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Getting people to your channel, and how TrueView video ads can help

By Phil Farhi

Senior Product Manager

There are many ways to promote your channel on YouTube, and we work hard to make sure you've got what you need to bring in new viewers. We made a prediction recently that by 2015, 50% of online ad campaigns would include a cost-per-view video campaign. Now, we want to give you an update on progress towards that prediction, as well as new features being announced.

Let's start with the past. Last year, we rolled out a new family of pay-per-view ad formats called TrueView video ads. With these ads, advertisers and creators alike pay only when a viewer has chosen to watch the ad. One year later, with the help of many YouTube partners, we’ve made significant progress in bringing pay-per-view video ads to life.

So what does this mean for your channel? Consider the following:

  • 40% of all in-stream ads on YouTube are now skippable
  • People have watched 18 years of video each day which came from TrueView ads
  • Only 2 percent of viewers preferred ads they can watch from start to finish without the option of skipping
  • 9 in 10 survey participants felt that TrueView in-stream ads lead to a more enjoyable YouTube experience
  • On average, TrueView in-stream ads reduce audience drop-off by 40% when compared to regular in-stream ads

As a viewer on YouTube, you make the choice of which ads you want to see and when. As a creator on YouTube, you get the engagement of video for your channel, with the precision of online advertising. Creators like Lionsgate, The History Channel, ABC News, The Onion, Michelle Phan, Machinima and Howcast have more effectively monetized their content.


And now, some news. Based on the success we’ve seen so far, we’re extending the benefits of TrueView to more viewers, advertisers and partners. We’ve started to work with publishers on the Google Display Network to include TrueView in-stream ads in their own video content. Beginning November 17, we will also add two new formats to the TrueView family: YouTube Promoted Videos will become TrueView in-search and in-display and Google Click-to-Play video ads will also become part of TrueView in-display.


We also recently announced Google AdWords for video (beta) to make it easy for any size of advertiser to set-up, manage and optimize video campaigns that include TrueView video ads. We expect even greater advertiser adoption - and more revenue for partners. To help you make informed decisions about which ad types to allow on your content, we will also be rolling out reporting that will show you revenue at the per format level. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact your account manager.

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