With YouTube Masthead, you can showcase your brand, product, or service in a native video-based ad format that appears in the YouTube Home feed across all devices. YouTube Masthead is ideal for people who want to: In this article, you’ll learn about YouTube Masthead types, assets, technical specs, and reporting tools. YouTube Masthead types YouTube Masthead with Product Feed How Masthead appears on YouTube Available assets Reporting tools Third-party measurement YouTube Masthead types There are 2 available YouTube Masthead types that you can buy: Cost-Per-thousand Impression (CPM) Masthead : This provides a reserved and fixed volume of impressions that are delivered over the course of your campaign. CPM Mastheads are available globally through your Google Representative or directly in YouTube Programmatic Guaranteed via instant deals or Google Ads Reservation . Learn about CPM Masthead campaigns . Cost-Per-Hour (CPH) Masthead : This provides 100% Share-of-Voice (SOV) of eligible impressions of YouTube’s Masthead unit during the reserved hours you buy. Available only through your Google Representative. YouTube Masthead with Product Feed The YouTube Masthead with Product Feed allows you to showcase products to your Masthead placements on mobile to make key events shoppable. Prerequisites to using YouTube Masthead with Product Feed Set up your account for Google Merchant Center. Learn more on how to Sign up for Merchant Center . Create a feed for your Google Merchant Center account. Learn more about feeds and product data specifications . Note : New product feeds can take up to 3 days to approve, so take this into account when planning your campaigns. Feed labels are available to classify your product data sources by country. Note : New product feeds can take up to 3 days to approve, so take this into account when planning your campaigns. Feed labels are available to classify your product data sources by country. Learn how to Link a Google Ads account to Merchant Center . We recommend that your products are represented with square images (1:1) to ensure that your product ads receive the best coverage possible. Images within a 0.6-1.4 ratio will receive coverage. Familiarize yourself with the Google Ads policies , shopping ads policies , and product feed requirements . How Masthead appears on YouTube Available assets You can use these assets in a Masthead. To preview your assets, use the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool. The YouTube Masthead Preview Tool shows what your Masthead will look like on YouTube across desktop, mobile, and TV screens. YouTube Masthead ads use responsive formatting to show the most optimal ads across different devices. This provides greater flexibility when it comes to asset specifications. Some assets may not be supported or have limited support in the Masthead format: 360 videos and app install campaigns aren’t supported. YouTube Premieres have limited support for Masthead campaigns. 360 videos and app install campaigns aren’t supported. YouTube Premieres have limited support for Masthead campaigns. The link to your video. The URL can be any standard video uploaded to YouTube. The video must be "Public" or "Unlisted" to be eligible to serve. (Recommended) Provide a 16:9 video for optimal performance. The resolution should be 1920 x 1080 or higher. The text that appears next to, on, or under the Masthead. Use the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool for recommendations on text lengths. The text in the call-to-action button. Use the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool for recommendations on text lengths. The Final URL is mandatory when you use a call-to-action button. The Final URL can go to other pages on YouTube or go directly to another website. Use the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool for recommendations on text lengths. All creatives within a Masthead must use the same final URL’s domain. Click-tracking URL (Optional) This URL can be used to track click activities on the call-to-action button. The Click-tracking URL should be cache-busted and should redirect to the Final URL defined in the Masthead Preview Tool.

An optional description that accompanies the Masthead. Use the YouTube Masthead Preview Tool for recommendations on text lengths. The way the Masthead appears on a compatible device. You can select either "Widescreen" or "Standard video size". The video start time and duration. For desktop, the Masthead video will autoplay for up to 30 seconds. You can specify the exact start point in the video when autoplay should begin, and the amount of time it should run, up to 30 seconds. Captions may be automatically added to videos when the video is muted. You can turn off automatically generated captions for your videos in Video Manager. Learn how to Edit and remove captions . Optional: Videos that appear next to the Masthead ad on desktop. 2 unique YouTube videos must be added to enable companion videos. The companion videos don’t need to be from the same channel. Note : Enter the IDs of the videos you want to accompany your Masthead ad. YouTube playlist URLs are no longer supported to add companion videos. A background or banner that appears at the top of a YouTube page. Channel art is automatically pulled from the YouTube Channel and accompanies the Masthead. You can choose to enable or disable channel art for both "Standard video size" and "Widescreen". You can only enable channel art for "Widescreen" if "Companion videos" are disabled. You should finalize channel art at least 2 days before you run a Masthead ad. An icon that represents the YouTube channel. The channel icon is automatically pulled from the YouTube channel and accompanies the Masthead. You should finalize the channel icon at least 2 to 3 days before you run a Masthead ad. Mastheads have a fixed CPM price and will include upcharges depending on the targeting criteria used. Rates vary by market, so you can only target one country per campaign. You can check your final CPM price in the quote session during campaign construction . Reporting tools The Masthead format supports these metrics in reporting. Availability of some metrics depends on the buying model and the device where the Masthead appears. Impressions (co-viewed) Clicks to video Video viewership ("Video played to: 25% or 50% or 75% or 100%") Clicks to your website (optional) Clicks to YouTube channel Clicks on companion videos Third-party measurement Allowed : Ad impressions (1x1 pixel URL), clicks to your website (redirect URL), viewability, reach and brand lift. Not allowed : Pixels intended to collect data on audience composition and JavaScript pixels aren't allowed. Brand safety measurement is also not supported with YouTube Masthead third-party measurements. All impression tracking pixel URLs must begin with "https://" . Google only accepts third-party redirect URLs or tracking pixels from certified vendors. View the full list of approved vendors . Impressions : Remarketing tags aren't accepted for impressions. Views : Remarketing lists can be created based on YouTube Audience lists and video views. Clicks (to play) : Floodlight remarketing tags are accepted (only for Masthead on desktop). About video ad formats Need more help? Try these next steps: Attend our Performance Max Masterclass, a livestream workshop session bringing together industry and Google ads PMax experts. Register now Attend our Performance Max Masterclass, a livestream workshop session bringing together industry and Google ads PMax experts.