YouTube alcohol ads get personalised targeting on 30 October

Google will let alcohol brands target YouTube ads at chosen groups of viewers. The change starts on 30 October. Until now alcohol ads could run on YouTube, but the targeting had to be switched off.

Alcohol targeting switches on across YouTube on 30 October

The rule sits in Google’s personalised advertising policy. From that date advertisers may personalise ads for alcohol, alcohol-related products and alcohol alternatives on YouTube stock, wherever local law allows it.

Two limits stay. Advertisers still cannot use health interest data to find drinkers, and the ads must not reach people under the legal drinking age. Viewers can also keep turning alcohol ads off in My Ad Center.

Egypt, India, Indonesia and Poland are left out

Four countries do not get the change: Egypt, India, Indonesia and Poland. Each has tighter national rules on alcohol advertising than the platform policy allows. In Poland the law bans advertising for spirits and wine outright and lets only beer be advertised, under strict conditions.

So a brand planning one European campaign now has to split it. The same creative can be targeted in Germany or Spain and not in Poland.

Google points to customer interest and better controls

Google says the shift follows customer interest, new product categories and improved controls and data protections. Tubefilter noted another likely reason: TikTok has been selling alcohol advertising with age checks, and YouTube has been the stricter option.

Alcohol has never been an easy category on YouTube. Homepage banners are blocked and viewers can opt out, so most drink brands have leaned on creators instead of buying media. This change moves them back towards buying it.

What drink brands should settle before 30 October

Media plans for the fourth quarter are being signed now, so the practical work is a country-by-country check of where personalised buying is allowed. Age verification is the second question, because the responsibility for not reaching minors stays with the advertiser.

The wider pattern is a platform loosening a category rule while regulators tighten elsewhere. In Britain the advertising watchdog recently banned a Sports Direct ad over its price claims. On the buying side, video and commerce keep merging, as when YouTube took its shopping affiliate programme into Germany. And new ad systems keep arriving with fewer controls than buyers want, which is the complaint aimed at ChatGPT ads as they passed a billion dollars a year.