Google's new automated tools for video ads

Posted by Edith MacLeod on 23 May, 2022
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Video-specific tools designed to aid video inventory management and monetization.

Video health tools.

Google has launched a new set of automated tools aimed at helping publishers gain a better overview of their video inventory.  The programmatic video health ools will highlight opportunities you may have missed when you log into your account. The tools are available in Google Ads Manager.  

Many publishers find it difficult to collect in-depth insights for programmatic ad performance. Google’s new set of tools are designed to help manage your video streams, uncover new opportunities automatically and so maximise returns from your videos.

Programmatic Video Health Tools

Programmatic video signals

Video signals.

The programmatic video signals card automatically generates a snapshot of how your video inventory is performing, helping you understand why some of your inventory performs better than others at auction. It reports on signals such as Viewability, app or web domain name, and audience information, including their impact on revenue. Google says:

“These three dimensions make it easier for advertisers to value your inventory and can help you grow your revenue by identifying where these metrics can improve. Globally, publishers with high programmatic inventory signal coverage see an average 25% revenue uplift compared to inventory with low programmatic inventory signal coverage.”

VAST errors

The VAST (video ad serving template) errors insights card will help with error reporting on lost ads. Google says feedback from publishers highlighted the time-consuming nature of managing error reporting across multiple video-specific reports.

The new tool uses automation to highlight the number of errors on your inventory and which line items are causing the errors, helping you identify misconfigured settings or broken creatives. 

VAST errors.

You can also sort the results to find errors with the highest impact on revenue.

Video performance alerts

Google is releasing an alerts feature in beta. This will allow you to create customized email alerts for specific campaign metrics and dimensions, so you’ll receive email notification on your campaign performance rather than having to log in to check data.

Real-time video reporting

A new real-time video reporting tool allows you to run a report to quickly identify any issues or errors with a specific creative, ad unit or line item. You’ll be able to see data within around 2 minutes of ad serving, meaning you’ll be able to identify and fix any errors before the next ad break. The report is currently in beta.

Publishers serving ads to their content on YouTube with Ad Manager have a new troubleshooting tool to test ad delivery on their YouTube inventory. The YouTube ads delivery tool shows data on ad requests, key values and details on the winning line items so you can check for and fix any issues.

This new set of tools looks to remove a lot of the heavy lifting involved currently in managing video streams and make it easier to identify and so fix issues quicker. As such, it looks like a useful addition for publishers, saving you time and potentially increasing revenue.

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