YouTube is looking to help advertisers tap into the rising consumption of YouTube content on home TV sets with the expansion of Video Action campaigns to Connected TV (CTV) placements.

As explained by YouTube:

“If your goal is to drive online sales or generate leads, we recommend using Video Action campaigns. Video Action campaigns make it easy to find new customers efficiently in a single campaign by combining inventory from across YouTube and Google video partners - and now YouTube CTV. For the first time, performance advertisers can take advantage of YouTube on CTV to drive and measure conversions.

As you can see in the above example, Video Action campaigns display a URL at the bottom of the screen, prompting further action on the brand’s website. Which, given that people can’t click or tap on a URL link on their TV set, is one of the best ways to drive direct response – though it is less ‘direct’ than the normal definition of that term.

While mobile video consumption continues to rise, CTV viewing has also seen a sharp spike, with more people looking to watch online content on their home TV sets.

Big players like Netflix and Disney+ exemplify the space, but more traditional web players like YouTube are also benefiting, with YouTube noting that over 120 million people streamed YouTube or YouTube TV on their TV screens in December 2020 alone.

It’s another pandemic-lead consumption shift, and with more YouTube content being displayed on more, bigger TV screens, the platform has been working to add in more options to help advertisers reach this audience with stand out, dedicated, CTV options.

The expansion of Video Action campaigns is the latest advance on this, while YouTube also provides Masthead ads for CTV, and has improved its ad targeting options specifically for CTV campaigns.

It’s a good addition, which will be valuable for brands seeking traditional TV-like ad placement. And as CTV consumption continues to rise, TV-like ads are becoming more affordable, with better targeting and more specific audience options to better balance cost, and maximize efficiency.

It’s definitely worth considering – you can find out more about YouTube’s Video Action campaigns here.