• by Colin Kirkland , April 18, 2024

In an effort to help brands get the attention of as many viewers as possible, YouTube is launching a “Select Shorts” ad offering, to give advertisers the ability to engage audiences across a variety of content genres by placing their ads alongside best-performing Shorts.

According to the Google-owned social platform, YouTube Select Shorts will allow advertisers to choose to place their ad alongside the app's top Shorts across five categories including entertainment, beauty, fashion and lifestyle, food and recipes, gaming and automotive.

With the option to select which types of content an advertisers wants their campaign to run with, they may have a better chance of relating to a niche YouTube audience that aligns with their brand.

According to numbers provided by YouTube, the company's short-form video product is its most promising, amassing an audience of 2 billion logged-in users per month and 70 billion daily views, with Shorts viewership on TVs increasing rapidly due to improved presentation of the short-form clips on its CTV app.

In addition, Shorts ads are viewed for 90% longer than ads on other social competitors, according to a report from MediaScience.

Kantar research has also shown that by applying YouTube’s “ABCD principles,” which stands for Attention (“hook and sustain attention with an immersive story”); Branding (“brand early, often and richly”); Connection (“help people think or feel something” ); and Direction (“Ask them to take action”), short-term sales likelihood can lift by 30% and long-term brand impact can lift by 17%