When people say they “watch TV,” it means so much more than it did in the past. Today’s viewers seamlessly jump from hit shows to creator content, including watching YouTube Shorts on the big screen. Audiences are fluid, and to reach them when it matters most means showing up where they love to watch.

As an industry, it’s time to come together and forge a new path forward. At Google NewFront, we unveiled how Google’s Display & Video 360 has evolved to help marketers and media agencies win as streaming continues to transform. That means unifying their video ad buys to better scale and understand their audiences across streaming content.

Marketers who have unified their media buying with Display & Video 360 have seen a 120% higher return on ad spend compared to third-party video bought directly and an 18% higher ROAS than linear TV.¹

Let’s take a closer look at how the Google NewFront updates will help you keep pace with streaming audiences, unlock the potential of your first-party data and put Google AI to work for you.

Access worlds of content and creators

First, we're strengthening strategic relationships with streaming partners like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. For example, our integration with Disney's Real-time Ad Exchange (DRAX) lets you tap into their vast inventory and reach at scale.

To move as quickly as streaming audiences, agencies need flexibility in addition to inventory quality. That's why we're introducing instant deals — a new tool for marketers to configure customized deals with top publishers right from the Display & Video 360 interface, skipping the complex negotiation process. This buying method is already available today for high-impact reservation YouTube placements like YouTube Select and Masthead. And soon, agencies will be able to access those same placements with non-guaranteed deals for even greater budget flexibility. Plus, instant deals are expanding beyond YouTube to major publishers like Disney.

We also know managing yearly commitments across multiple publishers and deal types can be a tangled mess of spreadsheets. This is why we’ve built a tool called commitment optimizer in collaboration with our agency partners to streamline the process of managing commitments. Input your deal terms and goals, then Google AI intelligently optimizes the mix of guaranteed and non-guaranteed inventory for flexibility as well as reach. Agencies who have been testing commitment optimizer are already driving results, expanding access to premier deals to 5x more clients.²

Enrich the performance of your streaming ads with first-party data

The advertising industry as a whole continues to look for ways to more accurately reach audiences while respecting people’s privacy. Many CTV publishers have been investing in first-party data for years, making Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) a valuable and durable solution in the streaming space. PAIR provides a privacy-focused way for advertisers and publishers to securely reconcile their first-party data, which enables marketers to show relevant ads to high-intent audiences, like past purchasers. So far, PAIR has delivered strong results for advertisers, and according to LiveRamp, PAIR audiences enable 11% incremental reach compared to cookie-based lists.³ Publishers like NBCUniversal and Disney, alongside clean room providers like LiveRamp and Infosum, are embracing PAIR, signaling a strong appetite among the industry.

To further scale this privacy-forward solution, we're collaborating to build open standards and contributing the PAIR protocol to the IAB Tech Lab. This will enable ad tech companies — and the industry as a whole — to adopt privacy-forward audience solutions that benefit everyone.

"We're eagerly looking forward to ushering the PAIR protocol into an open industry standard," says Shailley Singh, EVP, Product, and COO, IAB Tech Lab. “It's a big step towards making privacy-enhancing technologies mainstream in the programmatic supply chain."

Streamline your streaming with Google AI

The rise of programmatic advertising brought efficiency to media buying but it's time to evolve even further. We’ve heard from marketers and their media agencies that they expect a simpler, more intuitive DSP experience. So we’re continuing to make Google AI an essential part of Display & Video 360, seamlessly integrating it into your workflows and bringing generative AI capabilities.

One of the first places you'll see generative AI show up as a helpful collaborator in Display & Video 360 is in setting up your audience strategy with a feature called audience persona. Describe your ideal audience and audience persona instantly generates a combination of audience segments that matches your goals. This tool helps agencies easily select the right audience lists from thousands of options, while also uncovering new, high-potential audiences to improve reach and deliver better results for clients. Google AI offers suggestions, but advertisers always have the final say — they can readily edit the generated selection for full control over their campaigns. Audience persona launches this summer, starting with Google audience and demographic segments.

Of course, not all customers within an audience segment bring the same value to your business. That's where custom bidding comes in. This intuitive solution lets you indicate your highest priorities within Display & Video 360. Google AI then uses these custom signals to focus on the impressions that deliver the results you want, without requiring any new code. Custom bidding now includes brand awareness and engagement objectives, so you can optimize for behaviors like “time on screen.” We soon plan to add CTV-specific signals like genre as well.

Transparency is a key responsibility for Display & Video 360 as marketers harness the helpfulness of AI. This is why we’ve launched experiment center, a tool that lets you take control, test strategies and optimize the way you use Google AI for maximum impact. Its streamlined dashboard offers immediate top-line insights, enabling swift, data-driven decisions. Experiment center goes beyond just conversions, providing a comprehensive view across the entire funnel — from reach and brand lift, to engagement. It’s a great way to see how your new AI-powered strategies compare to previous methods, and understand the impact of consolidating your streaming buys within a single platform.

Step into the future of ad buying. Experiment, ask questions and let Display & Video 360 fuel your growth. This opportunity is unprecedented — make it yours.