Netflix, Apple TV and Prime Video.
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With more people in their living rooms broadcasting programs and movies during the Covid pandemic, the connected TV space has grown astronomically. And Google wants to support that growth with YouTube.
YouTube product director Neal Mohan will update advertisers on what the platform saw last year during a session at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting on Wednesday morning. The company planned to share new figures about the growth seen with viewers watching its platforms on connected TVs (CTVs), offers like the ability for advertisers to rate with Nielsen before the next initial season and trends seen on the platform over the past unusual year.
The pandemic was a blessing to the streaming industry, benefiting players like Roku and advertising technology player The Trade Desk. In 2020, the eMarketer projected US CTV ad spend of $ 8.11 billion, reaching $ 18.3 billion in 2024. But, while viewing has skyrocketed, eMarketer says that most of the time People’s streaming happens ad-free on platforms like Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video. This gives YouTube the opportunity to tell advertisers that they have space to reach viewers of streaming TV through its platform.
YouTube says viewers on its own platform are increasingly watching on their televisions. According to the report, 120 million people watched YouTube or YouTube TV on their TV screens in December 2020 while spending time at home. Mohan told CNBC that the number was over 100 million in March last year.
As the audience changes, so do advertising dollars. Mohan said that last year there were “lamp” moments for advertisers and media buyers about how media consumption was changing, since “they were experiencing it in their own lives “.
YouTube said the phone still represents the largest percentage of how content is consumed on the platform. But he said in December that more than a quarter of YouTube viewers watched the content almost exclusively on the TV screen. The company declined to reveal how the rest of the audience is grouped.
To deal with this growing shift to TVs, YouTube said for the first time in the initial 2021 and 2022 season, advertisers will be able to use Nielsen to measure YouTube’s streaming TV inventory. Upfronts happen when advertisers typically commit a large part of their annual TV spending to businesses.
This should help media buyers and sellers to check audiences on YouTube and YouTube TV apps on connected TVs. Offers like this are meant to show advertisers that they can reach audiences they’re not reaching anywhere else and compare reach with addressable linear TV more easily. Previously, the company said that advertisers could only use Nielsen ratings to measure the platform’s inventory on desktops and mobile devices.
“This is something that brands have been asking for,” said Mohan.
YouTube has also been working to develop tools and offers for advertisers, which helped the company grow 46% year over year in the fourth quarter, to $ 6.89 billion. The company has created direct response products on YouTube, such as “buyable” ads that include product images. The direct response was an area of strength that remained strong during the pandemic, but the brand’s publicity also returned on a large scale in the fourth quarter, which also helped YouTube.
E-commerce soared in 2020; Americans spent $ 791.7 billion over the year on e-commerce, an increase of 32.4% over 2019, according to data published last month by the US Census Bureau. Mohan said that video plays an important role in this space, with creators reviewing products or making recommendations, since creators and their audience have a more authentic connection.
Mohan also plans to talk about the trend of short videos consolidating. YouTube’s TikTok competitor, “Shorts”, will be expanding into the United States in beta “in the coming weeks,” the company said. Shorts is not showing ads in its beta version, but YouTube said it is “exploring monetization options”.