Video is everywhere – helping brands find their audience in the era of convergence

With cord-cutting on the rise, brands have been looking for new ways to connect with an important part of their audience that are harder than ever to reach. According to fresh Nielsen data, more than half of 18 to 49 year-olds in the US are either light viewers of TV or do not subscribe to TV; but over 90 percent of these people watch YouTube.¹ Today we’re introducing a new set of opportunities on YouTube to help brands reach these viewers across content and devices.

YouTube audiences on TV screens

We’re amidst the second major shift in how people watch video on YouTube. In the past few years, we witnessed mobile viewership exceed desktop, marking the first major shift in how people interacted with YouTube. Now, in 2018, viewers are returning to that original, purpose-built device for video viewing – the television set.

At YouTube we’ve brought people back to the big screen by building a rich YouTube experience for set-top boxes, gaming consoles, streaming devices and smart TVs of all stripes. And now TV screens are our fastest growing screen, counting over 150 million hours of watch time per day.²

We heard from advertisers that they want in, so we have been working to make it easy for you to find your most engaged, valuable audience while they are watching YouTube on a TV set, with the new TV screens device type. In the coming months, we’ll add TV screens – joining computers, mobile phones and tablets – to AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager, so advertisers globally can tailor their campaigns for this environment – for example, by using a different creative.

We’ve already seen that people react positively to ads on the TV screen – based on Ipsos Lab Experiments, YouTube ads shown on TV drove a significant lift in ad recall and purchase intent, with an average lift of 47 percent and 35 percent respectively.³      

YouTube audiences on every screen

And for brands who want help reaching cord cutters, we now offer a new segment in AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager called “light TV viewers.” Advertisers will be able to reach people who consume most of their television and video content online and might be harder to reach via traditional media. This audience is reachable on YouTube across computers, mobile, tablets, and TV screens.

Welcoming YouTube TV to Google Preferred

Last year we launched YouTube TV, a new way to enjoy cable-free live TV. Now a year in, YouTube TV continues to gain momentum – we’ve recently added new networks to our service, expanded availability to over 85 percent of US households in nearly 100 TV markets, and announced partnerships with major sports leagues. For the first time, this upcoming broadcast season advertisers will be able to access full length TV inventory in Google Preferred.

Content from some cable networks in the US will be part of Google Preferred lineups so that brands can continue to engage their audience across all platforms. This means advertisers will be able to get both the most popular YouTube content and traditional TV content in a single campaign – plus, we’ll dynamically insert these ads, giving advertisers the ability to show relevant ads to the right audiences, rather than just showing everyone the same ad as they might on traditional TV.

As marketers continue to break the silos and think of holistic media plans, we’re excited to enable the opportunity. Because while TV screen viewing is big and growing fast, video is everywhere and the key is connecting with viewers wherever they watch.

^{1. Google commissioned Nielsen custom fusion study. Desktop, mobile and TV fusion. TV measurement of television distribution sources and total minutes viewed. Reach among persons 18-49. Light TV viewers represent the bottom tercile of total TV watchers based on total minutes viewed. October 2017.}

^{2. YouTube Internal Data, Global, Accurate as of Jan 2018. Based on seven day average of watch time for TV screen devices, which include smart TVs, Roku/Apple TV and game consoles.}

^{3. Google/Ipsos Lab Experiment, US, March 2018 (32 ads, 800 US residents 18-64 y/o).}