YouTube does not reveal the “secret sauce”—how it determines what content makes it into the “select” category for Shorts—but the program is an outgrowth of the one on YouTube proper. YouTube made that a premium level of advertising partly in response to major brands wanting more control over how they appear on the platform and assurances about higher-quality programming.
In 2022, TikTok launched a similar program called Pulse, promising brands positions near higher quality videos. These programs are meant to achieve brand safety in highly dynamic mobile feeds, where advertisers are concerned about misinformation, edgy content, and other risky videos.
“I can’t give away too much of the secret sauce, but for Shorts, specifically, we’re looking at what content is resonating on the platform, what’s popular with the viewers,” Hsieh Nikolic said. Shorts select ad inventory is “refreshed very frequently because we know Shorts is kind of trending, it’s moving,” Hsieh Nikolic said. “So, it’s really getting in front of that content and we do look at adjacency for that content in order to place the ad.”
‘Homemade-vibe feeling’
YouTube’s foray into Shorts represents an important shift for the video site and its creators. YouTube launched Shorts in 2020, a time when Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snap, and others also developed TikTok-style video feeds to compete with the surging popularity of that app. Viewers, creators and advertisers all had to adjust to the new mode of mobile video consumption.
Google, which owns YouTube, has said Shorts now generate more than 70 billion daily views among 2 billion logged-in viewers. The vertical videos are also seeping into YouTube’s connected TV strategy, as Shorts ads can also run on the CTV app.
The creative aspect of the ads are very different than TV spots, though, and YouTube is nudging advertisers to adopt new practices for the Shorts feed. This week, YouTube also updated its creative guidelines, because what worked for 15- and 30-second YouTube commercials is different than what works in the Shorts feed.
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YouTube showed an example by clothier Brooks Brothers as one of the successful ways to use Shorts. Brooks Brothers worked with creators to shoot the Shorts spots for Father’s Day last year.
“What we’re trying to get out there is for advertisers to understand that when a user is engaged in Shorts they’re very leaned into what they more natively see on that platform,” Hsieh Nikolic said, “and what can advertisers do in order to get more of that authentic, homemade-vibe feeling versus something that’s super polished, and potentially is more fit for long-form CTV.”
