YouTube is adding product listing ads to retailers’ video ads with TrueView for Shopping, meaning that viewers can click and buy products listed directly within pre-roll videos.
The ads are powered by an integration with Google Merchant Center, delivered in cards alongside retailers’ video ads on mobile and desktop.
Google is stressing that this does not allow for purchasing directly within YouTube. Instead, like its imminent “Buy” button within search results, clicks on the product ads take users straight to the merchants’ websites.
The new feature will be available in AdWords in the coming months, though advertisers with a Google rep can start running TrueView for Shopping campaigns today.
This is not the first time YouTube atemted to make its ads shopable. The Google-owned firm ran a similar scheme in 2012 but failed to get traction.
However a more recent case study indicates that shoppable ads created an 80 percent lift in “brand consideration” for Sephora.
