YouTube Reach Planner for Media Purchase Forecasting

“Ad reach” is an estimate of the number of people within a location target, based on signed-in users.

“Reach Planner” is a Google Ads tool designed to help advertisers plan their reach-based video campaigns across YouTube and video partner sites and apps.

Reach Planner’s data is based on Google’s Unique Reach methodology, validated with third parties and consistent with actual reach and bids reported.

To calculate “unique reach,” Google Ads uses statistical models that account for user behavior across many browsers and devices. These models are created by observing anonymous user behavior across Google products to determine cross-device usage patterns.

Reach Planner is updated weekly to use the most up-to-date data available.

Note: Reach Planner shows reach and frequency “estimates,” but doesn’t guarantee performance. Actual campaign performance depends on other factors (such as ad quality, ad relevance, and campaign settings).

In brief, the tool is helpful for planning YouTube campaigns when researching relative market sizes or comparing different demographics, but don’t put too much importance on the specific numbers themselves.