NEW YORK: YouTube wants to alter the way people buy items and is harnessing the power of its videos to help connect consumers and retailers.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president of advertisements and commerce, announced what could be a revenue-boosting plan for the video sharing website Thursday during his keynote at Ad:Tech in San Francisco.
Google is adding products to its TrueView advertisements the spots that users can skip after watching for a certain amount of time. The hope here is that instead of looking away while the ad rolls, users will click on a product and be taken to the retailer’s website to complete their transaction.
“In a world where people want things right away, this is the ultimate expression of a full-purchase journey within an ad,” Ramaswamy said. “For the first time, viewers will be able to not only learn about products through video they’ll be able to shop for them as well seeing product listings within the video itself.”
Ramaswamy said Wayfair, a furniture retailer, used the system for shopping advertisements. When compared to other video campaigns, he said they saw their revenue triple per view, along with a 20 percent increase in their view through rate, the number of people who stick with the ad until it ends.
YouTube also announced Thursday an early preview of 60 frame per second live streaming video. While the new frame rate is still in early preview, it could help YouTube make a play for gamers who broadcast their adventures on Amazon-owned competitor Twitch.
