Marketers that are looking to directly drive purchasing from their online video marketing campaigns will benefit from new video marketing capabilities from Google.
Ask any network manager watching his or her bandwidth utilization increase dramatically: we’re watching a lot more video. Google is touting what it calls video micro-moments – when we turn to our devices as if by reflex to learn something, get help with a decision or even purchase a product.
The vendor is looking to “connect the dots” between when someone watches a video and when they make a purchase with a new feature – TrueView – that makes it easier for viewers to get the product information they need to click and buy. With TrueView for shopping, a retail marketer can showcase product details and images within their video ad, including the ability to click to make a purchase from the brand’s site or that of a selected retailer.
As half of YouTube views come from mobile devices, there’s support for in-stream video ads on YouTube and seamless functionality across mobile phones, desktops, and tablets.
Building on the Cards platform that Google announced last month, with Trueview marketers can automate the process of connecting individual products with individual videos and, with the integration of the Google Merchant Center into video ads, advertisers can connect their campaign with a Merchant Center feed to dynamically add products to their in-stream videos, customized by user through contextual, demographic and other information.
“Brands that have participated in our early tests of TrueView for shopping have seen strong results for driving interest and sales,” said Google, in an AdWords blog announcing the new service. “We’re excited to bring TrueView for shopping into our buying front end in the coming months.”