Google announced an expansion of reach and frequency tools for YouTube advertisers. The new version of the tools allows brands to apply reach and frequency settings to video campaign groups, which will simplify the process for marketers who need to manage several video campaigns at once and will provide them with insights on the actual exposure to ads.
The idea of applying reach and frequency settings to campaigns has been around for a long time. This feature provides advertisers with an ability to define the frequency of exposure of the video ad for individual viewer during specific timeframe. However, until now the feature was only available at the individual campaign level. It means that a brand needed to create different frequency settings for every video campaign under one main campaign.
The gap between the features provided and the video advertising strategy of companies became particularly evident when brands started to run not one, but several video campaigns at once under one main video strategy. In this case, advertisers were not able to set the reach and frequency settings at the main campaign level and had to manually calculate the total ad exposure, which was very time-consuming and inefficient, especially when campaigns were paused or added.
What Changes With Video Campaign Groups
With the new update, brands can now specify one reach or frequency goal that will be applied to an entire video campaign group. Google states that the new tool will leave all the other settings of every individual campaign unchanged, including budgets and creatives, while providing brands with an opportunity to achieve common exposure goal. So now, for example, a company promoting its products through multi-part video ccan define one frequency limit instead of managing different limits of all its campaigns.
Such an approach is designed to simplify the work for advertisers who run multi-part video campaigns, because instead of specifying frequency settings for every part of the campaign, a marketer gets an opportunity to define them only once. Google is also launching a unified report on metrics such as unique reach and average weekly impressions for the entire video campaign group.
All these changes are aimed primarily at reducing manual work. Now, instead of opening every individual campaign to check or adjust the frequency setting, an advertiser who runs the video campaign group can change this setting once and use it throughout the entire group. Such centralized approach can save a lot of time for advertisers who manage dozens of campaigns simultaneously, and also reduce the chances that some unnoticed campaign will ruin the frequency strategy of the whole promotion.
How Target Frequency and Frequency Caps Work
There are two primary features that are now applicable to video campaign groups and which were previously available only at the individual campaign level.
Target frequency is a tool that allows advertisers to set an exposure goal for their ads within a specified timeframe. As a rule, this tool is used when the goal of the advertiser is to build brand awareness, because in this case he or she can easily plan the necessary level of repeated exposure.
On the contrary, frequency capping allows setting a cap on how many times the person can see the same ad. This tool is used by advertisers when they want to avoid overexposure because it may lead to a negative reaction from viewers.
Bringing these two tools to the group level means that brands can now combine awareness building and avoidance of overexposure using both tools in one video campaign group. It is especially useful in cases when a part of the promotion aims to build the brand awareness, while another part is designed to increase conversions from the customers who have already heard about the brand.
Why Google Is Pushing This Update
According to Google, this update is supported by internal tests, which showed that the frequency of exposure of 2.7 views per week leads to a 19% lift in ROI, thanks to this update, advertisers will be able to find a reasonable benchmark instead of guessing about it.
Google emphasized that this feature will allow advertisers to focus on unique reach. Since the exposure to ads is controlled at the individual campaign level, there is a possibility that the same viewer will watch ads in different campaigns of one campaign group, although the frequency in every campaign will be correct. This means controlling exposure at the campaign group level allows brands to reach more unique viewers without repeating exposures of the same viewers.
This feature can help marketers who run the seasonal pushes, product launches or multi-format video campaigns. In this case, the advertiser will be able to understand whether his or her campaign group is really increasing reach, or just repeating views of the same people.
This feature also allows small marketing teams to compete with large agencies. Large companies usually have a lot of employees who can manually control the frequency of exposure in dozens of campaigns, but small teams cannot do it. Using group-level frequency management, advertisers automate work that used to require manual oversight.
Rollout and What Comes Next
The additional capabilities are currently available for video campaign groups in Google Ads. Google also stated that the same reach and frequency options would soon be available for Display & Video 360 – a platform used by bigger advertisers and agencies to perform complex media buying across channels.
This initiative follows a trend established by Google in the previous year – the company tries to make advertisers’ work easier by consolidating the processes of creating and managing different ad campaigns from one place. One could already see similar actions taken by Google within its Ads product – for example, in recent Demand Gen and Display Network campaigns integration.
The company has not provided a specific date for launching this capability for Display & Video 360 users. Based on how Google usually expands its functionality, agencies and enterprise advertisers on Display & Video 360 should expect a gradual rollout of the functionality, not an immediate universal switch.
What This Means for Video Advertisers
Now brands and agencies managing several video campaigns at once do not have to estimate frequency limits separately for each campaign and ensure that the sum of all limits looks reasonable. With this update, they can set the desired frequency goal and let Google handle this balance automatically across the entire group of campaigns.
The updated reach and frequency controls also give marketing teams an opportunity to analyze the performance of their campaign group more easily, since advertisers now get a unified report about unique reach and weekly impressions of their campaign.
As Google extends this capability to Display & Video 360 in the near future, advertisers performing programmatic video buying through this platform will also be able to use these simplified controls. Currently, advertisers working with video campaign groups in Google Ads can use the mentioned reach and frequency options right away, and it would be useful for them to test them against the 2.7 views per week benchmark suggested by Google.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is the new Google Ads update about?
Google has updated its reach and frequency controls so advertisers can set exposure settings not individually for each campaign, but for the entire video campaign group. This way, advertisers will get a unified frequency goal for the entire group.
Q2: What is target frequency in Google Ads?
Target frequency option lets advertisers set how many times they want a viewer to see an ad within the selected time period. The target frequency is used for awareness campaigns where repetition helps to spread the message.
Q3: What are frequency caps?
Frequency cap is used to set how many times a viewer can see the ad within a certain time period. This tool is used to prevent overexposure of the advertiser’s message to the same viewer.
Q4: How is this different from the old frequency settings?
With previous versions, reach and frequency controls were set for each individual campaign. Now they are applicable for the whole video campaign group.
Q5: Will individual campaign settings still be respected?
Yes. Google confirmed that the settings of budget and creative for each campaign remain untouched.
Q6: What did Google’s internal testing show?
Internal testing performed by Google has shown that video ad exposure frequency of 2.7 views per week leads to 19% ROI lift. This information can be used as a benchmark for frequency goal.
Q7: Does this update improve reporting too?
Yes. Now advertisers receive unified reports about key metrics, such as unique reach and average weekly impressions, for the entire campaign group.
Q8: Is this available for Display & Video 360?
No. But the same reach and frequency controls will be soon added to Display & Video 360 advertisers.
Q9: Who benefits most from this change?
Advertisers with video campaigns created under one promotion of brand products are most likely to benefit from this update.
Q10: Where can advertisers access these new controls?
Expanded reach and frequency controls are available directly in Google Ads for video campaign groups.
