Acknowledging that a growing percentage of YouTube viewing is now done on the living-room TV set, the Google-owned video platform announced several new tweaks to its advanced ad products to account for this new consumption habit.
As outlined in a weekend blog post by Debbie Weinstein, managing director of YouTube/video global solutions, the Google-owned video company will add TV viewing to AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager, which monetize viewing on PCs, smartphones and tablets.
Starting with the coming broadcast TV season in the fall, advertisers will be able to access full-length TV inventory in Google Preferred via YouTube TV.
“Content from some cable networks in the U.S. will be part of Google Preferred lineups so that brands can continue to engage their audience across all platforms,” Weinstein explained. “This means advertisers will be able to get both the most popular YouTube content and traditional TV content in a single campaign—plus, we’ll dynamically insert these ads, giving advertisers the ability to show relevant ads to the right audiences, rather than just showing everyone the same ad as they might on traditional TV.”
The advanced ad tweak comes as YouTube has signed major integration deals with pay TV operators including Comcast, which embed the streaming service natively into pay TV video systems.
YouTube said TV screens are now its fastest growing consumption platform, accounting for 150 million hours of viewing per day.
“We’re amidst the second major shift in how people watch video on YouTube,” Weinstein said. “In the past few years, we witnessed mobile viewership exceed desktop, marking the first major shift in how people interacted with YouTube. Now, in 2018, viewers are returning to that original, purpose-built device for video viewing—the television set."