DV360 reach forecasting and campaign planning with an AI agent
DV360's reach-forecast API answers a question every programmatic planner asks before launch: for this budget and this targeting, what reach and frequency should I expect? Doing this by hand means looking up plannable product codes, resolving targeting option IDs, and assembling a request body by hand. An AI agent collapses that into one conversational planning pass — plan, forecast, and only then create the insertion order or line item, with every write still gated for approval.
The three-step DV360 planning chain
- 1List plannable products for your target geography — DV360's YouTube/video-centric reserve and auction line formats — so you know which product codes are even available to forecast against.
- 2Search targeting options by name (e.g. "United States" under geo region, or a named business chain or point-of-interest) to resolve the numeric targeting option IDs the forecast and the line item both need.
- 3Generate a reach forecast for a proposed budget, duration and targeting combination — returning a reach curve and on-target audience metrics before a single dollar is committed.
What this looks like as a goal you'd type
| Goal you'd type | What the agent does |
|---|---|
| "What reach can I expect from a $50,000 budget targeting the US over 4 weeks?" | Looks up plannable products for the US, resolves the geo targeting option, and runs a reach-forecast simulation for that budget and duration. |
| "Compare reach for $50k vs $75k on the same targeting." | Runs two forecast simulations and returns both reach curves side by side — a real budget-sensitivity comparison, not a guess. |
| "Find the targeting option ID for [named business chain]." | Uses the name-searchable targeting-options endpoint to resolve the exact ID needed for a line item's assigned targeting. |
| "Once we agree on the plan, create the line item." | Drafts the create — shows the exact entity body — and pauses for your approval before it writes to a live advertiser. |
Why forecast before you create
A line item created first and adjusted later means paying to learn what a forecast would have told you for free. Running the forecast as a distinct planning step — before any entity is created — turns "let's launch and see" into "let's compare three budget scenarios and pick one," without spending a dollar of media budget on the comparison.
Guardrails specific to DV360 writes
- Budgets and bids in DV360's API are expressed in micros of the advertiser's currency — the agent converts to and from major units so what you review matches what you'd see in the DV360 UI.
- Every mutate — creating or updating an insertion order, line item, or assigned targeting option — pauses for approval before it applies.
- Advertiser-level access is fenced: a request naming a different advertiser than the one your connection resolves to is rejected outright, not silently redirected.
The rest of what the DV360 agent does
Reach forecasting is one workflow among several — see the full DV360 platform page for reporting, plannable-inventory discovery and entity management, or the best AI agent for DV360 for how to evaluate this category of tool.
Frequently asked questions
- Can an AI agent forecast DV360 campaign reach before launch?
- Yes — by chaining DV360's own reach-forecast API: listing plannable products, resolving targeting option IDs by name, and generating a reach-forecast simulation for a proposed budget, duration and targeting combination, all from a plain-language planning goal.
- What's a plannable product in DV360?
- DV360's reach-forecast API works over a specific catalog of YouTube/video-centric reserve and auction line formats, each identified by a plannableProductCode. You retrieve the available codes for a geography before referencing them in a forecast.
- Does reach forecasting cost anything or use real budget?
- No — it's a simulation against DV360's forecasting API, not a live campaign. It answers the reach-vs-budget question before you commit any spend.
- How does the agent find a targeting option ID for a specific city or chain?
- Through DV360's name-searchable targeting-options endpoint, which covers geo regions, business chains and points of interest by search text — resolving a human-readable name to the numeric ID a line item's targeting requires.
- Is DV360 budget shown in micros or real currency?
- DV360's API represents budgets and costs in micros internally; the agent converts to and from the advertiser's major currency unit so what you review in plain language matches DV360's own UI.