YouTube to let advertisers target Gen Z based on trending music
Brands will be able to run ads against “lineups” of YouTube content related to songs that are most popular with the demo.
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What are the kids listening to these days? Asking for a friend advertiser…
YouTube’s latest ad offering, which will roll out later this summer, aims to answer that question, enabling brands to target Gen Zers based on the songs that are most popular with them at the moment, Nicky Rettke, VP of product management for YouTube ads, told Marketing Brew.
By leveraging AI, YouTube plans to create content packages centered around songs that are trending on YouTube among Gen Zers, Rettke said, enabling advertisers to target that demo based on their current music interests as YouTube continues to expand its audio ad offerings.
How it works: Using “audience signals” from its platform, YouTube is “able to identify the most popular music that’s resonating with Gen Z” across its content, Rettke explained. Those tracks will then be featured in packages, which YouTube calls “lineups,” for advertisers buying across YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Shorts.
- The lineup for a group of trending songs could include music videos, other content like Shorts, or just pure audio on YouTube Music, according to Rettke. Shorts in particular are “seeing incredible growth right now,” with over 50 billion views daily, she added.
- “We have a lot of Gen Z viewers coming to the platform, and music is playing a really big part in that,” Rettke told us. “We have seen lots of recent examples of songs taking on a life of their own through Shorts, songs from artists like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, or Miley Cyrus, so we want to give advertisers a way to really lean into this and help connect with these Gen Z audiences.”
YouTube ❤️ audio: YouTube is a popular platform among podcast and music listeners, several recent reports indicate, which could be part of why the company has pushed further into the audio advertising space recently.
Last year, for instance, YouTube introduced a podcast lineup that enables brands to buy ads specifically in podcast videos, and started a program through its branded-content platform offering advertisers a way to connect with podcasters to coordinate host-read ads on their videos.—AM
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