Google has announced that they will be taking shopping ads on YouTube a step further by introducing Shopping ads for YouTube. For these ads, they will be appearing on other videos, and not just those of the retailer or brand advertising.
This follows on TrueView for Shopping ads, which was launched back in May, which lets brands and retailers to run ad cards featuring products on their own videos. The Shopping ads for YouTube will appear on other product-focused videos on the site, such as unboxings. Unboxing videos have proven to be quite popular, as Google says that these videos have had 57 percent more views in 2014 than in 2013. Other videos where Shopping ads for YouTube will appear on will include hauls, product reviews, and how-tos.
So how will the ads work?
Just like with TrueVuew Shopping ads and other TrueView Cards, the user will be able to see a little “i” icon on the top right of a video. If the user clicks on the icon, the Shopping ad will appear as an overlay on the video.
Shopping ads on YouTube will be pulling from an existing Merchant Center feed.Just like with other ads, they will enter a similar auction process to shopping ads on search, and the selection is also based on a variety of contextual signals. As an example, if the video a user is going to watch is about a camera product review, then the ad will more likely be about cameras.
Advertisers will pay when users click on one of the ad cards, and users will be taken to the landing page on the advertiser’s site that is designated in the product feed.
Regarding the timing of the roll out for Shopping ads on YouTube, it isn’t clear as to when this will broadly available. Will it be out for the holidays? Who knows. Google says that the expansion will be rolling out “in the coming months.”