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AdWords Shopping campaigns now available on YouTube [@SmartInsights alert]

Author's avatar By Alexander Clark 17 Nov, 2015
Essential Essential topic

Importance: [rating=4] For Ecommerce businesses / retailers

Recommended link: Adwords Shopping Campaigns available on YouTube

Originally announced in May 2015, Google have finally moved 'TrueView for Shopping' out of Beta and have also introduced Shopping Ads on Youtube, which is available to all online advertisers through AdWords. This is a great opportunity for retailers to gain awareness and clickthroughs beyond the Google Shopping ads that have proved so popular in Google Search.

This is supported by research about the new format showed that 57% of the 708 campaigns studied, saw an increase in consideration, with 24% seeing a lift in favorability, whilst 35% of the campaigns saw an increase in purchase intent.

What is TrueView for Shopping?

In short, it allows you to showcase your own products, which have been pulled from the Google Merchant Centre, onto your own videos. Simple as that.

It uses a card system with users clicking on the ad to purchase from a brand or retail site, within the actual video ad.
TrueView for Shopping

As shown below, Google have also integrated it across platforms, to work on Mobile Devices, Tablets and Desktops. Allowing you to capture the 50% of YouTube users who watch on Mobile.
Mobile TrueView for Shopping

The initial tests have been quite promising too, with Wayfair (as visible in the images above) have seen a threefold revenue increase per impression, compared to previous campaigns. Another retailer, Sephora, have also seen benefits of using TrueView for Shopping with a lift of +80% in consideration and 54% lift in ad recall.

What are Shopping Ads on Youtube?

These are similar to the TrueView for Shopping, however they allow Advertisers to show their ads on contextually relevant videos, beyond their own channel.

Again the ads appear on cards down the side after being prompted by the 'I' icon in the top right corner, pulling the information from the Google Merchant Centre.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how these are used with the ever growing number of Unboxing and Review videos.

Shopping Ads on Youtube

On a Final Note...

Google have introduced a new function, allowing advertisers to setup video campaigns based on objectives, in a similar way to Display Ads on AdWords. This comes after the TrueView campaigns were integrated into the core AdWords interface in September and "represents only the first first step towards a simpler, goal-oriented video ad experience".

Want to learn more on the latest in AdWords? Join Zoe O'Neill at our free Digital Marketing Priorities 2016 Online Summit on 2nd December 2015

Author's avatar

By Alexander Clark

A former member of the Smart Insights team, I’m always on the look out to collaborate with the finest minds in Digital Marketing. Currently working at Silverbean, I have a distinctive interest in all things outreach, content, strategy, and measurement. If you’d like to get in touch, you can do so through my LinkedIn or Twitter accounts. When I’m not planning new campaigns and content, I love playing the Bass Guitar and Drums (not necessarily at the same time) also racking up as many hours as possible on Football Manager and the Rugby pitch.

This blog post has been tagged with:

Google shopping campaignsYouTube TrueView video ads

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