If you use YouTube Video Action Campaigns to drive sales or collect leads, you’ve likely encountered the ‘networks selection’ options being greyed out.
This means all video campaigns with conversion goals will serve not only on YouTube videos, but also on the Google Video Partner network and YouTube Search Network. Opting out of any of these networks is no longer possible. Or, is it?
In this article, our ads manager here at Vireo Video shares a workaround that’s been helping our clients get around this limitation.
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What are YouTube Video Action Campaigns?
Video Action Campaigns, dubbed the “next evolution of TrueView for Action Campaigns”, took over in April, 2022. TrueView for Action Campaigns has been phased out, and all new video ad conversion campaigns are now Video Action Campaigns.
Google defines Video action campaigns as “a simple and cost-effective way to drive more conversions on and off YouTube, all in a single automated campaign”.
The Video Action Campaign format was introduced in late September, 2021. This new format’s significant difference is the utilization of Responsive Video Ads. This allows for ad management across different inventories all in one campaign.
Along with standard YouTube Videos, these inventories also include the YouTube mobile home feed, YouTube watch pages (YouTube Search), and the Google Video Partners network.
The Downside of YouTube Video Action Campaigns
Google states that the idea of running ads on all accessible inventories is to help advertisers increase conversions at an efficient cost by reaching more customers in high-performing places, on and off YouTube.
That’s all good… however, many advertisers are cautious about running ads on the Google Video Partner network, or YouTube Search, due to historical performance. Understandably so.
Based on our experience, running video ads in the Google Video Partner network usually leads to low-quality placements and a high volume of app traffic. Video ads on the YouTube Search Network also typically have a much lower view rate due to users having to click the ad to start viewing.
If either of these networks fail to perform on Video Action Campaigns, advertisers no longer have a built in way of shutting down those placements. This is the downside!
The Workaround - Part 1
Although there’s no “official” way to limit network traffic on Video Action Campaigns, we’ve figured out a workaround to achieve similar (if not the same) results. So here it is:
Stop YouTube Search Network Traffic
Video Action Campaigns can show ads to users in different formats. For example, it can show ads on YouTube Videos as In-stream, Home Feed as In-feed ads or YouTube Search results, and either In-stream or In-Feed in Google Video Partners.
However, some features are not supported by all ad formats. For example, in-feed ads do not work on contextual targeting. So, if you’re running a Video Action Campaign and targeting topics or keywords, your ads can only show as in-stream. This means you are effectively limiting most (if not all) YouTube Search traffic.
Is this workaround for you?
If your ad strategy is to show ads against videos with related content, in-feed ads are basically out the window. But if you want to show ads based on audience profile (ex: interest or search history) and you find that your YouTube search traffic isn’t providing the performance you want, this workaround might be helpful.
Blocking YouTube Search traffic can be done by layering your audience targeting with content targeting. You can do this in a way that your reach won’t be narrowed by the intersection of the two targeting parameters. The best way to do this is by layering you’re existing targeting method with topics targeting.
After identifying which ad group needs to have the YouTube search traffic filtered, simply add topics targeting, checking all available topic subcategories, except one.
This way you won’t be narrowing your intended target’s reach, as you are still targeting all available topic subcategories. Really, what we’re doing here is just activating topics targeting to tell the system to stop showing In-Feed ads. This then prevents ads from showing on the YouTube Home Feed and YouTube Search results.
To illustrate further, here’s what a typical target intersection looks like.
In contrast, here’s what our workaround looks like:
You can verify if this works by reviewing the “where ads showed” report inside Google Ads. Just filter display traffic, and check if the youtube.com placements are gone after the implementation.
The Workaround - Part 2
Ok so what if it’s the Google Video Partners’ traffic that is not performing? If you think the Google Video Partner traffic is not a good fit for your campaign, this workaround could be the answer.
Stop Google Video Partner Network Traffic
Placement targeting allows you to select which specific channel or website to show your ads on. To understand how we can use this feature for the purpose of filtering traffic, we need to first note two things.
- Placement targeting for YouTube and GVP works independently. Say if we input specific YouTube channels that we want our ads to show on, that will only work for the YouTube network. In GVP, your ads can still show everywhere since we did not define a specific website or webpage. The same works the other way around. Target only specific websites and your ads can still show anywhere within the YouTube network.
- Choosing a targeted placement does not mean your ads are guaranteed to show on that placement. There are many factors that can limit an ad's ability to show on a targeted placement. Things like ad quality, website or channel restrictions, video assets restrictions, ad policies, channel monetization (YouTube), and AdSense eligibility are some factors that affect ad impressions on targeted placements.
Given these two points, we can limit ads from showing on the Google Video Partner network by forcing the traffic to a website that we know is not able to show ads. Targeting a “dummy” website placement is like forcing GVP traffic to a dead end.
How to implement this workaround
Google Ads will be restricted to showing ads on other websites within GVP, but it’s trying to send traffic to a placement that will not serve ads. Then, if we do not target a specific YouTube video or channel, the campaign can still serve anywhere on YouTube.
Here’s what you need to do to implement this workaround. First, identify a website that will be used as a dummy placement. If your domain is not yet AdSense enabled, it can be used as a dummy placement. Otherwise, find any website that is not yet AdSense enabled.
We will then layer this website placement with your existing targeting.
- Simply go to your ad group
- Then on the contents tab, select placements
- Click on the pencil icon to edit the placements
- Manually enter the website placement
- Click save
Once again, you can check if this is working by looking at the “where ads showed” report inside Google Ads. Filter Display traffic, and check to see if there are no other website placements appearing after the implementation.
Conclusion
There you have it! This should help us all shut down YouTube Search traffic or Google Video Partner network traffic on Video Action Campaigns whenever we feel it is best to do so.
Keep in mind that these are unofficial workarounds, formulated from our ads experiences and observations. We can say these are working for us to date (October 2022) but we obviously can’t guarantee it stays effective in the future, or in the next Google Ads update. So even if these workarounds were successful for you, remember to routinely check the “where ads showed” report.
We hope this blog has been helpful to your business and gotten you excited about the potential of running profitable YouTube Video Action Campaigns! If you have questions, or if your business is looking for support with YouTube Ads, book a strategy session with our team here. We’d love to help your business succeed with YouTube.
