Google DV360 Unifies Vertical Video Buying Across Platforms

On September 28, 2026, Google introduced Vertical Video Unification for Display & Video 360 (DV360). The new solution brings programmatic buying and measurement of vertical video from different channels and publisher environments into a more unified workflow.

The update is not about introducing another video format. It is about reducing fragmentation in media buying. Advertisers can plan vertical video placements, manage buying, and evaluate results in DV360 without maintaining entirely separate workflows for every inventory source.

Google associates the update with the use of Gemini in campaign buying, execution, and measurement, including more effective management of reach and repeated exposure. The company also shared initial results: in a test involving Unilever's Hellmann's brand and WPP Media, unique reach increased by 24%, while cost per unique user reached decreased by 25%.

What Are DV360 and Vertical Video Unification?

Display & Video 360 is a demand-side platform (DSP) within Google Marketing Platform. It is designed primarily for programmatic advertising: agencies and advertisers manage inventory, audiences, bids, budgets, creatives, and campaign measurement through one platform.

Vertical videos are videos designed for smartphone viewing, typically with a 9:16 aspect ratio. They are common in YouTube Shorts and other mobile video feeds, as well as apps and websites that offer full-screen vertical placements.

However, vertical video is not a single advertising channel. The same format may be sold by different publishers, come with different placement requirements, and have its own buying and reporting configurations.

Vertical Video Unification is a solution for bringing this fragmented buying process together within DV360. Its goal is to help advertisers reach users across multiple environments while managing spending, exposure frequency, and results through a more coordinated system.

How Vertical Video Was Purchased Before

Before this update, vertical video impressions on YouTube Shorts and inventory from third-party websites or apps could be purchased through separate workflows. Advertising teams allocated budgets across inventory sources, configured placements, and analyzed performance without always having a single tool to manage audience exposure across those sources.

This created several practical challenges.

First, media planning became more complex. Even when using the same video creative, teams had to coordinate different inventory sources and campaign settings.

Second, measuring true unique reach was more difficult. When one person encounters ads across several environments, adding together the reach reported by separate campaigns can exceed the actual number of people who saw the advertising.

Third, separate buying processes limited control over excessive frequency. A person might receive too many impressions in one channel while remaining unreached in another.

Finally, comparing publisher performance became harder when impression, cost, and reach data were collected through separate workflows.

What Changed on September 28, 2026?

Google announced the centralization of programmatic vertical video buying across publishers within Display & Video 360. According to industry publication EMARKETER, this includes bringing YouTube Shorts buying together with vertical video inventory across the open internet, including premium publishers and apps.

The changes fall into four areas:

1. A unified workflow. Teams can plan and buy vertical video from several sources through DV360, potentially reducing the number of individual operations required by fragmented channels.
2. More coordinated reach management. Instead of evaluating every source in isolation, advertisers can account for audience overlap and work toward reaching more unique people with the same budget.
3. Frequency management. Google emphasizes reducing excessive ad repetition among the same users. This is particularly important for upper-funnel campaigns, where the objective is often to expand reach rather than maximize impressions among users already exposed to an ad.
4. Gemini integration. According to Google, Gemini models support advertising buying, execution, and measurement. EMARKETER also reports that the system helps optimize reach, frequency, and bids.

Practical Implications for Agencies and Advertisers

The primary potential benefit is more effective allocation of advertising budgets across vertical video environments.

For example, a major brand launches a 15-second video and wants to reach as many new users as possible across several mobile video environments. With separate buying processes, some of the budget may be spent repeatedly showing the ad to the same audience.

Unified buying makes it possible to build a media strategy around overall reach and cost per unique person reached. In theory, this can reduce unnecessary frequency and redirect spending toward incremental audiences.

For programmatic agencies, the update may also reduce manual work in planning, management, and reporting. For large advertisers operating across multiple brands and markets, a consistent approach to buying and measurement may be even more valuable.

However, unification does not mean that every publisher has the same audience, attention quality, or sales impact. Teams still need to assess inventory composition, placement conditions, brand safety, creative quality, and actual business outcomes.

Early Results: Hellmann's and WPP Media

In its announcement, Google shared results from an early test involving Unilever's Hellmann's brand and WPP Media.

Both metrics relate to reach efficiency. Higher unique reach means the campaign reached more distinct people. Lower cost per unique user means each person reached cost less on average.

These results do not mean that conversions or ROAS increased by the same amount. Google did not provide comparable data on sales, CPA, or return on ad spend in its announcement.

Furthermore, the public test description does not disclose the full list of publishers, test dates, initial budget conditions, or comparison methodology. The Hellmann's results should therefore be treated as an example of the technology's potential, not a guaranteed outcome.

What to Check Before Launching

1. Availability. As of October 2026, Google's public announcement does not provide a universal list of countries, advertising accounts, or publishers where Vertical Video Unification is already available. Advertisers should not assume that every account has the same settings.

2. Inventory composition. Confirm exactly which vertical video sources are available for a particular campaign and whether they meet the brand's requirements.

3. Creative assets. A 9:16 format makes it possible to reuse similar source videos, but it does not eliminate differences between placements. Check safe zones, text overlays, duration, and playback behavior.

4. Measurement. For reach campaigns, key metrics include unique reach, cost per unique user reached, impression frequency, and audience overlap. For performance objectives, also analyze visits, conversions, CPA, and ROAS.

5. Test validity. A comparison against the previous buying setup is more credible when budgets, markets, audiences, placement duration, and creative strategy remain comparable. Otherwise, performance changes may be caused by factors other than unification itself.

Market Response and Limitations

Industry coverage generally describes Vertical Video Unification as a step toward simpler cross-channel buying of vertical video. Its main expected advantage is the ability to allocate budgets based on unique reach and audience duplication rather than managing isolated purchases.

However, there is not yet enough independent evidence to support universal claims of improved efficiency. The most prominent quantitative results were published by Google and relate to a limited number of disclosed tests.

Several questions remain unanswered by the announcement: the complete list of eligible publishers, the exact geographic rollout, the audience deduplication methodology, and how comparable measurement data are across environments.

It is therefore more accurate to view this update as a tool for improving the management of programmatic video buying, rather than a new guarantee of lower CPA or higher ROAS.

Affect's Takeaway: Less Fragmented Buying, More Control Over Reach

Vertical Video Unification reflects a broader shift in digital advertising: platforms are working to combine inventory, automate budget allocation, and measure outcomes at the overall campaign level instead of evaluating individual publishers in isolation.

For large brands and programmatic agencies, this is particularly relevant to vertical video, where audiences are distributed across multiple mobile environments and repetitive exposure can quickly reduce reach efficiency.

The early Hellmann's test suggests that a unified approach can increase unique reach and reduce cost per person reached. But those results are not enough to establish commercial impact.

Affect recommends treating Vertical Video Unification as an opportunity to test a new video buying architecture: confirm eligible inventory, use comparable creatives, evaluate unique reach and frequency, and then connect the findings to subsequent user actions and business objectives.

Sources

1. Google Marketing Platform: Introducing Vertical Video Unification with Display & Video 360, September 28, 2026.
2. EMARKETER: Google's DV360 Update Simplifies Cross-Channel Vertical Video Ad Strategies, September 29, 2026.
3. PPC Land: Hellmann's Gains 24% Unique Reach in Google DV360 Vertical Video Test, September 29, 2026.
4. Google Marketing Platform: Explore New Ways to Drive Your Best ROI with the First Google Marketing Platform Drop, October 22, 2026.