YouTube is helping advertisers better reach music fans with new audio ads and music lineups.
As people stay home amid the pandemic and large-scale concerts and music venues remain closed, YouTube says more consumers have turned to the platform to listen to music as they go about their daily lives. In an effort to connect marketers to these listeners, YouTube is introducing audio ads in beta. These ads are characterized by creative where the audio soundtrack plays the starring role in delivering the brand’s message. The visual component is typically a still image or simple animation.
Music lineups are dedicated channels across genres of music like Latin, K-pop, Country and Hip-Hop or even moods like relaxation or fitness, where marketers can choose to run ads. Dynamic lineups are locally relevant by country and can include seasonal events, travel and other topics. YouTube Select Music Lineups consist of the top 5% of premium music content across YouTube globally, such as official music videos. If a brand prefers to run ads in what’s popular at any given moment, they can buy against the Top 100 lineup, which is powered by YouTube Charts.
Audio ads have certainly been a growing category of interest. Amazon has veered heavily into audio ads already on its Alexa device.