YouTube's serving up some fresh, personalized ads, helping brands hit the bullseye. How, you ask?
AI is discreetly powering a lot of products that directly affect consumers, such as the ads they see and where they see them online. Consumers interact with different AI through products such as Google’s Bard or the integrated AI search experience, SGE. Now, YouTube is bringing a new AI-powered innovation - the Spotlight Moments product, which makes use of Google AI.

Ads on YouTube will soon benefit from Google AI, the video hosting platform revealed alongside the launch of a new advertising product dubbed "Spotlight Moments." The goal is to use AI to determine which YouTube videos are the most popular in relation to a given cultural event, such as Halloween, a major awards show such as the Oscars or a sporting event like the Super Bowl. This can allow sponsors to then place ads within videos that are relevant to the topic or event they are promoting.
GroupM, an advertising agency, is the first to offer this new AI-powered solution to its advertising clients.

Compared to in-stream, the business claims that marketers whose campaigns included in-stream, in-feed and YouTube Shorts saw a 54% increase in reach at a 42% decrease in CPM (cost per thousand). Last month's introduction of Video View campaigns saw an increase of 40% in views and a reduction in cost-per-view of 30% compared to in-stream-only. Meanwhile, the first Video Reach Campaigns will go live in November.

 

What Makes YouTube’s AI Innovation Unique?

Search Engine Land explains YouTube's algorithm has already been using an AI-powered recommendation system to surface the most relevant and interesting videos to users. The algorithm adapts over time so that it can learn to meet the needs of each individual user. What a user wants to see more of or less of is determined by their preferences and interactions with the AI algorithm.

Machine learning algorithms have also long been used in the advertising industry to distribute adverts to specific demographics. However, Google has been anticipating a "new era" in which advances in generative AI will assist in revolutionizing the way in which the corporations market and distribute advertisements. For example, in May, Google debuted a new natural language conversational experience that allows businesses to ask AI for suggestions in the same way that one could ask a coworker, streamlining the process of creating Search advertising and getting them in front of more potential customers.

In addition, it employs generative AI to mechanically produce assets for Search advertisements, including headlines and descriptions, by mining content from the brand's homepage and their existing ads. Google AI can also study a company's website in order to populate a Performance Max AI campaign with appropriate language and assets, such as automatically-generated images for the ad. Moreover, advertising is being added to Google's conversational search interface, Search Generative Experience (SGE), allowing more AI-powered ads to be seen by digital consumers.


With YouTube unveiling AI-powered ads designed to help brands hit the mark on cultural moments, are we about to usher in a new era of personalized advertising?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!