s performance. For example, if your video campaign gets fewer views on Mondays and Tuesdays and more views on weekends. Google Ads will optimize performance by spending more on days when your video is likely to get more views, while keeping your overall budget goals on track.
With a campaign total budget, you’ll only be billed up to the amount you enter for a campaign, even if Google Ads serves more views or impressions than your budget allows.
Note: Youtube Search and YouTube Videos networks are now one network called YouTube. You need to update Editor to view the changes in your account, otherwise you may notice an error message if you try to opt out of YouTube Video networks.
Create or edit ad groups
In the account tree, select the account that has the campaign you’d like to edit.
- In the type list, select Ad groups.
- Click Add ad group to create a new ad group, or select an existing one to edit.
Next, you can edit the various fields, including the top content bid adjustment. This lets you set bid adjustments for content that has been measured by our system to be more popular, tends to have a greater number of impressions per day, and gets a higher level of traffic and viewer engagement.
If you’re creating a new ad group, you can select from one of 2 types: in-stream and Video discovery.
Create and edit video ads
- In the account tree, select the account that has the campaign you’d like to edit.
- In the type list, select Ads.
- If your ad group’s format setting is “In-stream,” select TrueView in-stream video ads.
- If your ad group’s format setting is “In-stream” and is within a “Video - Drive actions” campaign, select TrueView in-stream video ads. When creating your ad, be sure to include a call-to-action (mandatory) and a headline (optional).
- If your ad group’s format setting is “Video discovery,” select TrueView video discovery ads.
- If your ad group’s format setting is “Bumper,” select Bumper video ads.
- If your ad group’s format setting is “Outstream,” select Outstream ads.
- You can edit the fields in the edit panel, such as the video ID, final URL, and status. You can also upload an image for your ad by clicking Choose image in the “Companion banner” section.
Your ad format must match the ad group type. For example, if you have an in-stream ad group, you can only have in-stream ads in that ad group.
Important differences between Google Ads Editor and Google Ads
There are some key differences in how you can create and edit TrueView campaigns in Google Ads Editor and Google Ads. Keep the following differences in mind:
- TrueView for shopping campaigns: You can’t create or download these campaigns in Google Ads Editor at this time.
- Targeting: In Google Ads, all demographics, countries, and territories are targeted by default. However, these defaults aren’t set in Google Ads Editor. Instead, Google Ads Editor targets the location selected under your default campaign settings. To target more locations, add them in the “Locations” section under “Keywords and targeting.”
It’s important to set demographic targeting, such as age or gender, for each TrueView campaign, even if you decide to target all demographics. Google Ads Editor doesn't preload any demographic targeting settings.
- Content exclusions: Google Ads Editor must have its default campaign type set to video to show default content exclusions (“mature audiences” and “content not yet rated”). If you have another campaign type set as the default and create a video campaign, those content exclusions won’t be set by default, as they are in Google Ads.
- Dropped tracking pixels: When you edit your TrueView video ads in Google Ads Editor, any pixel-tracking URLs (also known as beacons) won’t be removed. However, if you export or import a CSV or XML file, any pixel-tracking URLs will be removed.
- Call-to-action overlay: Call-to-action overlays for videos can’t be created in Google Ads Editor. However, video ads with CTAs, such as in TrueView for action campaigns, are supported.
- Placement and video ID validations: In Google Ads, non-existing placement URLs or video IDs are rejected, but Google Ads Editor may accept them.
- YouTube account linking: You can’t link a YouTube account from Google Ads Editor.