YouTube is now testing a new way for advertisers to purchase masthead ads. On Tuesday, the company said that it is experimenting with allowing advertisers to purchase the ads displayed at the top of its home feed through a cost per thousand (CPM) buying model, rather than the standard cost per day by country purchasing terms.
YouTube masthead ads are ads that run at the top of its home feed on mobile and desktop. These sorts of ads are highly coveted real estate for marketers. In addition to getting the flexibility of a CPM model, advertisers will have the ability to customize the audiences. Ad placements will remain as a “reserved buy” though a Google ads rep. According to YouTube, the ads will come with impression guarantees across campaign flights that can run anywhere between one day and seven.
TurboTax VP of Marketing Cathleen Ryan said YouTube’s masthead ads were a key component of the brands’ Super Bowl strategy this year.
“The Masthead is a great way to introduce the new way of doing taxes with TurboTax Live,” said Ryan, “It’s very timely and relevant to be front and center on YouTube, the biggest online video platform, on the day after the Super Bowl.”
YouTube is giving advertisers the ability to preview what their masthead ad would look like on its “YouTube Masthead Preview” page.
A Google-Ipsos lab experiment in March 2018 that tested 30 ads among 3,000 U.S. residents age 18 to 64-years-old found masthead ads delivered an average lift of 92 percent for ad recall, and an average 46 percent lift for purchase intent.
Based on the internal global data at YouTube, watch-time for content discovered on the site’s home feed has grown ten-fold during the last three years.
