What Happened
This week, YouTube added two new features that brands need to look out for. To begin with, the Google-owned video platform added a new call-to-action format for its TrueView video ads, allowing brand advertisers to display a customizable call-to-action banner at the bottom of a video during or at the end of playback. Google says it will be testing this format throughout the year, aiming to make it available globally soon.
On Tuesday, YouTube started testing a Community tab, a Facebook News Feed-esque social feed where content creators can share text, images, GIFs, and even live videos with their subscribers. Viewers can vote “thumbs up or down” and comment on those updates, in addition to choosing to receive push notifications for posts from their favorite YouTubers. Community features are only available to a select group of content creators at the moment.
What Brands Need To Do
With competitors such as Facebook and Twitter ramping up their video products, YouTube is also improving theirs to maintain its appeal to digital advertisers. The TrueView ad format grants brands some flexibility to customize call-to-action messages so as to best suit their needs. The Community social features, on the other hand, could offer brands a valuable fan engagement tool on YouTube once it becomes more widely available, allowing them to engage with subscribers with a variety of content.
Source: AdWeek
