Beginning in early 2022, TrueView for action campaigns will be transitioned into Video action campaigns, Google announced Friday. Advertisers will still be able to create new TrueView for action ads until September 30, 2021 and existing TrueView for action ads will continue to run until early next year.

Video action ads can run on YouTube’s home feed, the watch page, the watch next feed and Google video partners. Image: Google.

Why we care. Video action campaigns drive 20% more conversions per dollar compared to TrueView for action, according to Google internal data, so the change may increase efficiency for advertisers. Additionally, your ads may have more surfaces and formats to take advantage of, as Video action campaigns use skippable in-stream and video discovery ad formats, and run on YouTube’s home feed, the watch page, the watch next feed and Google video partners.

If your business relies on TrueView for action ads, you’ll want to set a reminder that on September 30, you’ll no longer be able to create these ads, and keep an eye out for Google’s official announcement regarding when TrueView ads will stop running. It’s also a good idea to start transitioning your Trueview for action ads into Video action ads before 2022 so that you can establish a baseline before Google forces everyone off of Trueview for action.

More on the news

• In the coming weeks, Google Ads will launch a “copy and paste” feature to enable advertisers to more conveniently copy their existing Trueview for action ads and paste them as Video action ads.
• With Video action campaigns, advertisers can not opt out from any available inventory.
• TrueView for action ads were introduced in September 2016 and the TrueView for action campaigns help page now contains a notice for advertisers suggesting that they use Video action campaigns. Video action campaigns were introduced just under a year ago, in June 2020.