AdWords Changing Video Advertising Options in April

If you use video as part your AdWords advertising campaigns, you might be interested in Google's recent announcement. Starting April 15, all new video campaigns will have different settings and ad formats. Then starting May 15, all campaigns will be automatically upgraded.

The change will take AdWords "TrueView" video viewing from three formats to two: in-stream and in-display. The change will fold in the former third option, in-search viewing, with in-display. 

AdWords said of the change:

With this upgrade, advertisers can now use the same ad format (in-display) to run across the YouTube Search Network and YouTube Videos Network. The only thing that changes is how you control where your ads show. Before, you told us where to show your ads by using ad formats. Now, you can tell us where you want your ad to run by selecting a network for your campaign."

Google said the new settings include the ability to:

Organize video viewing around how a user interacts with the ad. Choose where ads appear at the campaign level. Deliver more relevant ads on the YouTube search page.

Here's a snapshot of the feature changes that go into effect in April:

And here's what AdWords said is not changing:

Your bids, budget, and historical performance data will not change when your campaigns are upgraded, whether automatically or manually. You will not lose the ability to run ads on the YouTube Search Network, and you will not lose any ads or targeting criteria associated with your existing campaigns.

Starting in April, advertisers can access the "upgrade center" to upgrade "any or all of your existing campaigns to the new functionality."