Together at Home is a new, recurring series about the current global climate, how the world is adjusting, and what it means for the industry. This series will explore how shared stay-at-home behaviors are uniting consumers while also shaping the digital ecosystem.
Given the current global climate, it’s no secret that consumers are streaming more content. In “Streaming Wars,” IAS found that 90% of U.S. consumers have access to a connected TV (CTV) device, and 63% of them prefer to use CTV to stream content. But what else are consumers leaning into during this time?
According to eMarketer, 51% of consumers are spending more time on social media, and 58.5% of them are spending more time watching video on free streaming services like YouTube. Facebook traffic, for example, had increased 27% by March 24th, and YouTube witnessed a 15.3% bump. And yet, it’s estimated that in the short term, advertisers are likely to decrease ad spend on social media by 28%. While it’s understandable for marketers to make adjustments in response to the current situation, increased traffic on social media sites have also driven down CPMs, creating an opportunity to test new channels and strategies at lower costs. YouTube, specifically, saw a 15-20% CPM decrease from February to March.
In the current climate, consumers don’t expect brands to stop advertising, but they do recognize when brands make the effort to appear in suitable environments. So how can you make your media dollars work smarter during this time in social environments?
IAS is partnering with all the leading social media platforms to give you the data you need to measure every interaction between your brand and consumers. We will be doing a small series on this topic, starting with YouTube. Earlier this year, IAS created a solution for YouTube, giving brands the ability to proactively protect against unsuitable content by leveraging the new Verification solution.
The IAS YouTube Channel Inclusion List solution gives advertisers access to brand safety and suitability at the same rate content is growing on YouTube. IAS’s brand safety technology verifies over 100 billion impressions on YouTube annually. This data is then used to train IAS machine learning models to dynamically assess the risk levels of each video across an estimated 3.5 million YouTube channels.
What you get
- The only brand-safe and suitable channel list solution for YouTube in market
- Channels are re-screened weekly, up to 12x more frequently than competitive solutions
- Precise content and language classification across 27 languages-the most in market-with more on the way
- Protection across devices: desktop, mobile, tablet, and connected TV
- Video-level insight available daily to remove campaigns from high-risk environments faster
Right now, advertisers have an opportunity to connect with more consumers on social media platforms at a low cost, but as dollars shift toward these new environments, measurement is just as critical. To learn more about the YouTube Channel Inclusion List, contact your IAS representative or download our one-sheet.
