Google unifies vertical video, pulls YouTube Shorts into DV360

Google unveiled "Vertical Video Unification" in Display and Video 360 at Programmatic I/O, letting advertisers buy and measure vertical video across platforms, apps and publishers in a single place, with Gemini handling resizing, reporting and budget allocation across Shorts and non-Shorts inventory. The sell-side read on this is significant: previously YouTube Shorts could only be bought through Google Ads via Demand Gen or PMax, and open web video only through AdX or other SSPs, so a single DV360 entry point should extend a portion of walled-garden video budgets to the open web, sell-side consultant Scott Messer argued in a LinkedIn post. Early numbers support the pitch: Unilever, with WPP Media, reported a 24% lift in campaign reach and a 25% lower cost per unique user in early tests. Google Marketing Platforms managing director Marta Martinez framed it as a step change: "We've been preparing for the mobile-first advertising shift for years, but this level of unification changes everything."

The crux

Google is bundling YouTube's walled-garden short-form supply with the open web inside one DSP, which both spreads short-form video budgets to publishers and hands Google's own Gemini optimizer a new lever over where those budgets actually land.

Sell-side read

Publishers with vertical video inventory stand to gain net-new demand, but the risk is Gemini optimizing toward the highest-margin placements, which is why Scott Messer's open question matters: whether unified optimization dilutes CPMs for both Shorts and open web supply.

Watch

Whether publishers see real CPM lift on vertical video in DV360 over the next two quarters, or whether Gemini consolidates spend back toward YouTube Shorts.