Targeting and pacing changes in the Display & Video 360 API and Structured Data Files

Update: Updated section on changes to YouTube & partners line item content targeting to clarify that targeting of this type will not be able to be assigned directly to YouTube & partners line items, but can be inherited from the parent advertiser.

In the coming months, the following updates to the Display & Video 360 product might impact your integration with the Display & Video 360 API and Structured Data Files:

• On September 30, 2024, directly assigned content targeting will be deprecated for YouTube & partners line items.
• On September 30, 2024, audiences from Oracle will no longer be accessible and removed from existing targeting.
• On September 30, 2024, optimized targeting will no longer be available for line items using a subset of bid strategies.
• On November 5, 2024, “Flight ASAP” pacing configuration will no longer be accepted for insertion orders, and existing insertion orders with this configuration will automatically be updated.

For details on how to prepare for each of these changes, read the rest of this blog post and check the Display & Video 360 API Announced Deprecations page.

Changes to content targeting for YouTube & partners line items

On September 30, 2024, it won’t be possible to directly assign Digital Content Label and Other Content Types exclusion targeting to YouTube & partners line items. Embedded video, live streaming, and Family content rating exclusion will still be available at the advertiser-level, and then will be applied to child YouTube & partners line items only.

In Display & Video 360 API, all TARGETING_TYPE_DIGITAL_CONTENT_LABEL_EXCLUSION and TARGETING_TYPE_SENSITIVE_CATEGORY_EXCLUSION AssignedTargetingOptions will be removed from YouTube & partners line items.

Assigned targeting inherited by YouTube & partners line items are not retrievable at the line item level, so any targeting of these types inherited from the parent advertiser will continue to not be returned. This will impact responses from assigned targeting LIST requests and attempts to retrieve these resources using advertisers.lineItems.targetingTypes.assignedTargetingOptions.get will return a 404 error.

In Structured Data Files, Line Item files will no longer use the following values in the “TrueView Category Exclusions Targeting” column:

• “All Audiences”
• “Younger Teens”
• “Teens”
• “Adults”
• “Not Yet Rated”

Generated files will no longer populate these values in the column. The values “Embedded Videos,” “Live Streaming,” “Games,” and “Families” will be populated in the column when the targeting is inherited from the parent advertiser. Line Item file entries for YouTube & partners line items updating the “TrueView Category Exclusions Targeting” column will fail on upload.

To avoid any interruption of service, remove any impacted targeting from YouTube & partners line items using the UI or Structured Data Files upload.

Sunset of Oracle first- and third-party audiences

On September 30, 2024, first- and third-party audiences sourced from Oracle will sunset. Once sunset, these audiences will be removed from any resource targeting and combined audiences. This update will automatically pause any line items that target only sunset audiences, or negatively target any sunset audiences.

You can identify sunsetting third-party audiences in the UI as third-party audiences from providers “Bluekai”, “Datalogix”, and “AddThis”. If you have an external account link with Oracle to import audiences from their platform, check with your relevant team to identify sunsetting first-party audiences. These audiences can’t be easily identified using the Display & Video 360 API.

In the Display & Video 360 API, TARGETING_TYPE_AUDIENCE_GROUP AssignedTargetingOptions will be updated to remove sunset audiences. Requests to add sunset audiences to resource targeting will return a 400 error.

In Structured Data Files, IDs of sunset audiences will no longer be included in “Audience Targeting - Include” or “Audience Targeting - Exclude” columns in Insertion Order, Line Item, and YouTube Ad Group files, as well as the “Bid Multiplier” column in Line Item files. File entries using sunset audience IDs in these columns will fail on upload.

To avoid any interruption of service, review the audiences used in your resource targeting, identify any Oracle audiences, and remove them. If you cache audience ID, make sure to remove any of these audiences from your cache.

Ineligibility of Optimized Targeting for certain bid strategies

On September 30, 2024, line items using the following bid strategies will no longer be able to use optimized targeting:

• Maximum views with in-view time over 10 seconds
• Maximum completed in-view and audible views
• Maximum viewable impressions
• Target viewable CPM

At this time, line items that use one of these bid strategies combined with optimized targeting will be updated to turn off optimized targeting.

In the Display & Video 360 API, LineItem resources with targetingExpansion.enableOptimizedTargeting set to True and bidStrategy.maximizeSpendAutoBid.performanceGoalType set to BIDDING_STRATEGY_PERFORMANCE_GOAL_TYPE_CIVA, BIDDING_STRATEGY_PERFORMANCE_GOAL_TYPE_IVO_TEN, or BIDDING_STRATEGY_PERFORMANCE_GOAL_TYPE_AV_VIEWED or bidStrategy.performanceGoalAutoBid.performanceGoalType set to BIDDING_STRATEGY_PERFORMANCE_GOAL_TYPE_VIEWABLE_CPM will be updated to set targetingExpansion.enableOptimizedTargeting to False. Requests creating or updating LineItem resources with any of these sunset configurations will return a 400 error.

In Structured Data Files, Line Item file entries with either “Optimized vCPM” in the “Bid Strategy Type” column or a combination of “Maximum” in the “Bid Strategy Type” column and “CIVA”, “IVO_TEN”, or “AV_VIEWED” in the “Bid Strategy Unit” column will be updated, if needed, to set the “Optimized Targeting” column to False. Line Item file entries using the sunset configurations will fail on upload.

To avoid any interruption of service, update and verify that your line items using these bid strategies don’t have optimized targeting turned on.

Sunset of “Flight ASAP” pacing for insertion orders

On November 5, 2024, “Flight ASAP” pacing will sunset for insertion orders. All existing Insertion Orders with “Flight ASAP” pacing will be updated to “Flight Ahead” pacing.

In the Display & Video 360 API, InsertionOrder resources with a pacing.pacingPeriod of PACING_PERIOD_FLIGHT and a pacing.pacingType of PACING_TYPE_ASAP will be updated to use a pacing.pacingType of PACING_TYPE_AHEAD. Requests creating or updating InsertionOrder resources with this configuration will return a 400 error.

In Structured Data Files, Insertion Order file entries with “Flight” and “ASAP” values in “Pacing” and “Pacing Rate” columns, respectively, will be updated to an “Ahead” value in the “Pacing Rate” column. Insertion Order file entries using the sunset configuration will fail on upload.

To avoid any interruption of service, update the pacing of any existing insertion orders currently using the “Flight ASAP” configuration.

If you run into issues or have questions about these changes, please contact us using our new Display & Video 360 API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team