Activating a DV360 programmatic launch for a premium filtration product entering an unfamiliar category, from audience structure through to optimisation and reporting.
DV360 · YouTube · DisplayA global water-filtration brand was launching a premium filter jug in Bangalore, targeting upper-middle-class households. The product's positioning centred on better-tasting water for everyday use — tea, coffee, cooking — rather than water-safety claims, since the audience already trusted their water supply.
The objective: build category awareness for an unfamiliar product type, and drive qualified traffic to its Amazon India listing.
I supported DV360 activation — translating the campaign plan into audience and line-item structures, setting targeting and remarketing logic, and monitoring delivery and performance throughout the flight.
YouTube carried reach and category education, introducing a product type the audience hadn't encountered before. Display ran prospecting across in-market, cooking-contextual and custom-intent audiences, feeding into Amazon product-page remarketing.
Custom-intent audiences — users actively searching category terms — were delivering roughly double the CTR of the broader in-market segment, at a similar CPM. Frequency on the in-market line was also running above the weekly cap, a sign of audience fatigue.
Custom-intent CTR was roughly double in-market, at similar CPM. Frequency on in-market exceeded the weekly cap.
As a new brand in India, users were discovering the category, not comparing known brands — search-based intent captured that better than interest labels.
Shifted budget toward custom intent; reduced bid floor and rotated creative on the fatigued in-market line.
Stronger CTR from reallocated spend, reduced fatigue, and a recommendation to lead future activity with custom intent.
Beyond platform delivery, the campaign's core measure of success was qualified traffic reaching the Amazon product page — the CPM efficiency gain on remarketing reflected a warmer, more purchase-ready audience.
The clearest takeaway: for a new brand in an unfamiliar category, active search-based discovery converts attention better than broad interest-based targeting.