Google’s New Product Feed for Video Ads

There’s good news for brands that use Video campaigns. In recent days, Google rolled out an update that is set to change how shoppable ads are. If you’re using Video campaigns, you and your brand can show even more during your ads. The company announced that brands would be able to show product feed images during video ads. This allows for a more shoppable experience, more effective ads, and there’s more good news! You don’t even have to make a separate Trueview for your new shopping campaign. So how can you take advantage of these new changes?

How Will The Product Feed Work?

In the past, Google Merchant Center product feeds could only link Video action campaigns, and none of the other campaign types could. When users see your Video ad, the panel below your video will expand to show more products. Currently, this is only supported in portrait display mode for mobile users. The products shown can be scrolled, clicked, examined, and present large and robust images. The image will open your store page and allow users to buy your product by tapping on a selection.

This smooths out the process considerably and presents a more attractive storefront during your Video ad. While your ad is playing, it is almost as if YouTube becomes another store page for your brand. Your Merchant Center product feed needs at least four items with a square product image to enable this feature. As this new panel will only show the main image for your product, you should give this one a 1:1 aspect ratio.

Ensure The Panel

To enable this panel, you must set up a product feed in the Merchant Center. It needs at least four products, but Google recommends using more than four products in your feed. Naturally, these products must follow Google’s personalized advertising and Shopping ad policies. Next, enable Shopping ads. You need a Merchant Center to account for the process, so set one up if you don’t have one. Next, link your Merchant Center account to your Google Ads account.

Best practices include, according to Google:
• Ensuring your products are available in your target region. You can change this setting in your product feed settings.
• Use item group IDs for larger feeds. This helps group similar products and prevent duplicate items from taking up space in your feed.
• Plan your campaigns to allow for three business days for Google to approve your new product feed.
• Follow all the best practices you do for Video action campaigns.

Why Do I Want This?

By making a few simple adjustments and tweaking some settings, you turn YouTube into an extension of your storefront. Brands that use these product feeds see increases in their conversion rate, up to over 60% more clicks. This is a clear, unambiguous upgrade to Video campaigns. This new feature can help you present a more carefully planned, synergized ad campaign. By coordinating new product feeds with markets and items you’re promoting, you can direct more traffic where you need it. Of course, like any new feature, it requires some getting used to. Take the time to test it out before you commit to using it for large campaigns.

Hopefully, we can look forward to a more robust, interactive, and useful ad experience on YouTube. A 60% increase in conversion rates is nothing to sneeze at, that’s for sure! If you want more relevant information on topics like this, find us at Emu Web Marketing.