Next for YouTube: Shoppable Ads
YouTube is very clearly a massive force in online video, generating billions of views each day around the world and consistently ranking among the top five most visited websites globally. Still, the site hasn’t innately been able to drive the ad revenue for Google, its parent company, to match the numbers it posts – a problem, the Wall Street Journal explains, that stems from YouTube viewers typically not being “as close to a purchase as users who search for products on Google.”
But, Google is hoping to change that by rolling out a new, shoppable ad experience. By inserting direct links to buy specific products into YouTube’s pre-video ads, and listing prices and images, viewers will, if all pans out as planned, be inspired to make a purchase in the way that they are on sites more geared toward shopping.
“The overlay puts customers in more of a shopping mindset and they are more likely to come to our website and buy,” Ben Young, media manager for online furniture retailer Wayfair, told the Journal. An early adopter of the new ad program, Wayfair claims that adding a direct-purchase link with product images has increased revenue from advertising for the company threefold compared to traditional YouTube ads.
The quest to monetize sites built on social sharing has traditionally been a mixed bag; while Instagram is projected to report a revenue of $700 million this year, for example, its older cousin Twitter still hasn’t turned a profit.
Still, sites on both sides of the profit margin allow room for third parties to enter the space to generate revenue on their own – as evidenced by companies such as LIKEtoKNOW.it, that has successfully devised a system for users to cash in on their popularity on Instagram. Perhaps by harnessing a little of that entrepreneurial spirit, sites YouTube will see revenue dollars commensurate with their audience very soon.
