YouTube, which has 81 per cent penetration in the APAC region against a global average of 78 per cent, is looking to provide greater transparency across the board to its community of advertisers, creators and consumers.
While recently announcing several additions to AdWords, Google first focussed on YouTube to improve its direct response advertising. Terming it ‘Custom Intent Audiences’, Google will now allow marketers to target people on YouTube who recently searched for products and services on the search engine website.
In other words, Google advertisers will now be able to reach YouTube viewers who have previously searched for related products and services. For example, if a consumer has searched for ‘wireless headphones’, she will be shown ads from headphone manufacturers the next time she visits YouTube.
A recent Juniper Research note had explained that advertising spend on FVOD (Free Video on Demand) content, such as media on YouTube and Facebook, is expected to surge over the next five years, reaching $37 billion by 2022. Data showed that this will scale up from an estimated $16 billion in 2017. The research note said unique users of such content will reach 4.5 billion globally by 2022, as the appetite for free video media continues to expand.
A study by eMarketer had revealed that YouTube has a penetration of 81 per cent across the Asia Pacific region, higher than anywhere else in the world.
Nearly half of digital video viewers, or 576.8 million people, will regularly watch video via the YouTube app or website this year, a number that is expected to grow 13.4 per cent this year, the study showed, adding that both India and Indonesia are said to be the fastest-growing mobile video markets in the region this year, increasing by 25.3 per cent and 18.2 per cent, respectively.
In India, YouTube is currently holding the fifth edition of its Fanfest. The five-city tour has been to Hyderabad (on March 3), Chennai (March 4), Bengaluru (March 10) and Delhi (March 17), and will be in Mumbai on March 23.