If you're running TrueView video ads to reach your ideal audience and increase awareness, you can use interactive features to drive more engagement with your audience.
Adding interactive elements can create opportunities for viewers to engage with your brand on a deeper level, beyond watching and enjoying your video ad. Making your video ads interactive can also help you to tailor your ads to better achieve specific advertising goals, such as driving app installs, product purchases or visits to your website.
Here are some ways in which to make your video ads interactive:
| Goal | Interactive feature | Where to create it |
|---|---|---|
| Increase engagement with your video ad or brand |
Cards
YouTube end screens
Note: Cards and end screens are not available to all advertisers.
|
YouTube |
| Drive visits to your website |
Call-to-action button
Auto end screens
|
Google Ads |
| Encourage viewers to buy your products |
Shopping cards
|
Google Ads |
TrueView video ads are billed on a cost per view (CPV) basis, which means that you pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds of your video (or the duration if it's shorter than 30 seconds) or engages in other video interactions, such as card teasers or icons or companion banners.
Note: Some interactive features may not be supported across all devices and platforms. For example, the YouTube mobile site (m.youtube.com) doesn't support all features on mobile.
Interactive features for video ads
Cards
Cards are created in YouTube and shown on a per-video basis, on both desktops and mobile devices. You can provide a Final URL from a list of eligible sites and, depending on the card type, customise an image, title and call-to-action text.
A teaser is shown at the designated time for a few seconds, and viewers who click it can then access the card directly. At any other point in the video, viewers will see an icon appear when they hover over the player on desktops or whenever the player controls show on mobile devices. Viewers can also click the icon to browse all of the cards present on the video.
A call-to-action button encourages viewers to visit your website. You can set up a call-to-action button by entering text into the “Call-to-action” field when creating a video ad. The call-to-action button can be customised for specific use cases, like “Get a quote”, “Book now” or “Sign up”.
TrueView for action campaigns (also known as “Drive conversions” in Google Ads) allow you to drive sales, leads and website traffic to your business. You can add a call-to-action button and an end screen to this campaign subtype. By using these interactive elements in your creative, you can encourage customers to explore your product or service, share their contact information and take other actions valuable to your business. The call-to-action button can be customised to specific use cases, like “Get a quote”, “Book now” or “Sign up”.
TrueView for shopping campaigns uses shopping cards to make video ads interactive by linking viewers directly to products that they've already viewed or to products related to the video that they're watching. They are created in Google Ads and run on in-stream TrueView ads only. The product images and details are generated by information from a linked Google Merchant Center account.
A teaser with the name of a product will show for a few seconds, and viewers who click it can see the shopping card. At any other point in the video, viewers can click an icon to browse the shopping cards. Up to six shopping cards can appear on your video ad, depending on the number of products eligible from your feed.
Note: When shopping cards are added to a video ad, they'll replace any other cards or call-to-action overlays created for that video in YouTube.
How shopping cards work
Shopping cards use your Merchant Center product data and can be personalised using either remarketing information or other audience signals. Additionally, you can tailor the products that can be shown on shopping cards by using the product filter.
If you're familiar with dynamic remarketing for Display ads, shopping cards use the same information to dynamically generate cards based on items that visitors previously viewed on your site. If you don't have dynamic remarketing set up in Google Ads, you can create custom filters based on attributes from your product data, including brand, product type, Google Ads label and ads grouping.
There are two types of end screens: auto end screens, which are generated in Google Ads and run only on your video ads, and YouTube end screens, which are created in YouTube. Auto end screens are automatically generated screens that appear for a few seconds at the end of your video ad to show details about your product or service. YouTube end screens are set up by the video creator in YouTube and are shown on organic and ad views of your video.
YouTube end screens
In YouTube, you can make custom end screens to add to the end of your videos with Creator Studio from your Google account. Your video has to be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. You can use them to build viewership and:
- Point viewers to other videos, playlists or channels on YouTube
- Call for subscriptions to your channel
- Promote your website, merchandise and crowdfunding campaigns
Learn more about adding end screens to videos in YouTube.
Auto end screens
Auto end screens help drive ad performance with your audience by providing information that encourages viewers to take an action, such as installing your mobile app or buying your products. In Google Ads, auto end screens are automatically generated using information from your campaign. For example, in a mobile app installs campaign, the end screen will show certain details about your app, such as the name and price, along with a link to install the app.
Learn more about auto end screens for video ads.
Advertising policies for interactive features
All interactive features used for your TrueView video ads, such as call-to-actions, end screens and cards, must adhere to the Google Ads policies.