YouTube is the world’s largest video platform, enabling publishers to distribute and monetize video content through YouTube.com and YouTube channels. This integration enables targeting of syndicated YouTube videos where your content is hosted on YouTube.com (outside your own domains) using Google Audience within Google Ad Manager.This integration is a Destination:
Destination: Permutive cohorts are synced to Google Audience segments in GAM, which can then be targeted on YouTube inventory.
Use cases include:
Target ads on your YouTube channel videos with Permutive cohorts
Retarget users who visited your website when they watch videos on YouTube.com
Extend your audience reach to YouTube inventory beyond your owned properties
Monetize your YouTube channel with advanced audience targeting
How DV360 Fits Into This WorkflowDisplay & Video 360 (DV360) is Google’s demand-side platform (DSP) that advertisers use to programmatically buy video inventory, including YouTube. When you create Google Audience segments in GAM using Permutive cohorts:
You create segments in GAM using Permutive key-values (as described in this guide)
Segments can be shared with linked DV360 accounts via your Ad Exchange connection
Advertisers target these segments in DV360 when buying YouTube inventory
The “Addressable Users” metric in DV360 shows how many users in your audience segment can actually be reached on YouTube—this is where PPID becomes critical for achieving meaningful scale.This integration focuses on the publisher side (creating segments in GAM). The advertiser-side workflow in DV360 is managed by your advertising partners or internal ad ops team.
Google Ad Manager Integration: The GAM integration must be enabled in Permutive.
Google Audience Access: You must have access to Google Audience within your Google Ad Manager instance.
Cohorts with GAM Activation: Cohorts must have GAM Activation Sync enabled in the Permutive dashboard.
PPID Implementation (Strongly Recommended): Publisher Provided ID (PPID) should be configured in GAM for meaningful audience scale on YouTube.com. Without PPID, match rates will be very limited. See the Understanding PPID section below.
Before setting up YouTube targeting, you must enable the Google Ad Manager integration in the Permutive dashboard. See the Google Ad Manager integration documentation for detailed setup instructions.
2
Enable GAM Activation Sync for Cohorts
Navigate to the cohorts you want to target on YouTube in the Permutive dashboard. Enable the Google Ad Manager Activation Sync for each cohort. This will create targeting key-values in GAM that can be used in Google Audience rules.
3
Create Google Audience Segments
In your Google Ad Manager dashboard, navigate to Audience > Google Audience. You will create a first-party audience segment for each Permutive cohort you want to target on YouTube.Follow Google’s documentation to create each segment:
Click New Audience
Name your segment (recommended: use the same name as in Permutive for consistency)
Set the segment Status to Active
In the Rules section, click Key-values and Audience
Select the permutive key-value
Select the specific cohort ID value that corresponds to your Permutive cohort
Set Page Views to 1
Set Membership Expiration to 90 days (standard setting)
Click Save
Repeat this process for each Permutive cohort you want to target on YouTube.
4
Target Google Audience Segments in YouTube Campaigns
When creating line items in Google Ad Manager for YouTube inventory:
In the Targeting section of your line item, add Audience Segments
Select the Google Audience segments you created that map to your Permutive cohorts
Configure your YouTube inventory targeting as needed
Complete your line item setup and activate
The segments will be matched to signed-in Google users on YouTube based on their activity on your site.
This approach relies on third-party cookie matching between your site and YouTube. Users must be logged into Google and have visited your site for matching to occur. You will not achieve 100% scale compared to on-site targeting.
YouTube.com targeting is configured entirely within Google Ad Manager using Google Audience segments. There is no additional web implementation required beyond:
Having the Permutive SDK deployed on your website to build cohorts
Enabling GAM Activation Sync for cohorts in the Permutive dashboard
All targeting configuration happens in the Google Ad Manager interface as described in the Primary Setup Steps tab.
Publisher Provided ID (PPID) is critical for achieving meaningful audience scale when targeting on YouTube.com. This section explains why PPID matters and how it affects your YouTube targeting.
Google Audience segments in GAM can be built using key-values from Permutive cohorts. However, the effectiveness of targeting these audiences on YouTube.com depends heavily on whether you have PPID configured.
Without PPID
With PPID
Without PPID, your Google Audience segments are populated using browser-based identifiers (such as Google’s __gpi cookie). These identifiers have significant limitations:
Website-only scope: Browser cookies only identify users on your website
No cross-site linking: When users visit YouTube.com, they don’t carry your website’s cookies with them
Poor match rates: Google cannot reliably link your website visitors to their YouTube sessions
Limited scale: You may see very low “Addressable Users” counts in DV360 for your audience lists
In essence, without PPID, Google Audience segments act as “folders” filled with identifiers that only work on your own properties.
With PPID configured, your Google Audience segments are populated with stable, persistent identifiers that Google can link to users’ Google Accounts:
Deterministic matching: PPIDs provide a stable identifier that Google can match to signed-in users
Cross-platform recognition: When users visit YouTube.com while signed into Google, they can be recognized as members of your audience
Higher match rates: Significantly improved “Addressable Users” counts in DV360
Meaningful scale: Your first-party audiences become actionable on YouTube inventory
PPID can be based on:
A first-party cookie for anonymous traffic
A login ID for authenticated users (provides the best cross-device matching)
Without PPID, you may technically be able to create Google Audience segments and target them on YouTube, but the actual reach and match rate will be very limited. For meaningful YouTube.com targeting, PPID implementation is strongly recommended.
PPID configuration is done within Google Ad Manager. For detailed instructions on implementing PPID, refer to Google’s PPID documentation.Key considerations:
PPID must be passed consistently in ad requests from your website
The same PPID should be used across all platforms where possible for cross-device matching
For authenticated users, consider using a hashed login ID as your PPID for the best results
The targeting rule that defines membership in the Google Audience segment. Uses the permutive key with a specific cohort ID value.Example: permutive = abc123def456
The status of the audience segment. Must be set to “Active” for targeting.
Cohort Activation via Key-Values
When you enable GAM Activation Sync for a cohort in Permutive, the cohort ID is automatically created as a targeting value under the permutive key in Google Ad Manager.
If your Google Audience segments created in GAM are not building membership:
Verify key-value configuration: Ensure the segment rule is correctly configured to target the permutive key with the specific cohort ID value
Check segment status: Confirm the segment status is set to “Active” in Google Audience
Allow time for population: Audience segments may take 24-48 hours to begin populating after creation
Verify Permutive cohort is active: Ensure the cohort is active in Permutive and has GAM Activation Sync enabled
Check key-value exists in GAM: Navigate to Inventory > Key-Values in GAM and confirm the specific cohort ID value exists under the permutive key
Verify site traffic: Google Audience requires sufficient site traffic for meaningful audience building. Check that your site has adequate daily unique users.
Limited scale on YouTube.com targeting
If you’re seeing lower-than-expected reach for YouTube targeting:
PPID not configured: This is the most common cause of limited scale. Without PPID, Google cannot reliably match your website visitors to their YouTube sessions. See the Understanding PPID section above
Audience size minimums: Google Audience segments may have minimum size requirements before they’re eligible for targeting on YouTube
Membership expiration: Check your segment’s membership duration setting. 90 days is recommended for sufficient scale
Traffic requirements: Ensure your site has sufficient daily traffic for meaningful audience building
User sign-in status: Users must be signed into Google for matching to occur—anonymous YouTube viewers cannot be targeted
Consider alternative approaches: For better scale, consider using Google Customer Match with CRM data or leveraging Google’s Optimized Targeting features with your first-party segments as a seed
Unable to find permutive key-values in GAM
If you cannot find the permutive key or specific cohort ID values in Google Ad Manager:
Verify GAM integration is enabled: Check that the Google Ad Manager integration is properly configured in the Permutive dashboard
Check cohort activation: Ensure GAM Activation Sync is enabled for the specific cohorts in Permutive
Verify GAM permissions: Confirm that [email protected] has the required permissions in your GAM account (View and Edit key-values)
Allow time for sync: After enabling GAM Activation Sync, allow a few minutes for the key-value to be created in GAM
Check correct GAM network: Ensure you’re viewing the correct GAM network that’s configured in Permutive
GAM integration not enabled
The YouTube.com integration requires Google Ad Manager to be set up first:
