For Video campaigns, the TrueView cost-per-view (CPV) bid strategy is available when you set up a Video views or Ad sequence campaign under the Awareness and consideration campaign objective.
With CPV bidding, you'll pay for TrueView views and interactions (such as clicks on call-to-action overlays, cards, and companion banners). A TrueView view is counted different for each ad format:
- In-stream ads: When someone watches 30 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with the ad, whichever comes first.
- In-feed ads: When a viewer clicks on a video thumbnail to watch your video ad, or watches the ad autoplay for at least 10 seconds (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds).
- YouTube Shorts ads: When someone watches 10 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds) or clicks the call to action (CTA).
Views that don’t meet the above criteria aren’t counted as TrueView views, but may be counted as YouTube public views. YouTube public views are counted when users watch the video ad for a similar amount of time as an organic view. This applies to the following cases:
- In-Stream ads: Bumper & Non-Skip formats will begin counting YouTube public views, but not TrueView views. Previously, only Skippable formats generated view counts.
- YouTube Shorts ads: Shorts ads will count a YouTube public view as soon as the video starts playing
With traditional online text or image ads, customers on the web may view your ad, read its text, and click your URL to go directly to your site. This type of interaction doesn't take interactive content like video ads into account. With CPV and video ads reporting, you can evaluate how engaged viewers are with your content, where they choose to watch your videos, and when they drop off from watching your content.
This article describes how CPV bidding works.
How it works
If you use a Video view campaign with multi-format ads, your bid is TrueView target cost-per-view (tCPV). With tCPV, you set the average amount that you're willing to pay for each TrueView view that your campaign receives from the TrueView target CPV that you've set, we'll optimize bids to help get as many TrueView views as possible. Some TrueView views may cost more or less than your target. Learn more About video views.
How to decide what CPV bid amount to set
How do you know what CPV to set? You can base this amount on the TrueView view we estimate based on the campaign parameters and CPV bid you set when building a new campaign. The estimation is available on the right side of the screen in the campaign construction flow. The bid you set not only affects the amount of TrueView views your campaign receives, it also affects the budget utilization of your campaign. Using a bid that is too low will inhibit your campaign from effectively participating in the auction. We recommend adjusting the bid based on the estimation for a satisfactory campaign delivery.
What you're charged
The tCPV bid is optimized to charge you with the lowest amount available for a video TrueView view. Wherever possible, we'll try to charge you only what's necessary for your ad to appear on the page. The final amount you actually pay for a TrueView view is called the actual CPV.
How TrueView CPV affects your Ad Rank
The TrueView CPV bid you set helps determine your ad's chances of winning the auction and appearing to viewers. For in-feed video ads running on YouTube search results, it can also affect your ad’s position among other ads on the search results page.
A higher TrueView CPV increases your ad's chances of appearing, and increases your ad's chances of appearing in a higher position compared to other ads, if applicable.
