Google has officially announced that YouTube’s Universal App and TrueView campaigns would soon support vertical video advertisements. As the company develops new methods to create vertical video advertising on YouTube, the company undoubtedly wants to adapt to the requirements of the constantly expanding mobile audience in the best way possible.
As a result, Google is giving advertisers of all sizes creative ideas and creative guidelines to help them make successful vertical video ads. Previously, YouTube Picture-in-Picture support for the iPhone and iPad is now available worldwide.
Instantly flipped video ads
Google says it is experimenting with a new machine learning system that reformats landscape video advertising into square or vertical forms based on how someone is watching YouTube.
- The machine learning technique detects crucial features in the landscape ad such as faces, key objects, logos, text, and motion and splits the video into distinct “scenes.” This guarantees that critical items are appropriately centered, for example in the reformatted video.
- Businesses without the capacity to generate various assets might profit from this technology, which adapts current assets to multiple formats. App campaigns have it now, and Video Action and Performance Max campaigns will soon.
- The reformatting tool enables advertisers to quickly maximize the effectiveness of their material.
Easy templates to plug into
In the Asset Library of Google Ads, there are now four new video ad designs that can be changed and one square template. Users can use these templates to make a square or vertical ad for your brand in just a few minutes.
- These new templates follow YouTube’s creative best practices and are intended for vertical viewing, with impactful pacing, music, and transitions.
The company also added vertical video ad templates to its auto-generated video product, which makes vertical films from text and images. - Even if you don’t have the time or money to make a creative film, this service makes sure that your App and Performance Max campaigns benefit from the increased reach and performance of vertical video assets.
Creative tips for vertical ads
Vertical video ads require a few creative considerations beyond our ABCD recommendations for designing excellent YouTube advertising. Google Creative Works examined 2,000 global ads that aired on Shorts via video action and app campaigns and found three ways and strategies:
- Match vertical ads with vertical platforms: Vertical advertisements perform better in vertical situations like shorts. Once you’ve changed your ad to fit the vertical layout of Shorts, you might want to match the tone with bright visuals, creative editing, or popular music.
- Make it quick: With only 10 to 60 seconds of ad time and the quick pace of Shorts, there’s no need to put up a premise or storyline.
- Embrace emotion: Bring some emotion to your presentation since people who watch shorts anticipate experiencing moments of happiness, drama, or humor.
Support for any screen
YouTube’s transition from desktop to mobile to CTV (Connected TV) will let it reach a young, varied audience. And for marketers that want to generate content that resonates with all audiences, YouTube is well positioned to suit their needs.
Bumper ads
Some YouTube viewers have noticed longer and more ads, especially in unskippable formats, in the past month or two. YouTube is pushing the limits with commercials, delivering 5 to 10 unskippable ads during a break. Longer gaps aren’t appearing with all videos or viewers, but they’re becoming more regular. They’re not long. According to user accounts, these ads are just five or six seconds each, so even a 10-ad break would be roughly 60 seconds.
hmm…this may happen with a certain type of ad format called bumper ads, since they're only up to 6 seconds long. if you'd like, you can send feedback directly from YouTube via the send feedback tool
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) September 7, 2022
However, YouTube hasn’t admitted a planned rise in advertising, but the “Team YouTube” Twitter account responded to a user’s complaint by saying they are “bumper commercials,” which appear at the opening of videos and are very brief.
Speaking on the introduction, Nicky Rettke, Director, Product Management, YouTube Ads, said,
YouTube Shorts is an entirely mobile and vertical experience with over 30 billion daily views and 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users. By adding vertical video assets to Video action, App and Performance Max campaigns, which automatically scale to Shorts, marketers can participate directly in the Shorts environment and drive better results.
In August 2022, their vertical video assets drove 12% higher click-through rates and 9% higher view-through rates on mobile phones compared to landscape video ads in the same campaign. So today, we’re introducing new solutions and creative guidelines to help advertisers of all sizes make effective vertical video ads.