Google DV360 launches targeting templates for streamlined campaign management

Google Marketing Platform announced on September 18, 2025, the general availability of targeting templates within Display & Video 360, according to an email notification sent to advertisers. The new feature enables marketing teams to create reusable sets of targeting criteria that can be applied across multiple campaigns, reducing both setup time and the likelihood of configuration errors.

"The new targeting templates feature on Display & Video 360 helps you save time and reduce errors by creating reusable sets of targeting criteria," according to the company's announcement. The tool simplifies campaign setup processes while allowing marketers to scale their most effective audience strategies across campaigns and teams.

Targeting templates function at the advertiser level within Display & Video 360's navigation structure. The feature supports five distinct line item types: Display, Video, Audio, Connected TV, Demand Gen, and YouTube & partners video campaigns. Each template type offers specific configuration options tailored to its respective advertising format.

Display templates include inventory source settings covering quality controls, public inventory access, deals and packages management, along with targeting parameters for brand safety, applications and URLs, keywords, content categories, environment specifications, ad position preferences, viewability requirements, language settings, audience lists, geographic targeting, scheduling controls, demographic filters, browser specifications, device targeting, connection speed parameters, carrier and ISP settings, plus optimized targeting capabilities.

Video campaign templates expand these options with additional parameters including video-specific brand safety controls, genre targeting, user-rewarded content settings, and enhanced position targeting for video placements. Audio, Connected TV, Demand Gen, and YouTube & partners video templates each provide specialized configuration options aligned with their respective advertising environments and inventory sources.

The template creation process allows advertisers to either build new templates from scratch or generate them from existing line items. Campaign managers can access the template creation interface through the advertiser-level menu, select their preferred line item type, configure inventory source settings and targeting parameters, then save the template for future use across multiple campaigns.

Template application occurs during both new line item creation and existing campaign modification. For new campaigns, advertisers select their desired line item type, then apply an appropriate template before making additional customizations. The system displays only templates matching the selected line item type, ensuring compatibility between template configurations and campaign requirements.

Bulk application capabilities enable marketing teams to apply identical targeting templates across multiple line items simultaneously. This functionality proves particularly valuable for agencies managing large-scale campaigns or brands requiring consistent targeting approaches across diverse campaign structures.

According to the help center documentation, template settings can be modified after initial application. The platform provides visibility indicators showing which line items utilize specific templates and alerts users when targeting diverges from the original template configuration. This tracking helps maintain consistency while allowing necessary campaign-specific adjustments.

The targeting templates release represents Google's continued investment in workflow automation within Display & Video 360. The platform has introduced several efficiency-focused features throughout 2025, including AI-powered search capabilities that enable natural language queries for finding campaign entities based on settings, reporting, or targeting parameters.

The announcement also highlights the general availability of Audience Persona, an AI-driven feature that translates existing marketing personas into actionable targeting configurations. This tool helps marketers create audiences more efficiently while uncovering potential customer segments that might otherwise be overlooked during manual audience selection processes.

Additionally, the platform now offers Ads Guide, a conversational assistance tool accessed through the chat icon next to the help button. This feature provides personalized guidance for Display & Video 360 users throughout their campaign management journey, offering real-time support for platform navigation and optimization decisions.

The targeting templates introduction follows Google's systematic modernization of Display & Video 360 capabilities. Recent platform updates have included enhanced API functionality with version 4 targeting parity, privacy-focused advertising solutions including Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR), and Netflix campaign integration with affinity audience targeting.

For the marketing community, targeting templates address a fundamental challenge in programmatic advertising: maintaining consistency while scaling campaign operations. The feature becomes particularly relevant as advertising teams manage increasingly complex campaign portfolios across multiple channels and objectives. Templates reduce the cognitive load associated with campaign setup while minimizing the risk of targeting errors that can impact campaign performance and budget efficiency.

The timing of the targeting templates release aligns with broader industry trends toward automation and efficiency in digital advertising operations. As marketing teams face pressure to manage larger campaign volumes with consistent resources, tools that standardize and streamline repetitive processes become increasingly valuable for operational effectiveness.

Marketing agencies and in-house teams managing multiple advertisers or brands can leverage templates to ensure consistent application of proven targeting strategies. The feature enables knowledge transfer between team members and provides a systematic approach to campaign setup that reduces training time for new staff members.

The template functionality also supports campaign testing and optimization strategies. Teams can create variations of successful templates to test different targeting approaches while maintaining baseline configurations that ensure campaign delivery. This structured approach to experimentation can improve learning outcomes and campaign performance over time.

Implementation of targeting templates requires advertisers to evaluate their existing targeting strategies and identify patterns suitable for standardization. Most effective templates typically represent targeting approaches that have demonstrated consistent performance across multiple campaigns or align with specific marketing objectives.

The feature integrates with existing Display & Video 360 reporting and optimization capabilities, allowing users to measure template effectiveness and refine configurations based on performance data. Templates can be updated to incorporate learnings from campaign results, ensuring that standardized approaches continue to evolve with changing market conditions and audience behaviors.

Timeline

• September 18, 2025: Google announces targeting templates general availability for Display & Video 360 via email notification to advertisers
• September 17, 2025: Display & Video 360 releases Structured Data Files v9.1 update with Demand Gen campaign enhancements
• August 2025: Google updates Display & Video 360 API with v4 targeting parity and YouTube inventory controls
• July 2025: Netflix integration with affinity audience targeting becomes available
• June 2025: Major reporting changes announced for Q3 2025 affecting YouTube metrics and cross-platform functionality
• January 2025: Privacy-focused advertising tools including PAIR and AI-powered optimization features launched

Summary

Who: Google Marketing Platform targeting Display & Video 360 advertisers, agencies, and marketing teams managing programmatic advertising campaigns across multiple line item types and targeting strategies.

What: Launch of targeting templates feature enabling creation of reusable targeting criteria sets that can be applied across Display, Video, Audio, Connected TV, Demand Gen, and YouTube & partners campaigns to reduce setup time and configuration errors.

When: General availability announced September 18, 2025, via email notification to Display & Video 360 advertisers, with immediate platform availability for template creation and application.

Where: Available within Display & Video 360 platform at the advertiser level through left-hand navigation menu, accessible for campaign setup and bulk application across line items globally.

Why: Addresses marketing team needs for workflow efficiency, campaign consistency, and error reduction while enabling scalable implementation of proven targeting strategies across complex programmatic advertising portfolios.