YouTube said on Wednesday that it is changing the placement of its ads in YouTube Shopping. Now, ads will show up in place of the product shelf and a creator’s products will appear in the video description. The changes, which only apply to mobile users for now, aim to make it easier for customers to browse and shop for items.
“With this change most creators should earn more revenue from ads and can maximize their earnings by using video descriptions and product tagging for selling their products on YouTube,” Google, YouTube’s owner, said in a statement.
Here’s what the changes will look like:
In addition, YouTube said creators can feature and tag products in their videos. This aims to further streamline a viewer’s ability to find a creator’s merchandise. For example, if a creator tagged products, viewers can tap the shopping bag icon in the video player. This will show any and all products the creator tagged. Tap View Products and you’ll be able to see a list of the items, how much they cost and buy them.
According to tagging guidelines, items have to be easily identifiable and prominently featured in the video, related to your content, and align with the manufacturer’s intent.
YouTube also plans to launch more features to coincide with the holiday shopping season. The update will include timestamps which lets creators control the “exact moment viewers can shop the products” in the video.
Over the last few months, YouTube has been rolling out and testing a number of new features and changes after it announced plans for a redesign last year. In August, YouTube confirmed it was trialing a smaller, less visible “Skip Ads” button and rounded edges on the main video player. The video sharing app knuckled down on blocking ad-blockers and plans to start showing 30-second unskippable ads. There have also been reports that YouTube Music is rolling out a redesigned “Now Playing” interface for Android and iOS with a comments section as well as updates to YouTube TV’s Library and DVR features.
Image credits: YouTube