About video ad formats

As of October 2025, the "Views" metric is now called "TrueView views" in Google Ads. This change won’t impact how you’re billed, or how your paid views are counted. Following this change, updated naming for the metric will also appear across Google Ads planning, forecasting and reporting tools.
Note: For new campaigns, when selecting a marketing objective, the “Awareness and consideration” has been renamed to “YouTube reach, views, and engagements.” The marketing objective hasn’t changed and still uses the same features for you to build brand recognition.

In Google Ads, you can create compelling video campaigns with a range of video ad formats to engage customers in different ways on YouTube and across video partner sites. Available video ad formats include:

  Skippable in-stream In-feed Non-skippable in-stream Bumper YouTube Shorts YouTube Masthead
  Image of skippable in-stream ad Image of video discovery ad Gif of a clock with time passing, and multiple devices with the YouTube homepage open.
Format description Users can skip so you can understand attention Shows to highly engaged users in the discovery and searching phase Users can't skip so they view your whole message Quick message that can't be skipped to raise awareness or reinforce other ads Shows to highly engaged users in a mobile-optimized experience Shows in most prominent placement across the entry point of YouTube
Where it serves YouTube videos, Google video partners In-stream*, Google video partners App* YouTube Home feed, YouTube Search, YouTube Watch Next, YouTube Subscription feed YouTube videos, Google video partners In-stream*, Google video partners App* YouTube videos, Google video partners In-stream*, Google video partners App* YouTube Shorts YouTube Homepage
Max video length No max length ( <3 min recommended) No max length 15-60 seconds (depending on the campaign subtype)

6 seconds (>=5 seconds minimum)

 <60 seconds recommended No max length (Recommend greater than 10 seconds)
Can increment TrueView views in Google Ads? Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Can increment YouTube public view count? (Review YouTube public view column for the amount) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Can remarket to viewers? Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Compatible campaign types
  • Demand Gen
  • Video view campaigns (VVC)
  • Video reach campaigns (VRC)
  • Performance Max
  • Reservations
  • App campaigns for installs (ACi)
  • Demand Gen
  • Video view campaigns (VVC)
  • Video reach campaigns (VRC)
  • Performance Max
  • App campaigns for installs (ACi)
  • Video reach campaigns (VRC)
  • Reservations
  • Video reach campaigns (VRC)
  • Reservations
  • App campaigns for installs (ACi)
  • Demand Gen
  • Video view campaigns (VVC)
  • Video reach campaigns (VRC)
  • Performance Max
  • App campaigns for installs (ACi) and engagement (ACe)
  • Reservations
  • YouTube Masthead (CPM)
  • YouTube Masthead (CPH)
  • Reservations
Reservation Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
IAB classification** In-stream Out-stream In-stream In-stream Out-stream Out-stream

*When opted into Google Video Partners (GVP)

**Note: For advertisers opted into GVP, inventory availability may impact ad serving. For example, skippable in-stream ad formats may serve as interstitials or rewarded ads, resembling an outstream ad experience.

While video ad content must be hosted on YouTube, video ads can appear on YouTube and across websites and apps running on Google video partners (depending on your ad format and campaign settings).

This article describes the benefits of video ads and compares the different video ad formats available. Explore the formats in detail below. You can learn more about our policies and requirements. To learn how to create videos in Google Ads, visit Create a video using Asset library. To learn how to add voice-over to video, visit Add voice-over to a Video campaign.

An example of all the YouTube ad formats available in Google Ads

Skippable in-stream ads