Concepts

For a given media plan, ReachPlanService generates forecasts of how much it would cost to reach your audience. Media plans are composed of demographic targeting, campaign duration, device types, and a set of budgets allocated to various ad formats. The forecast is a curve of reach and impression levels at increasing budgets. Subsequent pages in this guide describe how to:

Glossary of terms

This guide assumes familiarity with Google Ads, media planning and reach curves. The below list explains certain terms in more detail.

Term Definition
Census Audience Size The census size of an audience for your plan's given country, age range, and gender.
Effective Frequency The minimum number of times that a user is exposed to a YouTube ad.
Effective CPM The CPM for on-target impressions.
Frequency Cap Setting Limits the number of times that the YouTube ad is served to the same cookie-identified user during a specified time interval. The frequency output can sometimes be higher than the frequency cap due to cross-device and cookie latency.
On Target Impressions Number of ad impressions. This only includes impressions that exactly match the targeting.
On Target Reach Number of unique people who may be reached at least the Effective Frequency number of times. This only includes people who exactly match the targeting.
Total Impressions Number of ad impressions. This includes impressions that may fall outside the specified Targeting, due to insufficient information on signed-in users.
Total Reach Number of unique people who may be reached at least the Effective Frequency number of times. This includes people who may fall outside the targeting.
YouTube Audience Size The total commercially-reachable size of an audience on YouTube for your plan's given country, age range, and gender.