YouTube Select is Google’s new program for running ads on top videos

Abner Li | May 19 2020 - 5:00 am PT

Google Preferred lets advertisers pay to have their ads appear in front of YouTube’s top videos and channels. The program is now being updated and replaced with “YouTube Select.”

Google calls YouTube Select a “reimagination and unification of solutions like Google Preferred and prime packs.” Advertisers can choose from different “lineups” that are “tailored to globally and locally relevant needs like beauty & fashion, entertainment, technology, sports, and everything in between.”

In 2019, global lineups delivered an average awareness lift of 13% and an average purchase intent lift of 9%. And in an MMM meta-analysis we commissioned with Nielsen in the US, YouTube Select lineups had greater ROI than TV in 73% of MMMs that measured YouTube Select lineups, Other Digital, and TV in 2016-2018.

One new content package offering in the US this year will help advertisers reach “up and coming or niche channels.” Meanwhile, YouTube Select can run sponsorships and other campaigns in the YouTube Music and Kids apps, Sports vertical, and Originals.

YouTube Select comes amid the world facing an advertising downturn and changing consumer habits, especially toward streaming content. Given the uptick in people watching video on television screens, YouTube Select features a lineup dedicated to streaming TV:

Streaming TV combines the best of YouTube TV and lineups content, both on TV screens. That means being able to easily reach your audience with a single, scalable offering on the big screen across the best content, including popular creators, YouTube Originals, live sports, feature length movies, timely news, and more.

Google also hopes to address advertisers looking for greater flexibility in how and when they buy YouTube ads. Other Select features include brand suitability controls and the ability to make sure advertising only appears on videos — when available — that have been machine classified and human-verified as brand-safe.