YouTube video advertising campaigns are primarily managed through the AdWords dashboard, where there is a wide variety of available targeting methods, such as interests, demographic groups, affinity audiences, in-market audiences, video remarketing, placements, topics, and keywords. Companies can use targeting to reach specific audiences based on what interests them, who they are, and what content they are viewing. Regarding interests, you can select topics from available categories in order to appeal to potential customers interested in those topics. To target demographic groups, you may choose the age group, sex or gender, and parental status of the audiences whom you want to see your advertisements. Affinity audience targeting is similar to interest-based targeting, as this type reaches people who are already interested in topics related to your business’s products or services. In-market audiences are those who are doing research on a product and trying to decide whether to buy that product or a similar product from your company or one of your competitors. Video remarketing targets viewers according to their previous interactions with your video advertisements or YouTube channel. Placements, topics, and keywords refer respectively to the locations of advertisements on a webpage, content generally related to the terms that a potential customer enters into Google Search, and any important words that pertain to your company’s products or services.
All ads go through an approval process to make sure that they are safe and appropriate for users. Google reviews active and paused ads, keywords, and websites according to its YouTube video advertising policies. Some ads will not run during this review process, which typically lasts one day or less. If any issues are found, Google will explain the policy and how to get your ad running again. If your ad is not showing for certain users, or even at all, it could be because of your ad’s approval status. If Google’s review finds anything that violates its policies, it will contact you with information about these policies and show an alert in your account. Google will give your ad an approval status both before and after its review.