Google Shopping Ads on YouTube: The Impact of TrueView on Retailers
Google Shopping Ads in YouTube: TrueView
Following the announcement to launch TrueView, Google’s Shopping ad feature in YouTube videos, industry experts are encouraging retailers to take advantage of the latest and capitalize on an opportunity to get their products in front of nearly 1 billion YouTube users.
“TrueView for shopping allows you to showcase product details and images – along with the ability to click to purchase from a brand or retail site – all within your video ad. It’s available for TrueView in-stream video ads on YouTube. And since we know that 50% of views on YouTube come from mobile devices, we’ve made sure that it works seamlessly across mobile phones, desktops, and tablets,” according to Google’s announcement.
In March, YouTube introduced a program called Cards – which gave retailers an opportunity to add interactive cards to their videos with a CTA, additional branding message and more. Google Shopping ads in YouTube are an element of that program and can be managed in AdWords True View Campaigns.
As of now, advertisers only need to connect their campaign with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products to their in-stream videos.
How will Google Shopping Ads in YouTube (TrueView) Impact Retailers?
“Anytime you have that large of an audience you have the ability to get in front of a lot of new people,” Jeff Coleman, Director, Account Management at CPC Strategy said. “The biggest challenge early on for Google is to figure out what ads to show and to whom.”
“They are going to be using customer demographic data, which is already something they have been collecting a lot of. Google has been using the dynamic remarketing program to service shopping ads to customers based on graphic data and they’ve already been testing on other sites in the network not just not on YouTube.”
Advantages to Google Shopping Ads in YouTube (TrueView):
“By not starting completely from scratch – this program is going to give retailers the ability to reach millions of people in an area. Previous, unless they could create quality video ads, this wasn’t possible. Now all you have to have is a feed,” Coleman said.
“Its an easy win and requires no extra work other than just creating the campaign. There’s no investment, retailers don’t have to produce video or codes. Everyone should be doing this.”
Additional analysis of the program includes:
Ad Format – Retailers will have some flexibility over format including what CTA to display (“Click To Shop” vs. “Shop Now”, etc.) as well as whether or not to display prices in the ads.
Targeting – GDR Audiences can be included in these campaigns, so retailers can use these as Remarketing campaigns if they want. They can also use them to reach new customers, in which YouTube / Google will use their own demographic info about the viewer to try to determine the best ad to show.
According to Coleman one of the risks of the program is that although retailers are reaching a lot of people – these YouTube users are not necessarily searching and ready to buy which could lead to lower conversion rate.
“Remember to budget accordingly but yes, this will give retailers access to more visitors and potential views.”
How to Set Up Google Shopping Ads in YouTube (TrueView):
Integration is fairly simple for retailers. To enable Shopping ads on YouTube, retailers need to set up a TrueView campaign within AdWords & link their Google Merchant Center account to that campaign. YouTube will handle the rest of the process.
“Right now it’s still not officially rolled out. Retailers will need a Google representative to get you into the beta but anyone with Google should be requesting to get in this right away,” Coleman said.
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