In 2015, we integrated Google Ads for video into Google Ads to improve your advertising experience. Key benefits include:
- A simpler, more unified Google Ads that integrates TrueView video campaigns with Search Network and Display Network campaigns, enabling a more streamlined, consistent buying and reporting experience across all campaign types
- Powerful tools available for TrueView video campaigns, including bulk management solutions and reporting features in the video campaigns shared library
What changed
TrueView video campaigns and campaign data (statistics, settings, targeting criteria, and remarketing lists) were moved over to the main Google Ads product. In addition to preserving all campaign-related data, this upgrade introduced many improvements to video-campaign creation and management.
Here are the highlights:
Note
As of July 2016, TrueView in-display ads are now known as TrueView video discovery ads.
If you also have Search and Display campaigns, your video campaigns and other campaign types are unified in a single location in the left-hand sidebar of Google Ads. Other improvements include:
- Columns: Columns for your video campaigns and other campaign types (if any) are unified in a single view in the data table. New columns for Conversions (if enabled), Google Analytics (if linked), and more are now available.
- Filters: With advanced filtering tools, you can filter your campaigns by data in any column and save that filter for later use.
- Segments: You still have access to current segment types such as device, network, time, view type, click type, and conversions (if enabled).
In the prior Google Ads for video, targeting groups were used to define targeting methods for all ads in a campaign. With this upgrade, targeting groups transitioned into ad groups. Just like a targeting group, an ad group contains video ads with common targeting criteria and bids. But there are certain differences:
- An ad group contains video ads with common targeting criteria and bids.
- An ad group can only contain video ads with only the same format. To run both in-stream and in-display video ads, you need to create two different ad groups.
When creating new TrueView video campaigns, you now have access to bulk edits via uploads, scripts, and automated rules under "Bulk operations" and in the "Edit" and "Automate" drop-down menus in Google Ads. Specific improvements include:
- Bulk edits: Simultaneously update multiple items in one campaign or across multiple campaigns.
- Bulk uploads: Download spreadsheets, make edits offline, and then upload the updated spreadsheet back into their account where their changes will be applied.
- Automated rules: Make changes in your account automatically, based on settings and conditions you choose. For example, you can change their ad status, budget, bids, and more.
YouTube account linking merged with other types of linked accounts within the Google Ads settings menu, under the 
Upgraded campaigns
To provide you with these powerful features, we upgraded all of your existing TrueView campaigns from Google Ads for video into Google Ads.
As a part of this upgrade, we moved your bids, budgets, network selections, targeting criteria, and all other TrueView campaign settings into the Google Ads product. We also automatically restructured your targeting groups in existing TrueView campaigns as ad groups. In some cases, your targeting groups were converted directly into ad groups. However, if a targeting group contained both in-stream ads and in-display ads, we split that targeting group into 2 ad groups. This is because, in Google Ads, a TrueView ad group can contain only either in-stream ads or in-display ads, not both.
What changed with the upgrade
| Your campaign and targeting scenario | What changed | Naming changes |
|---|---|---|
| Your campaign contained a single-ad format targeting group for TrueView in-stream ads. | This upgrade converted your targeting group into an ad group for TrueView in-stream ads. | We added “(in-stream)" to your targeting group name. |
| Your campaign contained a single-ad format targeting group for TrueView in-display ads. | This upgrade converted your targeting group into an ad group for TrueView in-display ads. | We added “(in-display)” to your targeting group name. |
| Your campaign contained a targeting group with a combination of single-format in-stream ads and single-format in-display ads. | This upgrade converted your targeting group into 2 separate ad groups with single-format ads: one for in-stream ads and the other for in-display ads. But, the number of ads will stay the same. This is because ad groups are defined by a single ad format. |
We added the appropriate format type ("(in-stream)" or "(in-display)") to each new ad group’s name. For example, we added “(in-display)” to the end of your new in-display ad group’s name and “(in-stream)” to the end of your new in-stream ad group’s name. |
| Your campaign contained a targeting group with a multi-format TrueView ad. | This upgrade converted your targeting group into 2 separate ad groups and your multi-format ad into 2 single-format ads. Your multi-format ad was split into an in-display ad and an in-stream ad, and your targeting group was split into 2 ad groups - one for each ad format. This is because both ads and ad groups are defined by a single ad format. |
We added the appropriate format type ("(in-stream)" or "(in-display)") to each new ad group’s name. For example, we added “(in-display)” to the end of your new in-display ad group’s name and “(in-stream)” to the end of your new in-stream ad group’s name. |
| Your single-format TrueView ad belonged to 2 or more targeting groups. | This upgrade converted each targeting group into its own ad group. We also replicated the original ad to create new, identical versions for each ad group. This is because, in Google Ads, a single ad can belong to only one ad group. | We added the appropriate format type ("(in-stream)" or "(in-display)") to each new ad group’s name. For example, we added “(in-display)” to the end of your new in-display ad group’s name and “(in-stream)” to the end of your new in-stream ad group’s name. |
| Your multi-format TrueView ad belonged to 2 or more targeting groups. | This upgrade split your multi-format TrueView ad into one in-stream ad and one in-display ad. We then converted each targeting group into 2 ad groups, one for each ad format. Example: You had a multi-format ad that was assigned to 2 targeting groups.
After the upgrade, you have 4 new single-format ads and 4 ad groups total. |
We added the appropriate format type ("(in-stream)" or "(in-display)") to each new ad group’s name. For example, we added “(in-display)” to the end of your new in-display ad group’s name and “(in-stream)” to the end of your new in-stream ad group’s name. |
Video campaign reporting
To compare your campaigns' performance across current and previous date ranges, we recommend viewing the following tabs:
- "Campaigns" tab
- Filter by view type to compare in-stream ads vs. in-display ads at the campaign level.
- "Ads" tab
- "Video targeting" tab
- "Videos" tab
Related links
- Learn how ad groups work.
- Learn how to make changes with bulk uploads.
- Learn how to use scripts to make automated changes.