(Don’t) let kids click on your YouTube ads👼

Are you saying that you still have a limited age in your targeting settings? OK, but what if children watch fairy tales on their parent’s mobile or on a “shared” device, where Google has a mish-mash in the determination of the sex of the viewer, let alone their age. According to U.S. statistics, up to 81% of parents of children aged 11 and under allow their child to watch YouTube videos.

The most reliable way to exclude child viewers from your campaign is to target and laboriously exclude videos or channels that children watch primarily.

You can view the Placement report in Google Ads and open each placement (video, channel) with suspicious statistics (extremes, too high or low interaction rate). How often? This is determined according to the duration of the campaign. For a short impact campaign, you will do this every day.

Sounds tedious. However, you will potentially save the client a substantial amount of money that they could otherwise spend on raising awareness with the target, which will buy him in 10+ years.

Some agencies and PPC specialists have begun to create and maintain lists of YouTube channels that children watch primarily. These lists are then automatically excluded from any non-child-targeted campaign, saving you money from the very beginning.

We have joined forces with other contributors and we have unified and enriched the list of YouTube channels with content targeted at children using several useful parameters (channel language, channel name…). We will update this list at regular intervals. We have decided to share it with you so that you can save money for either your clients or yourself

How do I exclude placements from YouTube campaigns in bulk?

You can exclude placements at the entire Google Ads, campaign, or ad group level.

1. In Tools & Settings, go to the Shared Library and Placement exclusion lists.
   
2. Click + and then New list.
   
3. Enter a name for the exclusion list (e.g. Children’s YouTube Channels) and click Enter multiple placements.
   
4. Copy the list of children’s YouTube channels from the table and paste (1 channel per 1 row).
   • Go to a specific campaign and click on Placements in the left menu, then on Exclusions at the top.
     
   • Click on the blue pen to edit the exclusions. Select the Use placement exclusions list. Select the campaign in which you want to exclude placements. Select a list (in this case, Children’s YouTube Channels).
     
   • If you know the campaigns that you want to exclude from placements, you can do so directly by entering a list of exclusions.
     
5. Finish by clicking Save.

What if you target your campaigns toward children?

If this is the case, you can apply the opposite of using this list. Some advertising campaigns specifically target children. The list of children’s YouTube channels can be used as a positive for targeting and with a suitably selected language (or location) you are guaranteed the intervention of the right children’s audience. However, under the pressure of the law, Google is likely to prevent advertising from targeting children.