Google Preferred is a program over at YouTube that chances are, many of you have never heard of. The skinny is that it’s a program for advertisers to target the most popular channels and categories. We’re talking the top 5% of channels, which means they are going to be getting a ton of traffic and video views. YouTube announced this week that they are opening this up a bit more to viral videos. This is going to mean more exposure for advertisers, as they’ll be able to jump on a viral video while it’s still viral, and get more eyes on their ads. They are calling it “Google Preferred Breakout Videos”.
Google Preferred allows advertisers to use display, skippable, and non-skippable video ads. They also mentioned that they have seen a 400% jump in Google Preferred spending overall. Of course, part of that is the fact that Magna Global has committed to spending $250 million in ads over the next five quarters. Magna Global is an ad-buying company that buys ads on TV, typically, for large brands like Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola and many others. Seeing them move a big part of their budget to YouTube is also a pretty big deal. Additionally, Google Preferred is where advertisers are going to want to be, considering YouTube reaches more of the younger audience (18 to 49 year olds) during prime time (8pm to 11pm) than the combination of the top 10 TV shows. That’s a pretty telling statistic for YouTube and something advertisers are going to be excited about.
This change to Google Preferred could be a way to bring in more advertising dollars, but also get them set up for “Unplugged” which was rumored earlier this week. The gist of Unplugged, according to the rumors, is that it’s going to be sort of like Sling TV. Where you can get live streaming network channels like ESPN, Animal Planet, CNN, and many others, on YouTube. This could be a monthly subscription service, but if they get enough advertising dollars, it could be free and based on ads. Currently this is all rumor, and nothing has been confirmed, however.