YouTube Explains How Follow-On Views Optimization Works

YouTube has introduced follow-on views, a new optimization feature for advertisers using Demand Gen campaigns. This feature enables advertisers to reach users who are more likely to watch additional videos from the same channel after seeing an ad.

YouTube defines follow-on views as "when people watch more videos from your YouTube channel after seeing your ad." It occurs when users click on or watch a YouTube ad and then decide to explore more videos from the same channel. 

Instead of only tracking basic engagement metrics like views, clicks, or conversions, advertisers can now optimize campaigns to reach people who show signs of longer-term interest. Follow-on Views aims to encourage that second or third video view, rather than stopping at one interaction. The goal is to grow organic reach in the process, the same channel-growth logic behind the Promote button YouTube added for creators running ads in Shorts.

How advertisers can activate follow-on views

Advertisers already running a Demand Gen campaign can activate this feature. They should go to their Conversions Summary, find Engagements, and select Edit Goal. There, they will see an option called YouTube Follow-on Views.

Advertisers can set follow-on views as the Primary action, which prompts YouTube to optimize the campaign toward users more likely to watch additional videos. Setting it as a Secondary action allows the system to report on follow-on views without optimizing for them.

What Are YouTube Follow-On Views?

YouTube follow-on views are a Google Ads conversion action that reports and optimizes toward users who watch a YouTube channel's organic videos after seeing an ad for that channel. Google Ads Help points to media, entertainment, music, retail, creators and brands as examples of industries where it is especially useful.

Counting is not deduplicated per person. The Google Ads Help page for follow-on views states that Google Analytics counts every conversion, and that if one user has multiple views, those multiple views are counted as multiple conversions. One viewer who works through several channel videos after seeing an ad can therefore register several follow-on views, which is worth knowing before the number is read as a count of people.

What Advertisers Need Before Turning On Follow-On Views

Two prerequisites sit outside the Demand Gen campaign itself: the YouTube channel has to be linked to the Google Ads account, and an "Engagement" conversion goal has to be saved in that account.

Google's documentation adds a third setting that is easy to miss. "Use 'Engagement' as an account-default goal" must be selected in the account-default goal settings when the Engagement goal is edited. The Engagement goal itself is created under Goals, then Conversions, then Summary, then Create conversion action. Changing which action is primary or secondary also requires manager access to the account, so an advertiser working under someone else's manager account has to ask the account manager or disconnect from that manager in their access settings.

How Follow-On Views Are Counted and Attributed

Google Ads applies two attribution windows to follow-on views: a 30-day click-through conversion window and a three-day engaged-view conversion window.

That is a 27-day difference between the two windows, which is worth holding in mind when follow-on views are read alongside the other conversion actions sitting under the same Engagement goal.

Follow-On Views or Channel Subscriptions: Which Should Be Primary?

Both can be primary at the same time, but the account does not start in a neutral position. Google Ads Help calls optimizing for channel subscriptions only "the default setting", with follow-on views arriving as "Secondary action" — a default Google explains as being there "to avoid overriding existing campaigns that are optimizing for other conversion actions first, like YouTube channel subscriptions, under Engagement".

Google's documentation sets out three configurations. Optimizing for channel subscriptions only is the default, and needs no action; an advertiser who has changed it and wants it back sets follow-on views to "Secondary action" and channel subscriptions to "Primary action". Optimizing for both means setting both conversion actions to "Primary action". Optimizing for follow-on views only means setting channel subscriptions to "Secondary action" and follow-on views to "Primary action". In the two cases where one action is secondary, it is still reported in a new row below the campaign name, but the campaign is not optimized for it.

‍