03:54    Silver Push

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YouTube is the most popular video hosting website in the world with most extensive catalog of online videos. The number of monthly logged-in users on YouTube is about 2 billion. YouTube offers tremendous opportunities to advertisers.

YouTube provides a wide range of ad formats and varied targeting options to marketers, enabling them to effectively and easily reach their target audience. It is important for marketers to use the right YouTube targeting options in order to drive success to their YouTube advertising campaigns. Using basic keyword and topic targeting at the start may not result in success. Below are discussed some handpicked ways that you as a marketer can use for effective targeting on YouTube -

Custom Intent Audiences

This targeting option helps marketers in reaching new customers on YouTube on the basis of the keywords used by the users to search for products and services on Google.com. It is not necessary that these audiences have any previous interaction with your brand. These are built from users who have recently searched the keywords that were used by you for to creating your audience.

Some of the great custom intent audiences that you can test out for your video advertising campaigns on YouTube are -

·       Converting search queries - You can use your list of converting queries from your search campaigns to display video ads to users who have searched for these queries.

·       Converting keywords – These keywords are not the same as converting search queries. You can create a different audience based on these.

·       Competitor terms - These allow you to show your video ads to users that are actively searching for your competitors. 

·       Best-selling products - You can create an audience from your best-selling products. You can easily find these products from the sales report of your e-commerce platform. 

Life Events

Life Events can prove to be a great targeting option. It allows you to show ads to customers during life milestones such as starting a business, graduating from college, changing or starting a job, getting married, purchasing a house, retiring from job, etc.

These life events provide a great opportunity to brands, which offer products or services needed in these moments, to emotionally connect with consumers. For effective targeting via life events, your video creative should clearly show consumers how your brand can help them go through these milestones smoothly.

Customer Match

Customer match allows marketers to target audiences by making use of the first-party online and offline data, i.e. the information shared by the customers. It enables marketers to target ads to their customers and to new audiences similar to them.

Ad Pods

YouTube's ad pod delivery method shows two ads back to back, i.e. one ad right after the other. Combining two ads in an ad pod, instead of showing them separately, provides an ad experience similar to the TV ads. Ad pods result in fewer ad break interruptions, which in turn increases the rates of both content and ad viewing.

TrueView Discovery Ads

TrueView discovery ads appear on the search results and watch pages on YouTube. YouTube is a huge search engine, next only to Google.com. It allows users to conduct search for specific videos that they are interested in. TrueView discovery ads campaign is unique as a video advertising campaign as it is the only one in Google Ads that allows marketers to target just the YouTube's search results page.

Combining keyword targeting with TrueView discovery campaigns offers a great way to capitalize on user intent. By running TrueView discovery ad campaigns, marketers can take over the top spot of the search results page on YouTube.

Video Ad Sequencing

Video ad sequencing enables marketers to use a series of video ads in a customized order to state their product or brand story to consumers. This YouTube marketing tool helps in building consumers' interest in the brand and its products or services.

Custom Affinity Audiences

This targeting method allows marketers to build audiences that are specifically interested in the products their brands make rather than the broad product categories. For example, if your brand makes running shoes, then you can specifically reach runners instead of those generally interested in sports.

In-Market Audiences

By using this targeting option, marketers can target audiences that are actively researching, comparing, and considering purchasing products or services that their brands offer.

Director Mix

Director Mix is a great video advertising tool offered by Google that allows easy creation of multiple versions of a video at scale. Thus, marketers can easily customize video ads for different audiences, languages and locations. This tool allows easy swapping out of elements such as sound, images and text in order to deliver video ads tailored to specific audiences. Even the creative can be fully changed without any loss of quality.  

Real-Time Triggers

By using real-time triggers, marketers can time their YouTube ads to align with significant moments associated with specific events such as a goal in a football match. This feature allows marketers to capitalize on consumers' cross-screen behavior.

Similar Audiences

This YouTube targeting feature helps marketers by automatically finding new audiences similar to those already existing in their remarketing lists. In order to find the like-minded audiences, Google makes use of a machine learning algorithm.

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What's New in YouTube Advertising for Marketers?

What's New in YouTube Advertising for Marketers? 

  00:44    Silver Push

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Marketers are well aware of the advantages afforded by YouTube advertising. YouTube ads help in generating and spreading brand awareness, and in increasing sales.  

From time to time, YouTube updates its platform by adding new features. Adopting these new features into video advertising campaigns on YouTube can help marketers in connecting with users more meaningfully and effectively, and in boosting performance of their campaigns.  

Below are discussed some of the new features incorporated into the YouTube advertising platform -    

Direct Response Shoppable Ad Format  

In June 2020, YouTube announced a new ad format known as the direct response ad format. This new format will help brands by making video ads on YouTube video more shoppable. This new format adds browsable images of products beneath the video ad. This helps in driving traffic directly to the product pages. This new format comes at a time when people are increasingly shopping through e-commerce platforms to avoid chances of getting infected by shopping through physical stores.  

Video Action Campaigns  

YouTube also announced video action campaigns in June 2020. This feature offers a cost-effective and easy way to marketers to increase the number of conversions. It works by showing video ads that drive action automatically to the following - home feed, watch pages, and Google video partners. All of this happens within one single campaign. Any future inventory that becomes available will be included by YouTube. This new feature will help marketers in saving their precious time for focusing on important tasks such as building the right creative.  

Video Reach Campaigns  

Video reach campaigns provide an easy and efficient way to marketers for achieving their video advertising goals on YouTube. With this feature, marketers are able to upload multiple video creatives into just a single advertising campaign. It saves them from managing separate campaigns for different types of ads such as bumper ads and skippable / non-skippable in-stream ads. A machine learning (ML) algorithm, developed by Google, automatically displays the most efficient combo of the video ad formats in order to help marketers reach their audiences at scale.  

YouTube Masthead  

YouTube Masthead allows marketers to showcase brands, or their products or services, in the YouTube Home feed. The ad gets displayed across all devices. YouTube Masthead offers a highly effective solution for driving massive reach and allows marketers to plan their buys in advance without depending on auction. As this ad is placed on the YouTube's home page, it provides an extreme opportunity to marketers to show off their brands.  

Instant Review / Instant Reserve  

YouTube's Instant Review tool allows marketers to reserve ad space for up to one hundred and twenty days in advance. This happens through an automated process and does not require any minimum spend. By using this tool, marketers can book campaigns in advance with a defined budget. Using this tool to reserve ad campaigns in advance is similar to scheduling ads on TV, enabling marketers to secure spots beforehand for future important events.  

Augmented Reality (AR) Try-On Ads  

Augmented Reality (AR) involves superimposing digital content such as sound, images and text onto the world we see. YouTube's AR Try-On ads are shown to users in a split-screen format. Video plays on the top part of the split-screen while camera view appears at the bottom. A user can then see what he or she looks like after trying the make-up featured in the video.   

By using these new YouTube advertising features, marketers can run more effective campaigns and gain a competitive edge.    

  

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Using TV Sync to Capitalize on Virtual Sports

Using TV Sync to Capitalize on Virtual Sports

  06:14    Silver Push

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, traditional live sports are not taking place. This has led to the popularity of virtual sports among the fans.

In order to maintain their fanbase and generate advertising revenues, the organizers of sports such as horse-racing, motor-racing, football, boxing, baseball, cycling, etc. are increasingly streaming virtual sports on various online platforms like YouTube and Twitch, and even are broadcasting virtual sporting events on traditional television platforms.

As people are not being able to enjoy the real games, they are turning to live streaming and broadcasting of virtual sports, and taking pleasure in watching participants playing games. They are also themselves excitedly taking part in those video games.

MotoGP has introduced the "Stay At Home GP" virtual races. These virtual tournaments are proving out to be eventful motorcycle races as spectators are extremely glad to watch what they have been missing for a long time. They are thrilled to watch motorcycle racing legends once again competing with each other.

British broadcaster Sky broadcasted virtual Bahrain Grand Prix, which proved to be a great success. The e-WBSS (World Boxing Super Series) organized a virtual boxing tournament with some of the best boxers. The fights were arranged between those boxers that we one can only think of fighting against each other in his or her dreams. The tournament drew massive audience engagement and proved to be a great success.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of virtual sports for people has strengthened. Virtual sporting events provide a great way for organizers to generate revenue from advertising, while for the brands they turn out to be an effective way to reach audiences through advertising.

But with consumers' cross-screen behavior, brands cannot fully achieve their advertising goals by advertising only on TV. A study showed that more than 90% of the participants kept a smartphone near them while watching TV, just like the remote control of TV. To capitalize on the cross-screen behavior of consumers, it has become important for marketers to use the TV sync technology.

TV syncing allows marketers to show ads on a viewer’s smartphone through social media platforms at the same time when same or related ads are appearing on the TV. This sync marketing technology also allows communicating brand messages through second screens right at the moment when something important occurs in the virtual sports competitions such as a goal during a virtual football match.

Two types of TV sync are available - self-sync and competition-sync. Self-sync allows a brand to capitalize on TV viewers’ cross-screen behavior by simultaneously displaying its own ads on both TV and social media. Competition sync allows a brand to capitalize on competitors’ TV ads by displaying its ads on social media at the same time when its competitor’s TV commercial is running.

During the coronavirus times, when virtual sports are being adored by sports fans across the globe, the real-time sports syncadvertising technology offers a perfect way to brands to communicate their messages by leveraging consumers' cross-screen behavior.   

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Effective Ways for Marketers for YouTube Targeting

Effective Ways for Marketers for YouTube Targeting

  06:05    Silver Push

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YouTube is the most popular video hosting website in the world with most extensive catalog of online videos. The number of monthly logged-in users on YouTube is about 2 billion. YouTube offers tremendous opportunities to advertisers.

YouTube provides a wide range of ad formats and varied targeting options to marketers, enabling them to effectively and easily reach their target audience. It is important for marketers to use the right YouTubetargeting options in order to drive success to their YouTube advertising campaigns. Using basic keyword and topic targeting at the start may not result in success. Below are discussed some of the hand-picked ways that you as a marketer can use for targeting on YouTube -

Custom Intent Audiences

This targeting option helps marketers in reaching new customers on YouTube on the basis of the keywords used by the users to search for products and services on Google.com. It is not necessary that these audiences have any previous interaction with your brand. These are built from users who have recently searched the keywords that were used by you for to creating your audience.

Some of the great custom intent audiences that you can test out for your video advertising campaigns on YouTube are -

·       Converting search queries - You can use your list of converting queries from your search campaigns to display video ads to users who have searched for these queries.

·       Converting keywords – These keywords are not the same as converting search queries. You can create a different audience based on these.

·       Competitor terms - These allow you to show your video ads to users that are actively searching for your competitors. 

·       Best-selling products - You can create an audience from your best-selling products. You can easily find these products from the sales report of your e-commerce platform. 

Life Events

Life Events can prove to be a great targeting option. It allows you to show ads to customers during life milestones such as starting a business, graduating from college, changing or starting a job, getting married, purchasing a house, retiring from job, etc.

These life events provide a great opportunity to brands, which offer products or services needed in these moments, to emotionally connect with consumers. For effective targeting via life events, your video creative should clearly show consumers how your brand can help them go through these milestones smoothly.

TrueView Discovery Ads

TrueView discovery ads appear on the search results and watch pages on YouTube. YouTube is a huge search engine, next only to Google.com. It allows users to conduct search for specific videos that they are interested in. TrueView discovery ads campaign is unique as a video advertising campaign as it is the only one in Google Ads that allows marketers to target just the YouTube's search results page.

Combining keyword targeting with TrueView discovery campaigns offers a great way to capitalize on user intent. By running TrueView discovery ad campaigns, marketers can take over the top spot of the search results page on YouTube.

Computer Vision-Powered Contextual Targeting

This is a highly effective YouTube targeting method that enables marketers to dramatically boost the performance of their YouTube video advertising campaigns. Computer vision enables AI advertising platforms to detect and understand contexts in online videos. Faces, emotions, logos, objects, activities and scenes in online videos can be detected with high accuracy.

By using computer vision powered contextual targeting, you can place your ad against the video content that is highly relevant to the ad, i.e. your ad is fully in line with the content the user is actively engaging with. As the ad shown matches the current interest of the user, the chances of user viewing or clicking the ad are very high.

AI contextual targeting powered by computer vision offers a very high degree of contextual relevance unmatched by other methods of contextual advertising such as keyword targeting, which fail to fully reflect the user’s current state of mind and cannot understand nuances in context.

The above-mentioned, hand-picked ways for YouTube targeting will help marketers in effectively achieving their YouTube advertising goals.    

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Beyond Black and White: The True Color of Brand Safety

Beyond Black and White: The True Color of Brand Safety

  23:02    Silver Push

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Over the past few years, a lot of brand safety issues have surfaced that have led marketers to review their brand safety measures. The current coronavirus crisis has intensified the brand safety woes of marketers, as most of the brands don't want ad adjacency to the content dealing with morbidity and mortality. 

Common brand safety methods used by marketers include blacklisting and whitelisting. Blacklisting involves avoiding placement of ads against content containing one or more blocked keywords. In case of video content, a blocked keyword is searched in topic, title, description and metadata.

Keyword-based blacklisting method is in reality not that effective as it seems to be. It is marred by under- and over-blocking of content. Research shows that because of the use of keyword blacklists, more than half of the safe stories published on the major news platforms are being incorrectly tagged as brand unsafe.

Keyword-based blacklisting method can lead to blocking of completely innocuous content. This is because it fails to comprehend the nuances in context, i.e. it is unable to understand the true context in which a keyword is used. For example, if "alcohol" is the blocked keyword, then the blacklisting method will not only tag a video featuring drunk and driving as unsafe, but will also tag a video featuring a recipe in which alcohol has been used as one of the ingredients, as unsafe.

Another problem with blacklisting is that universal blacklists cannot be created. They have to be regularly updated and modified according to the brands' requirements, current happenings and events, latest news, countries, languages and culture. There is also a requirement to tweak blacklists regularly on the basis of current safe content consumption patterns of consumers, so that increased reach for the advertising campaigns can be achieved. Overall, keyword-based blacklisting method is quite cumbersome to implement as it needs a lot of fine-tuning. With this method, content under- and over-blocking is a common problem, and this hinders marketers in getting optimal results from their advertising campaigns.

A whitelist enlists content that has been labeled as safe for ads to be placed against it. A whitelist provides a safe and trusted environment to brands to advertise within. Curating a whitelist for advertising on a video platform, for example for YouTube advertising, involves tagging unsafe content at the keyword, topic, video and channel levels. Video-level tagging helps brands to filter out unsafe videos from an otherwise safe channel; brands do not have to blacklist the entire channel just because of one or few unsafe videos.

Again, like keyword blacklists, whitelists need to be regularly updated, otherwise the campaigns will not witness an increase in reach, and brands will miss newer safe and engaging content for their ads; ads will keep displaying against the same video content enlisted in the static whitelist. 

Creation of whitelists is not an easy process; it requires a lot of curation by marketers, and is time-consuming and expensive. As the whitelisting method limits the number of videos against which ads can be placed, marketers are unable to take the full advantage of the true potential of huge video hosting platforms like YouTube. The campaign's reach gets reduced and the right audience does not get fully targeted.

The above-mentioned brand safety methods provide only suboptimal brand safety and have significant limitations. A highly effective way of ensuring brand suitability and safety is provided by contextual brand safety method that makes use of AI and computer vision. AI-powered brand safety platforms that deploy computer vision technology, provide high degree of context relevance unmatched by keyword-based methods.

Computer vision can accurately detect contexts in videos such as faces, objects, logos, on-screen text, emotions, scenes and activities. Thus, it can effectively detect unsafe or harmful contexts in videos without the risk of under- and over-blocking of content.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, computer vision-powered brand safety platforms enable brands to selectively block ads against mortality-related coronavirus content, while allowing ad placement against positive coronavirus content. Thus, brands can safely capitalize on the news content; this is not possible with keyword-blacklists that fail to understand the true context in which the keyword "coronavirus" is being used.

By using AI-based contextual brand safety method, marketers can not only effectively block ad placement against recognized unsafe categories, but can also custom define unsuitable contexts that are unique to a brand. This helps them provide a fully suitable environment to brands for advertising.         

Computer vision enables marketers to go beyond blacklists and whitelists in order to achieve brand safety in its true color.    

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Synergistic Approach to Visual Content Moderation Is Both Effective and Efficient

Synergistic Approach to Visual Content Moderation Is Both Effective and Efficient

  02:49    Silver Push

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Enormous amount of content in the form of images, videos and text is posted on the world wide web on an hourly basis. As this content is posted by users around the globe, the nature of the content is highly heterogeneous.

User-generated content carries an immanent risk of being inappropriate, harmful, offensive, or dangerous. This content can be classified into the categories such as nudity, terrorism, hatred, child exploitation, violence, misinformation, etc. and requires strict moderation.

Content moderation is commonly achieved through human moderators. AI-based content moderation has also emerged and offers an automated way to filter out inappropriate content.

The enormous and heterogeneous user generated content cannot be moderated effectively and efficiently by using just one method of moderation - manual or automatic. The best approach is synergistic, i.e. using the combination of both human and AI moderation. Social media platforms are increasingly using the synergistic approach for achieving optimum level of content moderation.   

By using the synergistic approach for content classification and moderation, online platforms can enjoy the benefits of both human and AI moderation - the intelligence, wisdom and judgement of human beings, and the capability of AI-powered platforms to evaluate enormous amount of content in no time.         

AI content moderation platforms powered by computer vision makes image and video moderation highly efficient. Computer vision can detect faces, emotions, objects, logos, on-screen text, actions and scenes in the images and videos with high accuracy. Such platforms can determine whether the images or videos should be reviewed by a human content moderator or not. Thus, human moderators are saved from filtering out large volumes of content themselves; this also saves them from viewing mentally disturbing content in large quantities on a daily basis. They can look only at the images and videos flagged by the AI platform and make a publishing decision. The decision taken by the human moderator feeds back into the algorithm, but the reason for the decision does not.    

AI makes content moderation much easier for human moderators. By considering a number of factors, an advanced AI content moderation algorithm can calculate a relative risk score to determine if a user's post should be posted immediately after creation, reviewed before posting, or should not be posted. This relative score can then be used by human moderators while making a publishing decision.

Although AI content classification and moderation enables online platforms to hire less number of human moderators, the need for human moderation will always remain and is indispensable. Without human moderators, accurate content moderation is not possible. Only human content moderators can make decisions that lie in the gray areas of decision-making, view a user's content from a subjective perspective, understand cultural context of content, etc.

Armed with a computer vision powered video and image moderation platform, human content moderators easily identify and filter out inappropriate visual content from large volumes of user generated content posted on online platforms.

By following a synergistic approach, which involves using both AI and human moderation, online platforms dealing with loads of user generated content can achieve efficient and effective content moderation.

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