YouTube is the second most engaging website globally and in the US alone, 81% of adults utilize it, making it the most widely used online platform.
Diving into 2022, it is more vital than ever to focus on creating strong creative assets and strategies for this channel. Where best to start than looking at channel trends? This year, Youtube is placing a large focus on promoting its Youtube Shorts, Live, and Video On Demand features. Most notably, Youtube Shorts are meant to draw in Tik Tok and Instagram Reels fans. Since its launch, Youtube Shorts have attained over 5 trillion views. Unlike the traditional Youtube Video search menu, Shorts give users an algorithmically generated feed with videos from their favorite creators. It is important to note that Youtube has not yet announced a direct way to monetize Youtube Shorts. However, brands can still leverage relationships with influencers and creators to test Youtube Shorts for brand awareness in addition to their traditional Youtube video ads
Shopping Opportunities on YouTube
Another major trend going forward will be the rise of Youtube shopping experiences. Currently, shopping on the platform is limited; however, Youtube will be expanding shopping opportunities for consumers in 2022. In turn, increased shopping experiences across YouTube will likely equate to more opportunities to surface products for viewers. Shopping capabilities will be expanded via shoppable videos, Live Shopping, and on the user interface of the YouTube app. The bottom line is that with new shopping functionality comes increased leverage of Google Merchant Center data feeds, a vital tool for Shopping advertising.
Live Streaming On The Rise
With Live Shopping on the rise, Live Streaming is also slowly taking over TV broadcasting with its convenience and has grown 93% compared to the previous year according to a report in 2019. To utilize the sense of comfort that consumers were looking for in 2021, even without COVID-19 restrictions, you want to give them an option to watch events live from the comfort of their homes (or offices). By running Q&A sessions or hosting Live Shopping events, live streaming can be utilized in different ways depending on the brands to engage the audience further.
Cross-Device Integration
Next on the list for the future strategies of Youtube Advertising, especially for Brands with online sale goals, is an interactive feature called Brand Extensions which will aim to expand the video streaming app further into eCommerce. Advertisers can highlight Call To Action in the connected TV video ads, where viewers can click the option to “send to phone” which will deliver the promotion or URL directly to their mobile devices without interrupting the viewing experience. By directly impacting the viewing experience with a specific product’s shopping feed, this is a strong strategy to boost your online sales while raising brand awareness.
Going into Q2, now is the time to setup goals and action plans when it comes to Youtube. Direct Agents has taken into consideration the new 2022 trends and is ready to help your team to develop unmatched strategies for your Youtube campaigns.