Tag: YouTube

How YouTube Is Getting Much Better For Selling Products

YouTube is about to get tremendously better for ecommerce thanks to new shopping ads the company announced at IAB Mixx, which will launch this fall. The offering builds on other shopping-related features the company has announced in recent months, but opens up a great deal more opportunity for businesses to get their products in front of video viewers all over the enormously popular video site/app.

Do you see YouTube as a way to help you increase your sales? Do you think new features will help? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Cards For Conversions

Earlier this year, YouTube launched Cards, enabling businesses to share product information directly in their own videos. This was an evolution of YouTube’s annotations feature aimed at helping businesses get some conversions. Video creators can use cards to tell viewers about other videos, merchandise, playlists, websites, etc.

They can be displayed anytime throughout the video, and they work on both desktop and mobile devices. When a video has a card, it shows a “teaser,” at the designated time for a few seconds, and the card pops out when it’s clicked. Throughout the rest of the video, viewers see an icon appear when they hover over the player (desktop) or when the player controls are showing (mobile). It can be clicked at anytime to display the card.

You can see a video with the merchandise card in action here:

The cards are non-intrusive, so they shouldn’t be too annoying to users. If you click on the one in the video above, you can see how the feature can lead to conversions from people who were interested enough to watch the video in the first place. When clicked, it leads to a landing page that opens in a new tab while the video pauses.

TrueView for Shopping

Cards were a great step in the right direction for businesses looking to use videos to help sell their products, but a couple months later, Google took things a step further, extending its popular product listing ads (PLAs) to YouTube with TrueView for Shopping. This is an ad format that lets businesses run product ads with related videos.

The company had already been encouraging marketers to create more “how to” videos, and these are the type of videos Google seems to have created TrueView for Shopping ads for – those that show consumers how to do things that they may need to buy a specific product for.

In May, Google released a report saying that how-to searches had seen 70% growth year-over-year with over a hundred million hours of this content having already been watched in North America in 2015. Such searches, it said, were on the rise across all age groups, but millennials were especially likely to search YouTube for how-to videos with 67% of them saying they can find a YouTube video to match anything they want to learn.

“Whether it’s watching a product review or learning how to bake a soufflé, we look to video in countless moments throughout the day to help us get things done,” Google said when it announced TrueView for Shopping. “We call these micro-moments – when we reflexively turn to our devices to learn more, make a decision, or purchase a product.”

The company went on to say that it introduced the feature to connect the dots between the moment a person watches a video and the moment they decide to make a purchase.

The ads are integrated with Google Merchant Center, so you can connect campaigns with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products and customize ads through contextual and audience signals such as geography and demographic information.

New Shopping Ads For YouTube

Now, Google is taking things even further with new Shopping ads for YouTube, which will let advertisers show a click-to-buy ad within partner videos. It’s kind of a cross between the aforementioned cards and TrueView for Shopping features. It’s like cards because they appear in the actual videos, but it’s like TrueView for Shopping in that they will appear on videos beyond your own. Like Shopping ads on Google, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on the ad.

“We’ve kept the format similar to Cards and TrueView for shopping, so users can easily recognize and click on the ‘i’ icon at the top right of a video to view the Shopping ads,” explains Diya Jolly, Director, Video Ads Product Management. “Shopping ads on YouTube are built off of your existing product feed in Merchant Center. They will enter an auction similar to Shopping ads on Google search and are selected based on a variety of contextual signals.”

“Shopping ads on YouTube provide an entirely new revenue stream for creators, providing another way to monetize product-focused videos,” adds Jolly. “They also provide a more interactive experience for viewers, letting them shop directly from videos.”

It’s unclear exactly when you’ll be able to start using the new shopping ads, but Google says it will roll the feature out in the coming months.

More New Ad capabilities for YouTube

In addition to all of this, Google made a few other ad-related announcements for YouTube. For one, they have a new TrueView for app promotion format that reaches users as they’re exploring content on YouTube.

These will appear in the recently launched YouTube Gaming app in addition to regular YouTube. The company says it will bring the ability to bid by cost per install in the coming months.

The company also announced that its Brand Lift solution will now take YouTube searches into account so businesses will be able to see if their ads are driving searches for organic video content related to their brand.

The other day, Google announced a new ad targeting product called Customer Match, which lets advertisers target people whose email addresses they already have. This works across YouTube in addition to Google Search and Gmail.

Do you expect to take advantage of YouTube’s new ecommerce-geared features? Discuss.

Images via Google

September 30, 2015
YouTube Could Launch $10 Ad-Free Version in Late October

We’ve known YouTube is working on a subscription service that will allow users to pay a monthly fee to ditch all the ads, but the company has never explicitly laid out a date for said service.

Now, thanks to a recent email sent to content creators, we might see the option pop up as early as late October.

Re/code has the latter, which is basically a warning to creators that they must accept updated terms or risk their video “no longer being available for public display or monetization in the United States.

Here’s the full email:

For years, YouTube’s fans have been telling us they want more — more choice when watching their favorite content, more ways to support their favorite creators and, above all, the option to watch their favorite videos uninterrupted.

To give fans more choice we will be launching a new ads-free version of YouTube, available to fans for a monthly fee. This service will create a new source of revenue over time that supplements your advertising revenue. That’s why an overwhelming majority of our partners — representing over 95% of YouTube watchtime — have asked for and signed up for this service.

As you heard in our previous emails, we want to ensure that fans who choose to pay for an ads-free experience can watch all the same videos that are available on the ads-supported experience. That’s why we’re asking you to update your agreement to reflect the updated terms for the ads-free service.

To accept, simply log into YouTube.com as “pakafka” from a desktop or laptop and follow the prompts by October 22nd.

If you haven’t signed by that date, your videos will no longer be available for public display or monetization in the United States. That outcome would be a loss for YouTube, a loss for the thriving presence you’ve built on the platform, and above all, a loss for your fans. We remain committed to working with you, as we always have. And of course, at any time, you can accept the updated terms which will make your videos public and monetizable again. Common FAQs can be found here.

We believe these new terms will greatly strengthen our partnership for the future. We went through a similar process three years ago when we began distributing and monetizing your content on mobile devices. Today, mobile represents over half of all watchtime and mobile revenue is up 2x in just the last year. Just as with mobile, we’re confident this latest update will excite your fans and generate a previously untapped, additional source of revenue for you.

If you have questions or encounter technical difficulties, we’re here to help: reach out to us for support here.

The YouTube Team

Re/code also suggest that the $10-per-month ad-free version will also include a subscription to YouTube Music Key, the company’s music streaming platform that’s been in beta since last November.

Will people pay $10 a month to get rid of ads on YouTube? At this point, YouTube ads are just one of life’s certainties, like death and taxes. We know that in order to watch free videos, we’re going to have to sit through a 15 or 30-second ad (please let it be skippable, please).

It may be a hard sell, getting people to pay for something that’s been free since its inception.

Image via jm3, Flickr Creative Commons

September 25, 2015
Today In Google Charging Advertisers For Bogus Ads News…

AdWords advertisers have won the ability to sue Google over ads placed on error pages as the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco disagreed with a prior ruling from a lower court judge, which rejected their request for class action status.

According to the advertisers, the search giant billed them for ads that appeared on error pages and parked domains between July 2994 and March 2008. Bloomberg Business reports:

Monday’s appeals court ruling returns the case to a trial judge for further consideration. The appellate panel also sided with the advertisers related to a method for determining damages in the case…U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila in San Jose, California, denied class certification in January 2012, partly because it would be difficult to determine which advertisers had been hurt by the placement of their ads. Davila also found that some clicks on ads on those pages could have resulted in sales for the advertisers, according to Monday’s decision.

Google is not commenting on the matter.

Separately, in somewhat related news, there’s a new study out that reportedly shows that the company has been charging YouTube advertisers even when it thinks ads were viewed by robots. Google has commented on that. Business Insider shares this statement from the company:

We’re contacting the researchers to discuss their findings further. We take invalid traffic very seriously and have invested significantly in the technology and team that keep this out of our systems. The vast majority of invalid traffic is filtered from our systems before advertisers are ever charged.

It will be very interesting to see how both of these narratives progress.

Image via Google

September 22, 2015
Klout Score Now Includes YouTube Views, Likes, Shares

One would have thought that by now, Klout would have included YouTube data. People do after all make hiring decisions based on Klout score (allegedly), and YouTube has been the biggest social video site on the Internet for years. However, one would have been wrong. That is until today.

Lithium Technologies, which acquired Klout last year, announced today that the Klout Score algorithm now incorporates YouTube data, including views, shares, likes, and dislikes for content a user or brand has created and posted.

“This further extends Klout’s lead in measuring online influence for individuals and brands—and brings the total number of networks incorporated into the Klout Score to nine,” the company says in an announcement. “Score changes will manifest over the next week as YouTube activity is factored in.”

“If social media is going to continue to play a meaningful part in consumers’ lives, they need a method of cutting through the ever-increasing noise to reach the right content and the right people,” said Sunil Rajasekar, CTO of Lithium Technologies. “This is the fundamental challenge our data science team is working to solve, and with the addition of YouTube to the Klout score we can now offer consumers even more accurate and well-rounded user profiles, and a more comprehensive map of the social web. Combined with topic expertise which we debuted in May (link here), the YouTube addition makes the Klout Score more robust and meaningful than ever.”

Lithium says that over 700 million social profiles are contained within the Klout system. It evaluates over 400 signals from nine networks.

Klout scores will change based on the YouTube data over the course of the next week.

Image via YouTube

September 15, 2015
Facebook Reportedly Building Standalone Video App

While not in any way surprising, it looks as though Facebook is poised to fire another shot at YouTube with which it has been increasingly competing for video-viewing eyeballs and advertisers who want to spend money reaching them.

As you may know, both Facebook and YouTube have recently begun supporting 360-degree videos. Facebook is poised to take its offering a step further by doing so in a standalone app. A report from the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, says:

As conceived, the app would work on many platforms including Apple Inc.’s devices and those using Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Development of the app is in early stages and it is unclear when or if the app will launch, said the people, who declined to be named discussing the confidential project.

The move should result in the two companies competing more heavily both in the virtual reality space (where Facebook has Oculus and Google has Cardboard), but also more directly in the video space. A standalone video app from Facebook could essentially take YouTube on in video viewing extending far past the virtual reality niche.

Facebook is already gaining ground on Google, and YouTube in particular, when it comes to reach of mobile apps. Messenger, another standalone Facebook app, recently surpassed YouTube in that department.

Facebook says it currently sees 4 billion video views daily. The company isn’t commenting on plans for a standalone video app.

Image via Facebook

September 14, 2015
Facebook Says It’s Trying to Fix Its Stolen Video Problem

You always hear about Facebook catching up to, and even surpassing YouTube as a destination for video. And it’s no joke – Facebook is a video powerhouse.

But you may or may not have heard about some of the criticisms of Facebook concerning its meteoric rise in video content – mainly, that the majority of the video content that gets posted and shared all over Facebook is stolen. Pirated, copied, or repurposed from other sites (like YouTube). And content creators across the web are pissed about it.

Facebook currently uses tech called Audible Magic, which “uses audio fingerprinting technology to help identify and prevent unauthorized videos from making their way onto the platform.” Of course, Facebook also has a content reporting system that lets people flag content that violates IP.

But it hasn’t been nearly good enough, according to many. Now, Facebook says it’s doing something about it.

“We’ve heard from some of our content partners that third parties too frequently misuse their content on Facebook. For instance, publishers have told us that their videos are sometimes uploaded directly to Facebook without their permission. This practice has been called “freebooting,” and it’s not fair to those who work hard to create amazing videos. We want creators to get credit for the videos that they own. To address this, we have been exploring ways to enhance our rights management tools to better empower creators to control how their videos are shared on Facebook,” says the company.

According to Facebook, it’s working to improve the Audible Magic system as well as building new video matching technology.

“We’re working with Audible Magic to enhance the way that system works with Facebook, including improving the intake of content intended to be blocked from our platform. And we’re making improvements to our existing procedures so that infringing content can be reported and removed more efficiently, and to keep repeat infringers off our service,” says Facebook.

“We have been building new video matching technology that will be available to a subset of creators. This technology is tailored to our platform, and will allow these creators to identify matches of their videos on Facebook across Pages, profiles, groups, and geographies. Our matching tool will evaluate millions of video uploads quickly and accurately, and when matches are surfaced, publishers will be able to report them to us for removal.”

Facebook says it’ll soon begin a beta test with “small group of partners.” Facebook is looking for something that more closely resembles YouTube’s content ID system. Although that is far from perfect, it works better than Facebook’s.

August 27, 2015
YouTube Gaming Is Now Live On Web, Android & iOS

Back in June, Google announced YouTube Gaming, saying it would launch in the summer. It was described as a whole new app and website for gaming, and appeared to be a competitor to Twitch, which Google previously tried to buy (it’s now owned by Amazon).

On Wednesday, Google announced that it’s now available. Have a look:

“YouTube Gaming is your go-to destination for anything and everything gaming because it automatically pulls in all gaming-related videos and live streams from YouTube,” explains engineering manager Frank Petterson. “Viewers get personalized gaming recommendations based on the games and channels they collect. With over 25,000 game pages and even more gaming channels, it’s never been easier to connect with your gaming community.”

They’ve also made it easier to create a live stream, which you can find at YouTube.com/stream.

“Together, we all make gaming better. Our peers make us better gamers, and games are made better by the communities that surround them,” Petterson says.

The English-language version of the YouTube Gaming site us available in any country where YouTube is available. You can also grab the app from the App Store or Google Play (if it’s not there right now, it will be soon).

Image via YouTube

August 26, 2015
YouTube’s Newest Creative Studio Is Coming to Mumbai

Google has announced the location of its newest YouTube Space – Mumbai, India. It’s the second such creative space in Asia (Tokyo).

YouTube Spaces, a project first launched in 2012, provides places “where creators can collaborate, innovate and experiment with new content for audiences around the world to watch and love.”

These spaces help foster YouTube videomakers creativity via workshops, access to high-end equipment, and studio space.

YouTube has partnered with Mumbai’s Whistling Woods International film school for the new space.

“India is seeing an emergence of a new generation of YouTube creators who are capturing the color, music, humour, and drama of India more creatively than ever before. In fact, Indian creators are now amongst the top contributors in Asia when it comes to driving time spent on YouTube watching videos. Recently, we also celebrated milestones for two of our Indian creators AIB and TVF, who reached over 1 million fans within two years on the platform. To support this incredible community of YouTube creators and foster the next generation of talent, YouTube has partnered with one of Asia’s largest and most renowned film schools, Whistling Woods International, to set up a new YouTube Space in Mumbai,” says David Macdonald, Head of YouTube Spaces, Asia Pacific.

YouTube has similar Spaces in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo, and Berlin. Google says YouTube creators have visited those spaces over 100,000 times.

August 19, 2015
YouTube Music Videos In the UK Are Getting Slapped with Age Ratings

Some in the UK feel that YouTube videos, like movies and other forms of art/media, need age ratings.

According to The Guardian, YouTube and Vevo have collaborated with two organizations – the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) – to make sure new music videos made in the UK come with age ratings.

“Keeping children safe as they experience and enjoy all the benefits the internet has to offer is a key priority for this government’s one-nation approach to help families across Britain,” said minister for internet safety and security Joanna Shields. “We will continue to work with industry to develop ways to help parents to better protect children online from inappropriate music videos with explicit adult or violent content.”

All new videos from major record labels will be submitted to the BBFC to be rated. Soon, the ratings pilot will be tried with independent labels as well.

The YouTube video ratings system has been tested in the UK since last fall, and 132 new videos have been rated in all. 56 have been given a 12+ rating, 53 a 15+ rating, and just one has been hit with an 18+ rating.

This one:

Image via Dizzie Rascal, YouTube

August 18, 2015
YouTube Finally Ditches the 301+ View Count

The 301+ tyranny is over.

YouTube has announced that it’s doing away with the dastardly practice of assigning the “301+” view count on popular new videos.

As YouTube explains in the above image, the 301+ placeholder count was instituted with good intentions. When a popular video was acquiring views at a rapid rate, YouTube paused everything at 301 while it investigated the source of the views.

Basically, YouTube froze the counts until it could confirm the views were real, and not coming from bots. Not including spam bot views in the view count is important.

But 301+ sure is annoying.

Was annoying. YouTube says those days are over.

“Now, we count views we’re confident came from real people as they’re recorded, and keep reviewing the rest.”

So view counts will now be up-to-date at all times – mostly. YouTube will review views of which the destination is unclear, and ass them later if they;re found to be legit.

A better way to count views to go with a sleek new player.

August 5, 2015
Google Is Stripping Google+ from Its Services – First Up, YouTube

A few years ago, Google went all in with Google+. Google+ is Google, remember? In an effort to unify all Google products under a common banner, Google tied everything to Google+ – including YouTube. This made a lot of people very angry and was widely regarded as a bad move.

Google+, as we all know, didn’t really turn out how Google envisioned. Whether you want to call Google+ dead, or dying, or niche, or whatever – it doesn’t really matter. Google knows it’s dead. Today, Google made another move to extricate Google+ from its actually popular products – of which there are many.

Google has announced that it is unlinking Google+ and YouTube, and will continue to unlink Google+ from other services in the coming months.

“When we launched Google+, we set out to help people discover, share and connect across Google like they do in real life. While we got certain things right, we made a few choices that, in hindsight, we’ve needed to rethink. So over the next few months, we’re going to be making some important changes.” says Google+ head Bradley Horowitz.

“We’ll also move some features that aren’t essential to an interest-based social experience out of Google+. For example, many elements of Google+ Photos have been moved into the new Google Photos app, and we’re well underway putting location sharing into Hangouts and other apps, where it really belongs. We think changes like these will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google+.”

First up is YouTube.

“In the coming weeks, YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel,” says the YouTube team.

All you’ll need is a regular old Google account (not a public Google+ profile), just like the old days.

Google will eventually give users an easy way to remove their Google+ profiles from YouTube.

“If you’re happy with everything as it is now, then just keep on keepin’ on. If you want to remove your Google+ profile, you’ll be able to do this in the coming months, but do not do it now or you’ll delete your YouTube channel,” says Google.

As Google said when it announced a kill date for Google+ photos last week, Google+ has shifted its focus to connecting people with shared interests.

“Google+ is quickly becoming a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them. In line with that focus, we’re continuing to add new features like Google+ Collections, where you can share and enjoy posts organized by the topics you care about,” says Horowitz.

That sound you hear is a chorus of YouTube users, rejoicing.

July 27, 2015
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Battle For Video Creators

It’s hardly news that the video and advertising battle between Facebook and YouTube is heating up, and this has never been more evident than it was on VidCon last week, when both companies as well as other competitors showed off their offerings and tried to woo some of the Internet’s big video stars.

For the past decade, YouTube has been THE place to make a name for yourself with online video, but the field is much more crowded now, and this year, Facebook has been making a big push to become the main alternative to YouTube if not the first choice for creators and advertisers.

Last week, Facebook gave Pages new video visibility and management tools, which automatically put it more in line with how YouTube lets people manage and share their videos. You can now keep videos private or have them viewable only by a link.

For advertisers, the company launched a new “spotlight” showcase aimed at highlighting some of the best in Facebook video ads so others can learn about what makes an effective one.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the increased competition from VidCon, and says pressure from Facebook is forcing YouTube to “forge better relationships with popular creators, finding them opportunities for growth and in some cases paying the more.”

In other words, video creators stand to benefit greatly from increased competition among platforms. Twitter, by the way, is taking video more seriously than ever as well.

Marketing Land reports on comments from Twitter’s Baljeet Singh from VidCon:

Twitter is hoping to capture some of that youthful enthusiasm, and Singh said his company is well positioned to do that. For one thing he said, Twitter’s mobile focus means that more than 90% of video views on the network come from mobile devices. For another, he said, Twitter is a superior place for the interaction between creators and their fans.

“It’s one of the few places that you can really and truly engage with your audience, build up your audience, interact with your audience, reply back quickly and have a real conversation,” said Singh, who left YouTube for his position at Twitter last year. “And fans alike think of it as a way to directly connect with those creators.”

Twitter said in May that 82% of users watch video content on Twitter, and that 90% of video views happen on mobile devices.

YouTube launched a big redesign of its mobile experience, starting with Android, and coming soon to mobile web and iOS. It aims to make it easier for users to find and create videos. It utilizes a new tabbed navigation with sections for Home, Subscriptions, and Account.

The journal cites numbers from investment bank Luma Parnters indicating that annual ad spend on video is growing 34% per year, and is due to hit $10 billion next year.

Image via YouTube

July 27, 2015
YouTube on Android Is Making Crappy Vertical Videos More Bearable

Do you watch or upload a lot of videos on YouTube? Are you sickened by what you see on a daily basis? Do you ever get so frustrated with video orientation that you often hurl your phone across the room in a blinding rage?

Vertical Video Syndrome (VVS) is a condition that affects one in every two people. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, the inability to rotate objects and lack of empathy for the human race. It’s contagious, and there are no known cures.

But there is hope.

For those who suffer, Google is there to help. Google has finally introduced a feature on its YouTube app that will help mitigate the scourge that is VVS.

Android Police spotted that in the new YouTube app update for Android, vertical videos now display vertically, and in full screen.

#YouTube app for Android now shows vertical video in full screen http://t.co/dZwjRcuQCB pic.twitter.com/Ntga7Oll0p

— Android Authority (@AndroidAuth) July 22, 2015

Of course, the old way of displaying vertical videos inside the app was sickening in its own right – making the video full screen up and down, basically rendering the video even smaller and shittier.

This is now been fixed. Hallelujah.

It looks like Google does listen to the community.

Image via Gloves and Boots, YouTube

July 22, 2015
YouTube Launches 360 Degree Video Ads

Google just announced the launch of 360 degree video ads on YouTube.

Google introduced 360-degree videos on YouTube back in March. From the viewer’s perspective, they were particularly cool when viewed on Android, as you could move your phone around to alter the perspective. You could use your mouse to drag it around on the desktop, but it just wasn’t the same. Google added support to iOS as well as its Cardboard virtual reality platform in May.

In an announcement on the AdWords blog, YouTube Ads product manager JR Futrell says:

We’re thrilled that as soon as the ability to create 360 video became available to YouTube creators, brands immediately began experimenting with this new tool to deliver engrossing consumer experiences. Since then, we’ve seen stunning videos from Coca-Cola, Stella Artois and Nike, among others (check them out onCardboard!). And for those videos that were run as ads, campaign results have been impressive: for instance, Coca-Cola’s 360 video celebrating the 100th anniversary of their iconic bottle design outperformed standard in-stream video ad view-through rates by 36%.

And today, Bud Light becomes the first advertiser in the US to launch 360 video running in TrueView ads. The series of ads feature three different events from Whatever, USA – Bud Light’s takeover of Catalina Island. The immersive ads drop you right in the middle of the action, including a performance by Diplo, the welcome parade, and the “Turn of An Era” 1920’s themed party.

The ads are compatible with YouTube HTML5 Rich Media Mastheads and TrueView in-stream and in-display units.

Special cameras are required for creating the videos. Models include Ricoh Theta, Kodak SP360, Giroptic 360cam, and IC Real Tech Allie, all of which are already available or coming soon.

Here’s an example from Bud Light:

YouTube has step-by-step instructions for uploading 360 degree videos here.

360 degree video ads on Facebook are happening as well as the social network continues to position itself closer and closer to YouTube. Facebook also announced 360 degree videos for the News Feed at its F8 conference in March. Last month, they debuted 360 degree views in mobile ads at Cannes Lions.

July 22, 2015
Selling To Customers Through ‘Shoppable Videos’

Everyone knows online video can be a great way to market businesses and products, but some businesses are finding that it can be quite beneficial for actually selling products. “Shoppable video” is a trend that has been slowly rising for several years, but new capabilities from a variety of platforms indicate that it could be poised to become much bigger.

Is video already a part of your marketing strategy? Is it part of your selling strategy? Tell us about your efforts in the comments.

“Retail video brings merchants’ products to life in a way that only e-commerce video can, often resulting in higher customer satisfaction and higher retail sales conversion,” says video marketing news blog ReelSEO.

YouTube for Shopping

Greg Jarboe writes on the site that YouTube Shopping is the new window shopping and that “unlike the mall, YouTube never, ever sleeps.” He cites data directly from Google claiming that one third of all shopping searches happen between the hours of 10PM and 4AM.

A couple months ago, Google announced that it is extending its product listing ads (PLAs) to YouTube with TrueView for Shopping, its new format that lets businesses run product ads with related videos.

“Whether it’s watching a product review or learning how to bake a soufflé, we look to video in countless moments throughout to the day to help us get things done,” Google said in a blog post. “We call these micro-moments – when we reflexively turn to our devices to learn more, make a decision, or purchase a product.”

It said it launched TrueView for shopping to “connect the dots between the moment a person watches a video and the moment they decide to make a purchase,” while also making it easy for viewers to get more info on the business’ products with the option to click to buy.

With these ads, businesses can showcase product details and images, and users can click and purchase from a brand or retail site from within the video ad. The option is available for TrueView in-stream video ads, and works across mobile, desktop, and tablet. 50% of views on YouTube come from mobile.

The ads are integrated with Google Merchant Center, so you can connect campaigns with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products and customize ads through contextual and audience signals such as geography and demographic information.

“Brands that have participated in our early tests of TrueView for shopping have seen strong results for driving interest and sales,” Google noted in the announcement. “Online home goods retailer Wayfair, for instance, saw a 3X revenue increase per impression served when compared to previous campaigns. And beauty retailer Sephora took advantage of this new ad format to drive +80% lift in consideration and +54% lift in ad recall, and an average view time of nearly two minutes.”

If You Teach Them, They Just Might Buy

In an article last week, the National Retail Federation looked at how Williams-Sonoma, in partnership with Visa Checkout, became one of the first brands to utilize the new TrueView shoppable video ads:

Shoppers viewing a series of videos created by Tastemade, a global food lifestyle network for digital platforms, can buy the featured items — including glasses, cocktail plates and platters — directly from the video. The campaign “clicks” on multiple fronts — engaging and informative videos showcasing products that can be purchased in just a few clicks point to how marketers are increasingly focusing on visual elements to provide inspiration on mobile.

“The videos don’t feel promotional. They teach viewers how to prepare a summer meal using Williams-Sonoma products, which can be purchased easily using Visa Checkout,” says Chris Curtin, chief brand and innovation marketing officer at Visa. “Visa Checkout is a simpler payment system. It takes 44 fields of information and compresses it into just a few clicks. The combination of shoppable video and a faster transaction give new meaning to the idea of instant gratification.”

Google recently gave marketers some best practices for capitalizing on major growth in how-to searches on YouTube. Believe it or not, these types of searches have seen 70% growth year-over-year. A whopping one hundred million hours of such content has already been watched in North America in 2015, it says. According to Google, people look for how-to videos increasingly on mobile with 91% of smartphone users turning to their devices for ideas while completing a task. These searches are on the rise across all age groups, but millennials are especially likely to search YouTube for how-to videos. 67% of them agree that they can find a YouTube video on anything they want to learn.

“When people ask how to do something, that’s a need,” wrote David Mogensen, Head of B2B Product Marketing for YouTube and Google Display. “That’s someone asking, ‘can you help me out?’ Digital media let brands respond to those questions and be there at the very moment someone needs them most. Brands that successfully do this can win loyalty and drive sales to boot. In fact, nearly one in three millennials say they’ve purchased a product as a result of watching a how-to video.”

He talked about how Home Depot has a bunch of how tos for home improvement and how Valspar has content about various paint-related subjects. Home improvement, beauty, and cooking are among the most popular categories for how-to searches.

As far as best practices, Google said to identify the “I-want-to-do moments” in which people have a need that your brand can help with. It says to find these moments across the whole consumer journey and put them at the center of your strategy. You should also figure out what questions and concerns people have related to the types of projects you sell or the projects they’re used for, and then create the content to serve as resources for those, it says.

Google also suggested looking at when how-to searches occur, and making your videos easier to find by adding descriptive titles, details, and relevant tags to each video. Promoting the videos is another option.

One thing that Mogensen didn’t really get into that is certainly worth considering is how frequently videos appear in Google search results. You have to imagine that there are plenty of these how-to searches happening right on Google.

We recently looked at a study on Google Universal Search trends, and video is the most frequent type of universal result Google shows. They appeared in 55% of search results pages analyzed. While the percentage of search results pages showing video results actually fell over the course of 2014, videos appear more often than anything else by far. 80% of videos displayed in Universal Search results came from YouTube.

Growing Opportunity in Social

Look for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to play bigger roles for shoppable videos as time goes on.

Facebook is doing everything in its power to compete with YouTube in video advertising, and it’s even currently testing a feature, which could greatly increase the amount of video people actually consume on Facebook. They’re letting users continue to watch videos via a pop-out box as they continue to browse their News Feeds.

Once this goes live on a wider scale, people will no longer have to stop what they’re doing on Facebook to consume a video. They can hit the button and play it while they go about their browsing business. It’s not inconceivable for Facebook to show related ads in the News Feed as they continue, though we’ve seen no indication so far that this is the plan.

In addition to stepping up its video game, however, Facebook is also making moves to become a better place for businesses to sell things. In fact, there are even new reports that it’s working on some kind of virtual assistant to help people buy things.

There are companies focusing on bringing shoppable videos to Facebook as we speak.

Much like Facebook, Twitter is also rampantly trying to become a better place for businesses to sell items. It recently showed off some new product pages that show a great deal of potential. It’s also trying to get businesses to use video more.

Pinterest is now offering “buyable pins,” and let’s not forget that Pinterest isn’t just about static images. It’s also full of video.

Shoppable video on YouTube is one thing, but we can expect social to become a much bigger part of the picture once these endeavors get into full swing.

“For shoppable video to be a more effective tool, marketers need to incorporate it into their broader content marketing strategy and use it as an assistant help the customer in their buying journey,” says Vebeka Guess at Econsultancy.

She suggests using video as an overview guide to products or services, as a catalog, or as a how-to. She goes on to note that marketers can have trouble quantifying their ROI on shoppable video mainly due to a lack of standardization, which makes it difficult to capture data. She says to find a tech partner that will help you own creation, management, and delivery of shoppable video content and allow for “seamless capture and reporting on meaningful metrics”.

According to her, this is the key to shoppable video becoming more widely adopted.

Do you see this becoming part of your strategy in the future? Have you already experimented with it? To what end? Discuss in the comments.

Images via Thinkstock, Google, Facebook, Twitter

July 14, 2015
Kid Reads Hateful YouTube Comments to Show How Bullying Affects People

YouTube is a wonderful thing – arguably one of the top three most important websites in history. YouTube comments, on the other hand, are a cesspool.

Sometimes it’s easy to look at the trolling, the virtiol, and the downright stupidity being spewed beneath any given video and think hey, everyone knows it’s YouTube. Nobody actually takes any of it seriously.

But you know, trolling or not, things hurt people. Especially if you’re 11.

A kid named Logan is making the viral rounds with a short video he made with the help of his dad. In the video, Logan reads a bunch of YouTube comments he’s received on his videos. No, they aren’t even close to some of the worst shit that gets thrown around YouTube, but listening to him read them is pretty heartbreaking.

Check it out:

I winced as I scrolled down to see the top comment on this video …

Fuck you, cyber bullies.

Maybe there’s some hope for us after all.

July 9, 2015
Facebook Has a New Video Ad Option That Only Charges Advertisers After 10 Seconds of Viewing

What amounts to a video “view” on Facebook? For regular videos, Facebook will give it an official view if it’s watched for three seconds. For video ads, a “view” is really an impressions for advertisers.

Facebook’s video ads structure charges advertisers for each impression their ad receives. And since Facebook autoplays videos in the news feed, all someone has to do is scroll past an ad and the advertisers is charged.

As a marketer, it’s easy to see why this isn’t exactly an ideal situation. There’s really no way to know if that “impression” really amounts to any viewing time – or simply a blip as someone hastily scrolls past.

That all changes today, as Facebook has made a bold play to grab the attention of potential video advertisers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that advertisers will now be able to choose another payment structure – one that allows them to pay only when their ads are viewed for at least 10 seconds.

Ten seconds is a lifetime when it comes to social media posts.

But Facebook, in confirming the report, says that the new 10-second option isn’t the best option, in its opinion.

“We strongly believe in giving marketers flexibility over how they buy video ads, and we listened to feedback which is why we’re offering the new cost-per-view option. We don’t believe it’s the best option in terms of capturing the best value and brand objectives marketers care about, but we want to give them control and choice over how they buy,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

Of course, the 10-second ad option could end up costing advertisers more during the auction phase. And that’s probably what Facebook’s getting at here.

But when you think about it, advertisers could end up reaping five to nine second views on their video ads and not being charged. And if someone watches your video ad for 10 or more seconds, at least you know you might’ve made a real impression.

It’s a big play against YouTube, but YouTube still offers more options. YouTube’s TrueView option, for instance, let’s marketers only pay if a viewer sticks around for 30 seconds. Plus, advertising on YouTube means you can place your ad inside videos that people are there to watch anyway. On Facebook, it’s much easier to avoid video ads – for now. Facebook is investing in much more content that would better house video advertising.

Twitter has also recently defined their video ad structure. The company just introduced autoplay, and will only charge advertisers when a promoted video is completely in view (not cut off at the top of bottom by a user’s scrolling) and when it is played for at least three seconds.

June 30, 2015
YouTube Is Giving Creators 10 Helpful New Features

Google announced a list of ten new features that are coming soon to help YouTube Creators. Some will become available over the coming weeks, and others may take a bit longer, but they’re all expected to be available this year. That’s about as specific as Google is getting on the releasing at this point.

For now, let’s get to the features.

1. Comments

YouTube is promising big improvements to the commenting system. In fact, they’re going so far as to say that the new system leads to a 30% drop in the rate of dislikes. The improvements will come by way of a better ranking system, which is supposed to reduce the visibility of “junk comments”.

I guess we’ll see how that goes. The last time Google made major changes to the YouTube commenting system it didn’t go over too well. This sounds like a step in the right direction though.

2. Subscriber Notifications

This one should be as good for users as it is for creators. Google is going to give creators a new way for fans to opt in to get mobile and email notifications every time the channel publishes a new video.

“Your fans don’t want to miss out on videos from their favorite creators–and neither do we,” says Matt Glotzbach, VP, Product Management at YouTube.

3. Easier access to the subscriptions feed

They’re also making it easier to get to the Subscriptions feed in the mobile app. The company says this will make it easier for your subscribers to stay on top of your latest videos.

4. A Better Creator Studio App

Google is promising major improvements to the Creator Studio app, which will give creators more insight about what’s happening on their channel. It will also provide notifications.

5. Better Management

The app will get new video management features such as the ability to update thumbnails from your phone as well as the ability to enable or disable monetization on your videos.

6. New Card Types

Google will be launching new Card types that will help you promote your other content, sell merchandise, raise funds, etc. For one, there will be a Channel card to link your videos to other channels.

7. 3D 360° videos

Google showed off its 360° videos a while back, and this year, it’s planning on “adding 3D to the mix”.

8. Livestream Improvements

“We just made it easier for you to set up and manage your live streams. And where better to show them off than in our upcoming YouTube Gaming app?” says Glotzbach.

9. New Community

There will be a new YouTube Creator Community forum designed to help creators find collaborators, share advice, and give Google feedback.

10. Creator Academy Update

Finally, they’re going to launch improvements to the Creator Academy, which has over 50 lessons for learning on how to get more out of YouTube. They’re making it easier to search and personalize your experience.

Listen to YouTube staff talk more about the new features here:

While you may have to wait a bit for some of this stuff, the company says it’s listening, so if you have something to say, let it be known on Google+ or Twitter.

Image via YouTube

June 30, 2015
YouTube Celebrates Marriage Equality With #ProudToLove Video

In one of the most landmark supreme court decisions the country has seen in quite sometime, ~~nine~~ five court justices decided to make it unconstitutional for states to ban same-sex marriage. Enter, mostly positive, online pandemonium. On Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and every social media outlet on the web, millions poured their thoughts and feelings about marriage equality to the online space. Most of the thoughts were positive; with people posting images of the rainbow flag, sharing stories, and local news outlets covering stories of the first couples to take advantage of the decision.

Along with regular folks, companies have come out with thoughts concerning the decision. Facebook allowed users to shade their profile pictures with the rainbow. YouTube shared their feelings the way you would expect, with a video. Get the tissues out, and watch as YouTube celebrates marriage equality with powerful imagery, highlighting coming-out videos people have posted, some recent political stands taken by defenders of marriage equality, and of course marriages themselves. Enjoy.

The YouTube marriage equality video has over 2 million views, and continues to climb as people revel in the supreme court ruling. Along with the official video, scores of people have posted videos of their reactions. With the power of instant video uploads, we were able to see on-the-scene reactions to the event.

Vox released an interesting video, showing the history of the fight of marriage equality. They showed the growth of gallup poll data concerning people’s opinions towards the validity of same-sex marriage. Then the most powerful image is shown at the end, the US map showing that marriage equality is protected across the entire country.

My personal favorite reaction to the marriage equality decision was Ben & Jerry’s announcement of their new variety, “I Dough, I Dough”. If there something this wonderful nation can truly rally behind, it’s ice cream puns.

We’ve honorarily renamed Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough to “I Dough, I Dough” in our Scoop Shops. http://t.co/J8Kd68ZQaB pic.twitter.com/xCgss0vXdM

— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) June 26, 2015

Image via: YouTube

June 27, 2015
YouTube Launches Newswire to Offer Verified Eyewitness Videos

We’ve seen the era of the “citizen journalist” expand as the tools at their disposal grow. If you have a camera and you’re in the right place at the right time, you can make history on YouTube. Now, YouTube is looking to bolster its position with “new initiatives to support the discovery and verification of eyewitness news video.”

YouTube is partnering with social news agency Storyful to launch the YouTub Newswire, a “curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful’s team of editors and are embeddable from the original sources.”

The fact that anyone can upload a video to YouTube is both wonderful and potentially problematic. Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and separating the “noise” from the “news” is vital – according to Storyful.

“We’ve always taken our commitments to YouTube, our newsroom clients and the uploaders we work with very seriously. Our mission has always been to mine the platform, sort the news from noise and find the stories worth telling. This, the YouTube Newswire, is the next step forward in that mission,” says Storyful Managing Editor Aine Kerr in a post.

“While the platform has become noisier and more diverse, Storyful has gotten much more sophisticated in its technology, discovery, verification, acquisition and distribution of video. We’ve done extensive social sleuthing, worked with the likes of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on UGC documentaries that had YouTube at their heart, debunked popular YouTube videos and amplified those videos at the heart of some of the biggest news stories of recent years.”

Storyful says its expertise in weeding through the muck will help YouTube Newswire succeed.

YouTube says it wants Newswire to be a tool for journalists.

“With the Newswire, we hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events, and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories. The Newswire will feature global and regional feeds that surface the most relevant videos in different parts of the world.”

The YouTube Newswire will also have a presence on Twitter and can be delivered via daily email newsletter. Right now on the Newswire, you can see videos about the Charleston Church shooting, flooding in Texas, and the new $10 bill.

YouTube also announced two other projects focused on eyewitness news videos – the First Draft coalition and the Witness Media Lab.

“We hope that these new projects will empower more journalists to use powerful eyewitness video easily and responsibly,” says Olivia Ma, Head of Strategy and Operations at the Google News Lab.

June 18, 2015
New YouTube Gaming Site/App Coming This Summer

YouTube announced on Friday that it will launch YouTube Gaming this summer. This is a whole new app and website for gaming, which appears to be a competitor to Twitch, which Google previously tried to buy, but is now owned by Amazon.

Amazon completed its acquisition of Twitch last September, buying it for $970 million. Google had been in talks to acquire it prior to that, but reportedly backed out due to antitrust concerns.

Back in March, we heard that YouTube was gearing up to go after Twitch with a new game streaming focus, and now this has been officially realized.

Google says YouTube gaming will serve as a place to keep “connected to the games, players, and culture that matter to you, with videos, live streams, and the biggest community of gamers on the web—all in one place.”

It will have content on over 25,000 games, and each will have its own page for videos and live streams. There will also be channels for game publishers and YouTube creators.

“Keeping up with these games and channels is now super easy, too,” says product manager Alan Joyce. “Add a game to your collection for quick access whenever you want to check up on the latest videos. Subscribe to a channel, and you’ll get a notification as soon as they start a live stream. Uncover new favorites with recommendations based on the games and channels you love. And when you want something specific, you can search with confidence, knowing that typing call’ will show you ‘Call of Duty’ and not ‘Call Me Maybe.’”

“Live streams bring the gaming community closer together, so we’ve put them front-and-center on the YouTube Gaming homepage,” Joyce adds. “And in the coming weeks, we’ll launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube. On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we’re redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We’re also creating single link you can share for all your streams.”

YouTube Gaming will be available sometimes this summer in the US and UK. They’ll be showing it off at E3 next week.

It’s been a big week for tech giants and their gaming efforts between this and the unveiling of Facebook’s Oculus Rift.

Image via Google

June 12, 2015