DV360 Vertical Video Unification: What Agencies Need to Know
Vertical video has been bought in silos for years: YouTube Shorts in one place, TikTok and Reels in another, and open-web or streaming-app portrait inventory somewhere else again. Each silo has its own frequency cap, its own reporting rules and its own idea of what counts as a view. On September 28, 2026 Google announced a change that aims to fix part of that problem inside its demand-side platform. This post covers what was announced, what is still unknown, and what agencies should do about it.
What Google announced
In a post on its official blog, Google introduced Vertical Video Unification in Display & Video 360. Google says it makes it possible “to buy and measure vertical video programmatically across channels in one platform”, and that it centralizes vertical video buys from different publishers into a single workstream. Gemini is described as powering buying, execution and full-funnel measurement.
According to EMARKETER’s coverage, the practical change is that DV360 advertisers can now buy YouTube Shorts and open-web vertical inventory (premium publishers and streaming apps) together. Before, open-web inventory had to be bought separately from Shorts. A Google spokesperson told EMARKETER that Gemini will also manage frequency and optimise reach and bidding across that combined pool.
MediaPost reported that advertisers can upload a vertical asset once and distribute it across multiple inventory sources. Reporting is shown in a single view that de-duplicates audience counts across channels and applies the same measurement rules to views, clicks and conversions.
The one result Google shared
Google cited a single test: Unilever’s Hellmann’s, working with WPP Media, saw a 24% increase in unique reach and a 25% lower cost per unique user during initial testing. As PPC Land pointed out, Google did not publish the methodology, the baseline, the test duration, the markets or the list of participating publishers. Treat the number as one brand’s early result, not as a benchmark.
Important: this is DV360, not Google Ads
The slug of this post mentions Google Ads because many clients will ask whether their Google Ads account now has this feature. Based on what Google has published, it does not. Vertical Video Unification is a Display & Video 360 feature. DV360 is Google’s enterprise DSP, usually accessed through an agency seat or a direct contract. Small and mid-sized advertisers running YouTube through the Google Ads interface (for example Demand Gen or video campaigns) should not expect this exact product in their account.
Google has not announced availability dates, markets or setup steps. If you have a DV360 seat, confirm access with your Google contact before you build a plan around it.
Why it matters for agencies
Frequency is the real prize
When Shorts and open-web portrait inventory are bought separately, the same person can see the same ad far too many times, and nobody can see it happening. A unified buy with de-duplicated reach makes that overlap visible and controllable. For brand campaigns that is often worth more than a lower CPM.
Budget decisions become cross-channel
EMARKETER suggests treating Shorts and open-web inventory as two pillars of one vertical video plan, with spend on one decided partly by performance on the other. That is a planning change as much as a buying change. Media plans that allocate a fixed share to “YouTube” and a separate share to “programmatic video” may need restructuring.
More automation, so verify more
Gemini making buying and frequency decisions means less manual control. EMARKETER recommends monitoring whether it favours some inventory over others and using third-party tools to check its decisions. That is sensible advice for any AI-led buying system.
Creative has to be truly vertical
DV360’s video creative guidelines list portrait video at 9:16 or 3:4, with sizes such as 720×1280 and 1080×1920. Cropped landscape ads with tiny text tend to look out of place in feeds built for native vertical content. If you are going to buy vertical at scale, build for vertical from the start: safe zones for captions and UI overlays, a hook in the first seconds, and legible text on a phone.
Questions to ask before you shift budget
- Which publishers and apps are in the unified pool in our markets?
- Is reach de-duplication based on logged-in signals, modelling, or both?
- Can we set our own frequency caps, or only goals that Gemini works toward?
- How are viewability and completed views defined across different publishers?
- Can we export log-level or placement-level data to verify the results?
What to do this week
- List every place you currently buy vertical video for each client and what each one costs.
- If you have a DV360 seat, ask your Google contact about access and supported inventory in your markets.
- Audit your vertical creative library: native 9:16 versus cropped landscape.
- Pick one campaign as a candidate for a controlled test with a clear baseline (unique reach and cost per unique user).
- Write down how you will judge success before the test starts, so the platform’s own reporting is not the only scorecard.
The bottom line
Vertical Video Unification is a sensible step: one buy, one reporting view and frequency control across Shorts and open-web portrait inventory. The early result is encouraging but thin, and access is limited to DV360. Agencies that already run DV360 should test it carefully. Everyone else should still get their vertical creative and cross-channel frequency thinking in order now, because the industry is clearly moving in this direction.
Want help planning vertical video across YouTube, Meta and programmatic, or working out whether a DSP seat makes sense for you? Book a free strategy call and we will walk through your current setup.
