YouTube targeting options

YouTube targeting inherits from Google Ads plus YouTube-specific options. Keywords (based on video searches), topics, placements (specific channels or videos), audiences.

Audience options

• Demographics: age, gender, parental status, income
• Affinity: broad interests (sports fans, tech enthusiasts)
• In-Market: actively researching a category
• Life Events: major moments (moving, graduating)
• Custom Audiences: keywords, URLs, apps they've engaged with
• Remarketing: past site visitors, past video viewers
• Similar Audiences: lookalikes from your first-party data

Content targeting

Keywords

Target videos matching keywords. "Running shoe review" targets videos whose titles/descriptions match.

Topics

Broader than keywords. Categories like "Home & Garden" or "Sports".

Placements

Specific channels, videos, apps, or websites. Most granular control.

The layering approach

Combine audience + content for precision:

• Audience: in-market for running shoes
• Content: running-related videos
• Result: runners watching running content

Exclusions

• Kids content (unless appropriate)
• News and sensitive content (brand safety)
• Specific topics that don't fit your brand

Custom Intent

Based on search terms, "target people who recently searched for X on Google". Powerful for capturing intent.

Remarketing video viewers

Create remarketing lists based on video engagement:

• People who watched 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% of a video
• Channel subscribers
• People who engaged (liked, commented)

Retarget these with follow-up ads.

Geographic + language

Standard. Narrow when local, broad otherwise.

Common targeting mistakes

• Audience only, no content (ads show in unrelated videos)
• Content only, no audience (video match but wrong viewer)
• Too narrow (audience too small to optimize)
• No exclusions (kids content, brand-unsafe)