YouTube trials product stores under eCommerce advertisements

Since the increase of users on online social platforms, many businesses have tweaked their marketing campaigns to match the new internet-obsessed generation. Nowadays it seems almost impossible to find a website that has not sold up a lot of web space to advertisements of various kinds. A lot of these ads are displayed on Internet behemoths like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc., so it is almost common sense that these companies are always looking for new ways to increase the effectiveness of their advertisements.

YouTube is notorious for its pre-video ads and now a new feature has been added to their ads which shows the product storefront below the video window. Although this feature was announced without a lot of fanfare and, consequently, has gone unnoticed by many users but it is more of a practical feature and it will be easier for many of the users to explore and shop without having to leave the website you’re already on. An added benefit of having a checkout option underneath the advertisement is that people will be more willing to browse or purchase the displayed products if they don’t have to leave the content they are watching.

This feature might have been unveiled in competition with Facebook and Instagram’s ‘Shops’ feature that allowed users to tag products in post captions; though this seems unlikely as Facebook and YouTube have never been in serious competition.

This new feature opens a wide range of new possibilities for online stores and businesses. It allows for more brand exposure and more potential buyers as these video-streaming sites attract more traffic than an exclusively eCommerce website would. Advertising using media and content sharing platforms allows for brands to pay for creator sponsored content.

The way this feature works is when the user plays a video an advertisement is automatically loaded and starts playing, the space below the ad displays a window where the advertised product along with a ‘Buy Now’ option is shown. The real genius of this is that the user can come back to the storefront even after the ad has ended. This allows the user to be able to finish watching their content and if they are interested in the displayed product they still have the opportunity to come back and purchase the product.

The process to access this feature is intuitive and easy. All the business owner has to do is link their Google Merchant Center to their video ads and select their new or bestseller products and whenever their video ad about the selected product is displayed the storefront option will be displayed. The added advantage of this feature is that if the user is not interested in the product but intrigued by the idea or wants to explore the shop further they can do so with just one click as the link to the store website is provided right next to the product description.



Read next: YouTube Tests Out New Ad Options That Allow Users to Control When They See Ads
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