YouTube Shopping Ads To Expand Beyond Merchants’ Own Videos

Google is expanding shopping ads on YouTube beyond merchants’ own videos.

Taking shopping ads on YouTube a step further, Google has announced Shopping ads for YouTube will appear on other videos, not just those of the retailer or brand advertising.

This follows on TrueView for Shopping ads, launched in May, which enables brands and retailers to run ad cards featuring products on their own videos. Shopping ads for YouTube will appear on other product-focused videos on the site, such as unboxings (those popular videos of people opening products, which Google said had 57 percent more views in 2014 than in 2013), hauls (videos in which people show off and talk about recent purchases), product reviews and how-tos.

How The Ads Work

As with TrueView Shopping ads and other TrueView Cards, users will see the “i” icon at the top right of a video. Clicking on the icon brings up the Shopping ads overlaid on the video.

Just like product listing ads in search, shopping ads on YouTube pull from an existing Merchant Center feed. Ads enter a similar auction process to shopping ads on search, and selection is also based on a variety of contextual signals; in the screenshot above, two camera ads are served on a camera product review video.

Advertisers pay when users click on one of the ad cards. Clicks take users to the landing page on the advertiser’s site that is designated in the product feed.

Roll-Out Timing

As for timing, it’s unclear if this will be broadly available for the holidays. Google says the expansion will roll out “in the coming months.”

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.