Hey guys, so: I know the display network has a ton of fraud if you pay per click, and it's advised not to use (at least if you're not a pro).

Is it the same sentiment for YouTube video ad campaigns ?

My initial thought was: "a bot is not going to watch a video for 30 seconds, costing me money" ...

But then I remember: a click can count as a "view", if it's an in-feed ad (and not in stream).

Does the display network run "in feed", "in stream" or both? Do I have to worry about bots on "in-stream" ?

If anyone with experience could let me know would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm torn between testing like 4 different strategies, have no clue which would work best, so am curious what have been your go-to method for Google Video Ads that drive the best results?

My ultimate goal is paid conversions.

Option 1 = run a max. conversions campaign. However, it's a fresh account, with no conversion data -- so I'm basically bleeding money at very high CPMs just so Google can test expensively. The CPMs are quite literally 5-10x what I could get away with using a CPV/brand awareness starting point. The potential "upside" of this is, those more expensive impressions may be higher-probability prospects. But with no conversion data, would Google really even know that this early?

Option 2 = run a pure CPV campaign, where I just set a low CPV so I don't spend gobs of money early on, allow the account to build up some conversion data for that particular conversion -- then since this data should all be at the account level now? Once I have more conversion info? THEN pause this campaign + start a max. conversions campaign, which should then perform much better as there will be more conversion data to base its decisions off of.

Option 3 = run a reach / brand awareness campaign, taking advantage of how I can specify low CPMs. While the low CPMs are attractive with this approach, the obvious downside seems to be -- PPC algorithms are very good at giving you precisely what you ask for. So seems silly to set a campaign goal -- brand awareness / reach -- when that's not my actual ultimate goal. Again, the strategy here would be, run this way starting off -- then once I build up a decent amount of conversion info? THEN make the switch to max. conversion (perhaps with a Target CPA).

Thoughts on this?

Hey I'm fairly new to advertising and I've started with both search ads & display ads. Are display ads even worth it? (It's for a realtor business btw)

I've tried to exclude loads of apps, games and irrelevant topics but when I view where the traffic is coming from it doesn't instill me with confidence. For example, a lot of low quality websites, even in foreign languages. They also appear to have higher click rates e.g double digit - which from my understanding is quite high for display ads. This makes me believe a lot of these clicks are fake or accidental.

I've tried a few fixes people have suggested online, it's getting better but I'm still getting many bad clicks which drain my budget. I'm thinking I might literally have to get a list of 100's of websites to specifically place the ads on.

Anybody have any advice? Similar problems?

Thanks :)