You can now click to shop from YouTube ads

By Andre Revilla May 21, 2015

google ad controls — guteksk7/Shutterstock

YouTube’s nearly 1 billion active monthly users apparently aren’t enough to turn a profit for the company that reported $4 billion in revenue last year and $3 billion the year before. Google is launching shoppable ads on YouTube that will allow users to purchase products they see advertised straight from the pre-roll advertising on their favorite videos.

The new feature is called ‘True View’ and will enable clickable banners embedded in ads so that consumers may click to be taken to the products site. There will also be a list running underneath the ad listing the products a consumer is seeing, and links to buy them. The goal seems to be a more engaging advertising experience. If you’re watching a video for how to build a treehouse, you may see an add for a power tool, and along with a clickable button a few seconds in to buy that power tool. As it currently stands, users can skip ads that play before videos, which means YouTube won’t receive payment for that ad. This offers a chance to reel more people in.

Google

Google’s announcement blog post reads:

“TrueView for shopping enables advertisers to scale the manual process of connecting individual products with individual videos. Thanks to the first-ever integration of the Google Merchant Center into video ads, advertisers need only connect their campaign with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products to their in-stream videos, customized for each user through contextual and audience signals like geography and demographic info.”

According to the blog post, companies like beauty supplier Sephora have already had success with the new feature, which worked “to drive +80 percent lift in consideration and +54 percent lift in ad recall, and an average view time of nearly two minutes.” Google has also said that since it knows “that 50 percent of views on YouTube come from mobile devices,” TrueView will be seamlessly integrated across mobile YouTube platforms as well.

Google has stressed that these purchases will not be taking place natively within YouTube, but will instead directed users outbound to the products own websites.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Andre Revilla is an entrepreneur and writer from Austin, TX that has been working in and covering the consumer tech space for…

Entertainment

Bills vs Steelers live stream: Can you watch the game for free?

A quarterback runs and throw the ball in an NFL game.

Both just four wins away from securing the ultimate NFL prize, the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers meet in just an hour in an AFC Wild Card showdown. The game starts at 3:30 PM ET today, Monday, January 14, after yesterday's original 1 PM start was rescheduled due to bad weather, and will be televised nationally on CBS, but if you don't have cable or can't get to a TV, there are several ways you can watch a live stream of the game, including a handful of free options. Here's a guide on everything you need to know to watch the Bills vs Steelers online in the US.
The Best Way to Watch Bills vs Steelers

Fubo is going to give you exactly what you need here. Not only does it include your local CBS channel in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, but it has it available live in more markets than any other streaming service. Additionally, Fubo's "Pro" plan includes 180-plus total channels for plenty of other sports and entertainment, 1,000 hours of cloud DVR in case you want to record and watch the game later, and the ability to stream simultaneously on 10 different screens at home. And perhaps most importantly, it comes with a free seven-day trial so you can watch the Bills vs Steelers and the rest of the NFL playoff games this weekend at no cost.

Entertainment

10 most popular MrBeast YouTube videos, ranked by views

A man points to others in a MrBeast YouTube video.

MrBeast has taken the Internet by storm. Born James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, he’s a 25-year-old YouTube streamer and philanthropist who creates videos with elaborate challenges and big monetary giveaways. His willingness to do ridiculous things and his generous heart are what have struck a chord with viewers.

Donaldson is now the most subscribed-to person on YouTube, with 222 million subscribers (at the time of this writing). He’s also the second-most subscribed YouTube channel overall, behind only the T-Series music channel from India. He became the first person to surpass the children’s educational program CoComelon on the list.

Entertainment

Best free Christmas movies on YouTube in 2023

die hard movie why is it a christmas classic reginald veljohnson and bruce willis in

In the years before basic cable, decades before the streaming age, Christmas movies were an annual tradition on the broadcast networks. Every year, families or even solo holiday enthusiasts could take comfort in the fact that they would be able to watch some of their favorite Christmas films for free -- assuming they were home in time to watch them. In the present, free movies are becoming scarce among the streamers. But YouTube is filling that void with a plethora of free Christmas movies that you can watch at any time.

Since the holiday season is upon us, we've updated our list of the best free Christmas movies that you can find on YouTube in 2023. The selection may change between now and 2024, but like Santa, we'll be back at least once a year to make sure that everything is still here, while adding even more Christmas cheer from one of the world's biggest streaming platforms.