YouTube continues doubling down on its competitors by rolling out new premium advertising placements for the short-form video platform with YouTube Shorts. The new ad offerings allow businesses and creators to purchase prominent ad placements within the Shorts feed, opening up more monetization opportunities.
As Shorts rapidly gains popularity, eclipsing 70 billion daily views, YouTube is aiming to turn it into a more viable revenue stream.
According to MediaScience, YouTube Select Shorts ads are viewed for 90% longer than ads on other social competitors.
Let’s take a closer look at what these new premium ad placements entail and whether they’re worth investing in for organizations.
The Premium Placement Options
YouTube is introducing three new premium ad products specifically for Shorts:
Shorts Bumper Machine-Learned Bidding Ads
These are 6-second bumper ads that play at the beginning of a Shorts video. Advertisers can use machine learning to optimize ad delivery to audiences most likely to pay attention and take action.
Shorts Video Ads
Advertisers can run standard video ads up to 30 seconds long that play before a Shorts video. This emulates traditional pre-roll YouTube ads.
Shorts Call-to-Action Overlays
These are banners or overlays that appear at the bottom 20% of a Shorts video, with customizable calls-to-action like app installs, site visits, etc.
All three ad formats are purchased through an auction in Google Ads and use app campaign optimization to drive engagement.
Key Benefits and Drawbacks
For organizations, these premium placements on YouTube Shorts present some compelling benefits:
Reaching the Shorts Audience: With over 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users watching Shorts, it’s a massive and engaged audience, especially among younger demographics.
Premium Placement: Being able to purchase top ad spots guarantees premium placement within the Shorts feed instead of fighting the algorithm.
Action-Oriented Ads: The overlay ads with clear calls-to-action could drive valuable engagement for campaigns focused on downloads, traffic, etc.
However, there are also some potential drawbacks and risks:
Cost and Competition: Like any premium placement, the bidding environment on Shorts will be competitive and likely expensive for guaranteed top visibility.
Audience Attention: Although brief, forced ads could disrupt the seamless viewing experience that makes Shorts engaging, causing viewers to skip quickly.
Ad Load: YouTube will have to carefully balance ad load on Shorts to avoid driving viewers away with too many disruptive commercials.
Is It Worth the Investment?
Ultimately, whether these new YouTube Shorts premium ad placements are worth investing in depends heavily on an organization’s goals, audiences, and budgets.
For businesses laser-focused on a TikTok/Gen Z demographic, Shorts ads seem like a potential must-have. The overlay call-to-action ads could also excel for mobile user acquisition campaigns.
However, companies working with limited advertising budgets may find the cost of premium Shorts placements too restrictive. The audience attention and ad load challenges also make guaranteed view metrics crucial for judging real ad effectiveness and ROI.
As with any new ad product, a wait-and-see approach evaluating the initial results for early Shorts advertisers could inform better long-term investment decisions.
Overall, YouTube Shorts’ first stab at premium ad inventory presents exciting but unproven potential. As the platform and monetization evolve, organizations should monitor Shorts’ development as both a viewing phenomenon and an emerging ad channel. If you want to learn more about this possible advertising tactic on social media, be sure to reach out to Onya today!
