Today Google announced an integration between its product listing ads and YouTube videos in a feature its calling TrueView for shopping.
TrueView for shopping allows marketers to take full control over the ads that appear alongside their videos, right down to the product images, details, and calls to action.
Whether you’re making a video review of a product, an instructional video on how to use a product, or perhaps a top 10 list of the best items in a product category — you can now show the right ads at the right time, encouraging viewers to click to buy the product right then and there.
In addition, you will also be able to narrow down the exact moment your video converted the viewer into a customer. Was it the call to action at the end that converted them? Was it a featured you showed in the middle of the video? Or did they make up their mind as soon as they started watching the video? With TrueView for shopping now you’ll pinpoint when your ad got the click and subsequent sale.
“To connect the dots between the moment a person watches a video and the moment they decide to make a purchase, today we’re introducing a new feature called TrueView for shopping that makes it easy for viewers to get more information on your products and click to buy.”
According to Google, 50% of YouTube views come from mobile devices, so you can rest assured these new ad units work seamlessly across all devices.
With TrueView for shopping marketers can scale the process of matching up specific product listing ads with specific videos, thanks to the integration of the Google Merchant Center into video ads.
To take advantage of TrueView for shopping, marketers just have to connect their campaign with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products to their in-stream videos. Ads are customized for each viewer using signals like location and demographic info.
TrueView for shopping will be rolled out into Google’s buying front end in the next few months, though those working directly with a Google account manager can get started right away.
