Click per view advertising

Cost-per-view (CPV) bidding is the default way to set the price that you'll pay for your TrueView video ads (when created with AdWords). With CPV bidding, you'll pay for video views and other video interactions, such as clicks on the call-to-action overlays (CTAs), cards and companion banners.

With traditional online text ads or image ads, customers on the Web may see your ad, read its text and click on your URL to go directly to your website. This type of interaction doesn't take interactive content like video ads into account.

With video ads reporting, you can evaluate how engaged viewers are with your content, where they choose to watch your videos, and when they drop off from watching your content.

Setting a CPV bid

To set a CPV bid, you enter the highest price that you want to pay per view while setting up your video campaign and ad groups. Your bid is called your maximum CPV bid, or simply "Max. CPV". This bid applies at the ad group level.

Example:

If you think that it's worth 25 pence to have someone watch your video, then you can set £0.25 as your Max. CPV. For a TrueView in-display video ad, you'll pay a maximum of £0.25 when people begin watching your video. For TrueView in-stream video ads, you'll pay a maximum of £0.25 when someone chooses to watch your video or clicks on the call-to-action overlays (CTAs), cards and companion banners.

You can also set a lower bid for your in-display video ads than for your in-stream video ads.

How CPV affects your ad rank

The Max. CPV that you set helps determine your ad's chances of winning the auction and appearing to viewers.

For TrueView in-display ads running on the YouTube Search Network, it can also affect its position among other ads on the search results page.

In both cases, a higher CPV will increase your ad's chances of appearing, and increase your ad's chances of appearing in a higher position compared to other advertisers' ads, if applicable.

Your actual CPV

Your maximum CPV bid is the most that you'll be charged for a video view, but you won't always be charged this maximum amount. Wherever possible, we'll try to charge you only what's necessary for your ad to appear on the page. The final amount you actually pay for a view is called the actual CPV(cost per view).