YouTube launches AI-powered tools for customised ad campaigns in India

Marketers will be able to use these AI-powered tools to create multiple versions of a single display ad or video ad customised for different audiences, locations, languages or contexts.

YouTube has on September 27 announced the launch of a suite of tools in its Ads Creative Studio to help marketers in India make use of the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

These AI-powered tools will help marketers create multiple versions of a single display ad or video ad customised for different audiences, locations, languages or contexts.

Among the new tools include Flip Video which will enable advertisers to create vertical assets such as videos, even if they hadn't planned for it when they were setting up their campaign, the company said.

Another tool, Trim, uses machine learning to create shorter 6-second bumper ads from longer video ads, which can be just as effective as the latter.

To engage the growing number of connected television viewers, over 50 percent of whom watch YouTube content that is 21 min or longer on the big screen, marketers in India will get access to two new advertising solutions targeted towards this audience.

Advertisers will soon be able to put 30-second non-skippable ads in front of YouTube’s most popular content. The company will also start piloting new Pause experiences on Connected TV in 2024, which will allow viewers to learn more about a brand when the video is paused.

"Our AI-powered ads solutions that span the spectrum of creation, customization, and deployment will position businesses at the most rewarding intersection of media, creative, technology and content that only YouTube offers, and help brands achieve their business objectives with the advantage of incrementality," said Satya Raghavan, Director, Marketing Partners, Google India.

"In this rapidly evolving landscape, YouTube is the platform of choice for four out of every five people online. This is a testament to the unflagging contribution of India’s vast and growing creator economy" he said.

YouTube said that Indian viewers are splitting their viewing time across many different video formats, spending no more than 21 percent of their viewing time watching one format. Over 88 percent of online viewers in the age group of 18-44 years have also watched short-form video content on television in the past 12 months, it said.

Last week, the company said that its short video service YouTube Shorts is clocking over 70 billion daily views from over 2 billion signed-in monthly users across the world.

While the total hours of content uploaded to YouTube by channels in India grew by over 40 percent in June 2023 compared to June 2022, adults aged 35 and over averaged over 70 minutes of YouTube watch time per day in June 2023, the Google-owned video platform said.

On September 21, YouTube unveiled a suite of generative AI products and tools on its platform, to help creators make better videos. This includes an experimental feature called Dream Screen that will allow creators to create AI-generated video or image backgrounds for their short videos by just typing an idea into a prompt later this year.

The company said that videos related to or using generative AI tools have seen over 1.7 billion views this year across the world. Citing a survey, YouTube said that about 70 percent of 18-44 year-old online viewers are open to watching content from creators that use AI to generate their content.