What you need to know
- Google is now gradually rolling out video ads on YouTube Shorts globally.
- Users will also start seeing “highly visual shopping ads” in Google Search later this year, though only in the United States.
- Soon, advertisers will be able to use augmented reality to display 3D models of their products in Search.
Since last year, Google has been testing ads on YouTube Shorts (opens in new tab) in an effort to broaden the range of audiences advertisers can reach through its online platform. At its Marketing Live event, the search giant announced that video ads will now gradually appear on YouTube’s TikTok clone.
In a blog post (opens in new tab), Google Ads vice president and general manager Jerry Dischler stated that advertisers will be able to connect their product feed to their campaigns and make their video ads on Shorts “more shoppable.”
Beginning Tuesday, video action campaigns and app campaigns automatically scale to YouTube Shorts. The video ads are identified by a yellow badge. At the bottom, there’s a brief description, the advertiser’s name, and a “Shop Now” button. There’s also a carousel of products that you can browse through.
Google recognizes the massive number of daily views generated by Shorts, which now averages more than 30 billion views per day, and the new ad experience aims to help brands reach people who are addicted to this short-form content.
Of course, shoppable video ads already exist in Shorts’ rival, TikTok, where you can view sponsored content showing up in between videos. These ads also include direct product links that you can access within the app rather than switching to a separate web browser.
“This is an exciting milestone for advertisers, and a key step on our road to developing a long-term YouTube Shorts monetization solution for our creators, which we’ll share more about soon,” said Dischler.
As for ads on Google Search, Dischler noted that the company sees more than one billion shopping activities happen on that platform as well as YouTube. That is why Google is rolling out “new, highly visual Shopping ads” later this year in the U.S. The new ad format will display images that you can swipe through, complete with product details such as the price and customer ratings.
In addition to these new ad experiences on Search and Shorts, the Mountain View-based tech giant plans to enable customers to see products in their spaces with augmented reality-powered 3D models.
To help users take control of their privacy and online experience, the company intends to roll out My Ad Center later this year. The service will allow them to choose what types of ads appear across YouTube, Search, and the Discover feed.
