Pamela SapioGoogle TV is now live in Google Ads.
What does that mean for your ad campaigns?
In this video, John provides a brief overview of how it works and shares a few things he has observed so far in setting up his first campaigns.
He begins by explaining that you can only use Target CPM, so there are two ways to run ads:
The first is going to be a text to a number to receive an offer (e.g., 35% off your first Autoship or 20% off your purchase).
The second, says John, is using a coupon [QR] code generator at the bottom left of the ad that has UTM tracking (per ad, channel, audience, etc.) to a landing page so that we can see who is getting good engagement.
Ready to dive in?
Using a test example he created, John goes over the details of how to set up a Google Ads campaign for Google TV, walking viewers through the steps he took and why.
“How we build them is different though,” explains John at the beginning. “Because they don’t track conversions, you can’t use Video action campaigns.”
Instead, he says, when you create a new campaign (under Create campaigns, New campaign, you have to use Awareness and consideration as your campaign objective. Once you do that, select the Video campaign type, and choose Video reach as the campaign subtype (not Video views, Ad sequence, or Audio)—because Video reach is the only one that will allow you to opt in to Google TV.
Under Select the ways you’d like to reach your goal, John chooses Non-skippable reach.
Better targeting makes all the difference.
“So,” John points out, “If you’re watching Severance or Love Victor or something on Disney + or Prime Video or Netflix, we now have access through Google to all of these people.”
He says it’s similar to when you have to pay Hulu for CTV. But with Hulu and CTV, your targeting capabilities are demographic based (e.g., age, sex, location).
“The good news about Google TV is when I launch a non-skippable ad, I can use Target CPM [as a Bid strategy]. I can call it whatever I want, setting a daily budget total of let’s say $50, but in the networks I can opt out of Video partners on the Google Display Network, and use Google TV and YouTube.” Then, under Additional settings and Set specific targeting for devices, John removes Computers, Mobile phones, and Tablets.
“Now I’m going only on TV screens,” he clarifies. “So, if you’re watching YouTube on your TV or if you’re watching anything on Google TV, now you’re in my targeting.”
Now let's talk Audience segments.
The other part John says is really cool is that in Audience segments, you can use whatever you want. At this point, he uses his Samsonite Luggage campaign example to show viewers what he means.
For this campaign, he didn’t use a QR code “because no one’s going to scan it in six seconds, I just want that brand awareness right now.” Then, the ad will show to all of the people with the specified interests or purchase intentions that he created previously.
Because it goes off of the IP address of the home, anyone who has been looking at Samsonite luggage online or Googling Samsonite luggage will now see the TV ad in their home.
John says even though he can’t track conversions, he knows that his Audience segment is “very very homed in.” He then walks viewers through the demographics he chose, explaining why he removed certain demographics and kept others.
He also adds that he capped the frequency of the ads to 14 per week. So, because they’re non-skippable, viewers can see them twice a day.
It's all about the reach, says John.
“With these settings, Google gave me a Target CPM of $12,” he explains. “So I get $12 cost per thousand, which means I get to hit 4,000 users per day with a $50 per day budget.”
Wait, what? Exactly.
So if you are watching TV at home with Chromecast or a smart TV connected to your Google TV account, and you have shown an interest in purchasing Samsonite, you’re going to see the ad.
“That’s a great reach,” says John. “That’s a really, really great reach. Four thousand people per day for 50 bucks? Oh yeah.”
Final observations
For those businesses with high cart abandonment, John says running ads on Google TV can help eliminate the problem, especially if the reason for abandonment is poor brand awareness.
“A national TV campaign can help alleviate that, especially if I’m using the same targeting as what I’m capturing you with on my inbound Shopping campaigns.”
John wraps up the video by saying they still have a lot to learn about ads on Google TV, but he and his team are looking forward to experimenting with them more in the coming months.
