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Why your YouTube bumper campaign built no remarketing list

Google states view counts need a video of 10+ seconds and remarketing lists need 12+. A 6-second bumper produces neither.

The plan is sensible and very common. Run cheap 6-second bumpers for reach, then retarget everyone who saw one. It can't work, and nothing tells you.

Google states that YouTube view counts aren't incremented unless the video ad is 10 seconds or longer, and that building remarketing lists or using YouTube Analytics needs 12+ seconds.

Two separate consequences

• Zero views. A bumper campaign reporting no views isn't broken. It's working exactly as documented.
• No second stage. The audience you planned to retarget was never created, so the rest of the funnel has nothing to run against.

Decide the length first

This is why video duration belongs at the top of a YouTube build rather than the end. Everything else can be edited afterwards. Length can't be fixed without reshooting.

If anything downstream depends on retargeting viewers, the creative needs to be at least 12 seconds before you decide anything else.

See the YouTube ad specs, quoted with sources.