YouTube announced the launch of new artificial intelligence (AI) powered advertising products designed to help brands connect with relevant audiences and optimize campaign performance on the platform.
The video-sharing platform unveiled tools like Spotlight Moments, which utilizes AI to identify trending content around major events for brand sponsorship opportunities.
YouTube also revealed the expanded availability of Video Reach and Video View campaigns, which leverage AI to enhance ad targeting and efficiency.
The announcements signal YouTube’s increased emphasis on AI innovation within its ad offerings as it looks to provide brands more options for engaging the platform’s two billion-plus monthly users.
One of the new ad offerings is Spotlight Moments, which utilizes AI to identify the most popular and relevant YouTube videos around major cultural events like Halloween or the World Cup.
Advertisers can sponsor a branded YouTube channel to feature their ads alongside this automatically curated event-related content.
YouTube states in a blog post:
“Spotlight Moments gives brands a high share of voice across video content surrounding the world’s biggest cultural moments.”
YouTube explained that AI technology can detect rising trends and engagements around key events, allowing brands to capitalize on these “noisy moments” when viewer attention is high.
YouTube also announced the expanded availability of two other AI-enhanced ad products: Video Reach and Video View campaigns.
The company said tests of these new formats delivered substantially better results for advertisers than standard video ad placements.
Video Reach campaigns use AI to distribute ads across YouTube’s multiple video ad options – including in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts – to maximize reach. In trials, advertisers saw 54% more reach at a 42% lower cost by utilizing this cross-format approach.
Meanwhile, Video View campaigns employ AI optimization to obtain more cost-efficient video views to drive brand consideration. YouTube said these campaigns achieved 40% more views at a 30% lower cost-per-view than regular in-stream ads in testing.
YouTube’s launch of AI-powered ad products gives brands new ways to reach and engage users.
By leveraging AI to identify trends and optimize campaigns, advertisers can now better target relevant audiences on YouTube.
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