“Buy buttons” are already prolific on Pinterest, Instagram and Google. And starting this fall, you’ll be able to shop for products from a wider range of YouTube videos as well. Until now, companies could only include shopping ads on their own YouTube videos, Business Insider reports. But now the links will appear on any video that allows it.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced Tuesday that the video-sharing giant will roll out YouTube Shopping Ads this fall, a feature whereby product ads with direct links to buying options will be placed throughout the site’s videos, the New York Times reports.
Wojcicki announced the move during an event at New York City’s advertising week as part of a recent increase in efforts to, as the New York Times puts it, “turn the video-sharing site’s more than a billion users, and its near-ubiquitous presence on the web, into profits.”
Shopping Ads will function as an opt-in service, whereby once a user agrees to the service, each of his or her videos will appear with an icon in its upper-right corner. Upon clicking the icon, viewers will be able see a list of products that match the video’s content and audience—along with pictures, prices, and a link to the retailers’ websites.
Much like with YouTube AdWords, advertisers will only have to cough up the dough when a viewer clicks on the ads. But there’s no avoiding this new feature for viewers. We hope you like shopping!
