Retailers, Google Shopping Ads Are Coming To YouTube

Google is launching an extension of product listing ads on YouTube with TrueView for Shopping ads on desktop and mobile.

Google is bringing its very successful product listing ad format to YouTube video ads. Thursday, the company announced the release of TrueView for Shopping.

The new YouTube ads are the result of an integration with Google Shopping’s technology and is built on the cards platform that YouTube introduced in March. Cards, which will eventually replace annotations, were extended to TrueView ads last month, giving advertisers the ability to promote their other videos and playlists. They display as an overlay alongside a video on desktop and tablet and below a video on smartphones. Now, with TrueView for Shopping, retailers can feature related product ads in these cards.

The product images and details are passed via the first integration of Google Merchant Center with YouTube. When users click on one of the product ads they are taken to the retailer’s website.

Targeting Includes Dynamic Remarketing

Once advertisers link their video campaign with a feed in Merchant Center and set up the cards, products are dynamically added to their in-stream videos based on standard TrueView targeting features including contextual and audience signals such as topic areas, geography and demographics.

YouTube for Shopping also extends the reach of Google’s dynamic remarketing option. Advertisers can use dynamic remarketing to show ads for relevant products to users that viewed them on advertisers’ websites.

Advertisers Choose Their Own CTAs

Advertisers also have some control over the details that display in the product ads, including the calls-to-action (CTAs). For example, in the Wayfair ads above, the online home goods retailer chose to use different CTAs in its desktop and mobile ads and included product prices in both, whereas beauty retailer Sephora (see below) opted not to show prices.

Product ratings and merchant promotions aren’t available in TrueView for Shopping with the launch, and a Google spokesperson said they have nothing to share at this time about when and if those features might port over to YouTube.

Early Test Showed Improved Conversion And Branding Metrics

Wayfair and Sephora were among the brands that participated in preliminary tests. Wayfair said revenue per impression tripled compared to previous campaigns. Sephora claims it saw an average view time of nearly two minutes, and 80 percent lift in consideration and 54 percent lift in ad recall when TrueView product ads were activated..

Advertisers that have a Google account rep can contact them to start running TrueView for Shopping ads today. Those without will have to wait. Google says TrueView for Shopping will be available in the front end interface of AdWords in the coming months.

The new integration plays to Google’s recent research stat that product review video views on YouTube jumped 50 percent year-over-year. The company says there are now over one million channels focused specifically on product reviews.