Dive Brief:

• YouTube is allowing TrueView ads to take advantage of the 360-degree view videos rolled out in March.
• The new 360-degree ads are geared toward mobile users, who can drag the viewing angle around within videos to watch from whatever perspective they choose.
• In May, Google announced that it's successful Google Shopping was coming to pre-roll ads on YouTube, which are an extension of YouTube's cards platform and powered by TrueView.

Dive Insight:

In March, YouTube began offering a 360-degree viewing experience for videos filmed with compatible cameras, allowing the viewer to use directional arrows to drag the viewing angle around and change their viewing perspective. The video site is now allowing advertisers to utilize 360-degree viewing for TrueView ads that run pre-roll before videos. These ads are skippable by viewers, and advertisers are only charged if ads are watched for 30 seconds, or the viewers clickthrough to a landing page.

A key element of the 360-degree video ads, YouTube believes, is these videos pack a particularly large punch on mobile, a major video advertising channel for marketers. The lure of a 360-degree video ad for marketers is the ability to reach a valued audience with an innovative, enhanced tech content piece.

“360 video ads are truly a mobile-first video ad product,” JR Futrell, YouTube ads product manager, told The Wall Street Journal. He added, “We’ve really designed them to help advertisers showcase their digital showrooms.”