YouTube promotes Tara Walpert Levy as it focuses on shopping and creators

Tara Walpert Levy, a Google executive who for years has worked closely with Google and YouTube marketing partners, is taking on a new role as Google VP of Americas for YouTube, the digital behemoth announced today. Walpert Levy is taking on expanded duties in the Americas and helping to develop shopping, news and gaming as categories within YouTube, a Google spokesperson said in an email to Ad Age. In her previous role, Walpert Levy was involved in agency and brand relations for Google and YouTube. Walpert Levy, who also has expertise in the ad tech and measurement side of the business, will continue to address those issues, while also evolving the shopping and gaming categories, and working with the creator and advertising communities, the Google spokesperson said. Walpert Levy is taking over for Kelly Merryman, who left Google in October to join Aura, a digital security firm. Walpert Levy has been with Google for more than 10 years. YouTube has been one of Google’s fastest-growing advertising businesses, as one of the more popular destinations for ad-supported video. YouTube generated $8 billion in ad revenue in the third-quarter, a year-over-year increase of 43%. YouTube is investing in new ad formats that make it easier for brands to work with creators to run shopping promotions, and for consumers to take actions from the ads, like linking to purchasing options to buy products in the videos. “From shoppable livestream experiments with retailers like Sephora, Target and Walmart to pilots that let viewers buy directly from their favorite creators’ videos, we’re still in the early innings of what’s possible,” Google’s Philipp Schindler, senior VP and chief business officer, said during last week’s earnings call. This marketing ecosystem is increasingly reliant on the 2 million creators who make the videos on YouTube. These are all areas that now fall under Walpert Levy’s purview. However, this also is an increasingly competitive space where advertisers are finding numerous options in commerce within social, video and connected TV apps. Digital properties like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are all also dealing with data and privacy changes on devices. Apple’s recent App Tracking Transparency protocols made it so apps have to get permission from consumers to track their web habits on iPhones, which has put a crimp on older methods of measuring the success of commerce from in-app advertising. That is one of the reasons so many platforms are trying to embed shopping directly into their services, so as not to be beholden to Apple for data about when sales get made. “A billion shopping sessions happen across Google every day, and they're happening on Search and YouTube and Image Search and the Shopping tab and Lens, and so on,” Schindler said last week. “So, frankly, we're really encouraged by the long-term opportunity in commerce. And we're laser-focused on helping businesses of all sizes connect with their customers wherever they are.”

YouTube promotes Tara Walpert Levy as it focuses on shopping and creators

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