Google has revealed that viewing habits of YouTube users are changing in three key ways.
In response to these new viewing trends, Google has recently rolled out more advertising solutions for marketers.
Here’s an overview of the changes in viewing habits and how Google Ads is adapting to them.
Self-Directed Discovery
Users are viewing more videos that they find on their own, either in their home or trending feeds.
Over the last three years, watch time from content users discover on the YouTube homepage has grown ten times.
This is a significant change from when the most common way to discover videos was through shared URLs.
In response, Google Ads introduced TrueView video discovery ads to the YouTube home feed. Marketers can place those ads with Masthead and Universal App campaigns.
Watching on TV Screens
More users are watching YouTube videos on regular TV screens, either through connected TVs or connected devices such as video game consoles and Chromecasts.
On average, users watch over 180 million hours of YouTube on TV screens every day.
In response, Google Ads introduced the TV screen device type in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. You can read more about that here.
Longer Viewing Sessions
User experience research indicates that viewers are growing increasingly sensitive to the frequency ad breaks.
Viewers tend to stick with a video longer when there are fewer interruptions, even if they end up seeing the same amount of advertising during a viewing session.
Google’s solution is to front-load videos with “ad pods,” which are two ads shown back-to-back before a view starts. You can read more about those here.
