YouTube Shorts Expands Advertising Capabilities

YouTube Shorts has become a unique platform for reaching audiences. Let’s look at the new ad formats and controls.

“For brands, YouTube is a place where you can reach and interact with audiences throughout the entire purchase journey, including YouTube Shorts, which can now be up to 3 minutes long. In fact, according to Morgan Stanley AlphaWise research, 40% of YouTube Shorts users don’t use Instagram Reels or TikTok at all,” Google stated.

Exclusive Shorts Campaigns

Brands can now place ads exclusively in the Shorts section, optimising advertisements for consumers of short-form mobile content.

Interactive Ads with Stickers

By year-end, advertisers can use stickers in Shorts ads that are automatically generated from product images. The goal is to make Shorts ads more interactive and engaging for users.

Animated Image Ads for Demand Gen Campaigns

These ads draw product images from Google Merchant Center and present them in an animated format for Demand Gen campaigns, transforming static images into more dynamic advertising units and increasing engagement rates. The advantage is their global availability.

Enhanced Performance Measurement Tools

Google is introducing new tools for measuring ad effectiveness on Shorts. The vision is for creators to better understand their campaign impact.

The first of these tools is sales lift measurement through third parties. Brands will be able to determine how Shorts ads impact actual sales, gaining a clearer picture of advertising’s effect on conversions.

Another benefit is awareness lift surveys integrated directly into the Shorts environment. These surveys allow brands to track changes in brand awareness or user interest directly where users are active. These tools enable brands to not only better understand how their ads affect consumers but also target and adapt content more effectively for better results.

AI Campaigns and Format Flexibility

Google is enhancing AI-powered campaigns running on YouTube, including Shorts and in-stream format. This update gives brands the opportunity to improve how their ads are displayed according to campaign objectives.

Google has introduced new controls allowing advertisers to decide where their ads appear – whether exclusively on Shorts, only in in-stream formats, or both simultaneously. This way, advertisers can better optimise reach and user engagement while considering their audience’s behaviour across different formats.

Another improvement is the use of artificial intelligence for automatic video format adjustment. Google AI can now adapt ad sizes to suit various YouTube formats while maintaining important brand elements. This intelligent approach ensures advertising remains effective and visually consistent regardless of where it appears, thereby increasing its overall performance across the platform.

Creators play a significant role on YouTube, and Google is therefore expanding tools for brands wanting to effectively utilise their potential for building audience connections.

Partnership ads via BrandConnect, available globally, enable e-commerce brands to incorporate creator-made videos into their campaigns. According to Google’s data, these ads collaborating with YouTube Shorts creators achieve up to 20% higher conversion rates compared to ads containing only brand content.

Google has also introduced new video linking APIs and centralised collaboration management. This API allows brands to manage multiple video linking requests with creators, while a centralised dashboard in Google Ads significantly simplifies tracking and managing these partnerships.

YouTube Select and Creator Takeovers Options

For awareness-focused campaigns, YouTube Select now offers 100% share of voice on selected creators’ main channels. This gives brands exclusive presence on these channels.

Unfortunately, this option is currently only available in the USA, but Google plans wider global release in 2025.

This new toolkit reflects Google’s focus on providing flexible, measurable, and creative advertising formats on YouTube. Updated targeting options, enhanced measurement tools, and expanded creator collaboration aim to help brands reach audiences more effectively at every stage of the purchase journey on a platform that covers both short and long-form content.