YouTube is testing ads within Shorts

YouTube has announced that it is to begin testing advertisements within its short-form video platform, and shameless TikTok clone, Shorts. 

After launching in 2020, YouTube’s Shorts platform has been steadily growing thanks to enticing creator funds and the feature being shoved in users’ faces whether they like it or not. Now that YouTube Shorts has a healthy userbase to tap into, the company has unveiled the next step of its plan, filling Shorts full of ads. 

In a recent earnings call, Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told investors that YouTube is now experimenting with app-install ads, similarly to what you see on Instagram, as well as other promotions, that will be integrated into the Shorts vertical feed.

Currently, it is unclear just how widespread this advertising test is, or when the program will roll out to all users across Shorts.

Later in the earnings call,  Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat reiterated this plan to investors, stating that “we are testing monetization on Shorts, and early advertiser feedback and results are encouraging.” Unfortunately, this means that the ads currently being tested likely won’t be going away anytime soon. 

In the earnings call, Google also claimed that YouTube’s Shorts now receives 30 billion views a day, which is four times more daily views than the feature received last year. While this huge number seems like an impressive feat, YouTube is still a long way behind TikTok which boasted last October that the platform had one billion active monthly users.