Can I show my ad on a specific YouTube channel or video?

Placement targeting is the most literal kind of targeting on YouTube. In a video campaign you can add a channel, a particular video, or a list of them. Your ad then competes in the auction for slots on that content. It is useful when you know exactly where your buyers watch: a coaching academy targeting a popular exam-preparation channel, or a car accessories shop targeting Pakistani car-review channels.

There are limits. You cannot force an ad to run on a channel that is not monetised, or on videos where the creator has not enabled the relevant ad formats. Small channels may not have enough views to spend your budget. And some audiences of a channel live far from the twin cities, so combine placements with location targeting if your business is local. Expect placement-only campaigns to spend slowly.

The reverse is often more valuable. Placement exclusions remove channels, videos, apps and sites where your ads showed but did no good. After a week, open the 'where ads showed' report, sort by cost, and exclude anything irrelevant: cartoon channels, mobile game apps, unrelated music videos. Many advertisers find a meaningful share of cheap views comes from places their buyers never are.

Topic and keyword targeting sit in between. Instead of naming channels, you choose themes such as home improvement or education, or keywords related to what your buyers watch. Google then finds matching content. It reaches more than placement lists while staying more relevant than broad targeting, and a mix of the three usually works best.