Netflix, Apple TV and Prime Video.
egadolfo
With more people in the living room broadcasting programs and movies during the Covid pandemic, connected television space has experienced astronomical growth. And Google wants to lean on that growth with YouTube.
YouTube product director Neal Mohan will brief advertisers on what the platform has seen this past year during a session at the Office of Interactive Advertising Office’s annual leadership meeting on Wednesday morning. The company planned to share new figures around the growth observed with viewers watching its platforms on connected TVs (CTV), offers such as the ability of advertisers to compete with Nielsen before the next initial season and the trends that were seen on the platform during this unusual last year. .
The pandemic has been a big help to the streaming industry, benefiting players like Roku and advertising technology player The Trade Desk. In 2020, eMarketer projected that U.S. television advertising spending was $ 8.11 billion, reaching $ 18.3 billion in 2024. But while the display has skyrocketed, eMarketer says that most of the time people broadcast spend ad-free on platforms like Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video. This gives YouTube a chance to tell advertisers that they have a space to reach streaming TV viewers through their platform.
YouTube claims that viewers of its own platform are increasingly watching it on their TVs. It was said that 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 figure exceeded 100 million in March last year.
As the viewer changes, so do the advertising dollars. Mohan said last year there were “light bulb” moments for advertisers and media shoppers about how media consumption was changing, as “they were experiencing it in their own lives.”
YouTube said the mobile still accounts for the largest percentage of content consumption on the platform. But it was said in December that more than a quarter of viewers connected to YouTube saw content almost exclusively on a TV screen. The company declined to clarify how the rest of the public is grouped.
To address this rise in TVs, YouTube said that for the first time during the early 2021 and 2022 season, advertisers will be able to use Nielsen to measure YouTube’s streaming TV inventory. The benefits are when advertisers typically commit a large portion of their annual spending on television to deals.
This should help support buyers and sellers verify audiences on YouTube and YouTube TV apps on connected TVs. Offers like this are meant to show advertisers that they can reach audiences that don’t reach anywhere else, and compare the reach with the addressable linear TV more easily. Previously, the company said advertisers could only use Nielsen ratings to measure platform inventory on computers and mobiles.
“That’s something the brands have asked for,” Mohan said.
YouTube has also been working to create tools and deals for advertisers, which helped the business grow 46% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, to $ 6.898 billion. The business has been creating direct response products on YouTube, such as “buyable” ads that include product images. The direct response was an area of strength that has remained strong during the pandemic, but brand advertising also gained great importance during the fourth quarter, which helped YouTube as well.
E-commerce soared in 2020; Americans spent $ 791.7 billion year-round on e-commerce, 32.4% more than in 2019, according to data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Mohan said video plays an important role in this space, as creators review products or make recommendations, as creators and their audience have a more authentic connection.
Mohan also plans to talk about the trend towards making video in short form. YouTube’s TikTok competitor, “Shorts,” will be released in the U.S. in beta in the “coming weeks,” the company said. Shorts does not run ads in its beta, but YouTube said it is “exploring monetization options.”