• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

To help brands and agencies improve their campaign efforts on YouTube, the video-sharing platform is launching a program designed to highlight third-party providers capable of assisting with YouTube ads.

Per YouTube’s recent blog post, its new “Activation Partners” program focuses on showing advertisers a collection of trusted third-party partners known for their “expertise in buying strategies and campaign management,” including platform-specific optimizing and targeting. 

Listed partners featured in the program currently include Channel Factory, MiQ Digital, Pixability, and Zefr. Each partner has a unique set of skills, whether its AI-powered targeting, contextual insights, ad buying, and more.

For example, MiQ processes trillions of signals to help advertisers understand what consumers are watching, browsing and buying. 

These providers have an “Activation Partners” badge attached to their YouTube account. However, new partner onboarding is on pause, with application for future membership open on a rolling basis.

As the number-one streaming platform in the U.S., Google-owned YouTube notes that its activation partners will focus primarily on connected TV (CTV) campaigns, in order to help brands and agencies better relate to consumers’ YouTube streaming habits.