With connected TV (CTV) watch time continuing to increase, advertisers are looking to partners to find the best way to not only reach their target audience but reach them at an affordable cost with measurable results too – similar to linear TV.

Cue the expanded deal with Nielsen that YouTube announced this month. The new deal will provide more ways for advertisers to measure the total audience reached by YouTube CTV campaigns. The expanded partnership will now provide more direct comparisons between your ad reach via traditional TV campaigns and YouTube CTV, independently verified by Nielsen’s measurement process.

In addition to this, the actual reach of YouTube CTV should also factor in more viewers, with Nielsen insights showing that 26% of the time, multiple 18+ viewers are watching YouTube together on the TV screen. With this in mind, Google will include co-viewing metrics in Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings (DAR), while also adding new frequency controls for CTV campaigns to help avoid exposure fatigue. The reporting should become available to all by the end of Q2.