Setting up a campaign in the DIRECTV Ads Manager is quick and easy, you can build it yourself in a few steps or let our AI agent set it up for you.
Step 1: Create your campaign
Click the blue Create Campaign button in the top left corner. This opens the Create Campaign page, where you'll set your goal and name your campaign.
Step 2: Choose your campaign goal
Think about what you'd like your campaign to achieve, then select one of two goals:
Build Awareness — increases visibility for your business or brand. We recommend this if it's your first campaign.
Drive Conversions — drives specific actions like sales, store visits, app downloads, or website visits. To use this goal, you'll need to enter your credit card details and set up a pixel.
Note: A pixel is a small piece of code that tracks actions people take on your website after seeing your ad.
Step 3: Name your campaign
Scroll down and give your campaign a name. We recommend something relevant to what you're running, for example, "Black Friday" for a Black Friday sale, or "New Store Opening" for a new location.
When you're ready, click Save & Create Campaign Line at the bottom of the page.
Alternatively you can select Create with Agent to have the platform build the campaign for you.
Step 4: Set your budget and schedule
Choose your budget and campaign dates:
Budget — you can start with as little as $100, you simply pay as you go.
Duration — enter your start and end dates.
As you scroll, you'll notice Streaming TV is already selected for you. This simply means your ad will run on DIRECTV's high-quality streaming content, alongside the hottest shows, news and sports.
In the Screens section, TV can't be deselected, since your ad will always run on the big screen. However, you can deselect mobile, desktop and tablet if you'd like your ads to run only on the TV screen.
Good to know: On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see an estimated number of impressions for your full campaign, along with a cost per thousand impressions (CPM), based on your budget and duration. For example, a $10,000 budget over 30 days delivers around 333,000 impressions at a $30 CPM.
Step 5: Choose where your ads run (networks)
Decide where your ads will appear. You can run across all networks or narrow to just entertainment, sports and news networks.
Note: In the itemized list of networks at the bottom of the page, you'll notice some are labeled "X on DIRECTV" and others are not. This is because your campaign will run primarily on DIRECTV, but in some instances additional ad slots are added from DIRECTV's trusted partners to give your campaign greater scale and reach more customers.
Step 6: Select your audience
Next, choose who you want to target. You have three options:
Build or Select an Audience — create a new audience or choose an existing one.
Retarget an Audience — reach people who have already interacted with you.
Target Campaign Lines — retarget an audience from a previous campaign.
If you're building or selecting an audience, scroll down to target by gender, age and demographics (such as household income or parents with children). Click the downward arrow on the left to open a dropdown with more granular options. You can also target by interest, for example, deal seekers or people likely to visit a museum.
At the bottom, the Audience Logic section shows whether all your selected audiences will be combined in your campaign, or whether it will target one audience or another.
Step 7: Choose your location
Select where you want your ad to run. With DIRECTV Ads Manager, you can reach viewers just down the road or across the country:
Local — target by ZIP code, state, DMA, or congressional district.
National — reach viewers across the country.
Note: DMA stands for Designated Market Area. It's a TV-specific term for groups of counties clustered by the local TV stations people watch most.
Step 8: Set your time slots (dayparts)
Scroll to the Time Slots section to choose the days and times your ad runs, this is also known as dayparts. Scheduled ads appear in each viewer's local time zone. You might use dayparting to run ads only during your store's opening hours, for example. Hover over any daypart to see the exact hours it covers.
Step 9: Set your frequency cap
In the Frequency Cap section, choose how many times each household sees your ad. This is set to 3x per day by default as a best practice. To change it, click each box and select the number of times per day, week or month.
Step 10: Add your creative
Your creative is the actual ad that runs. You have two options:
Upload Creative — if you already have a video ad, click Upload Creative to add your file, along with a tracking pixel if you have one.
Launch Ad Creator — if you don't have a creative, our AI agent can build one for you in minutes. Click Launch Ad Creator, enter your business name and website, upload any images you'd like to use and click Generate.
Step 11: Schedule your flight dates
Scroll to Flight Dates to run different creatives at different times. For example, you might tease an upcoming sale to get customers to save the date, then swap to a "sale is on now" creative once it starts.
Step 12: Review and launch
Review your campaign details, then click Save Line Item. This brings you to the campaign summary page. Once you are ready to launch your campaign, click the blue Launch Campaign button in the top right corner.
That's it, now your campaign is live. Once the campaign is running, head to the dashboard to track performance.