Google Says TV Doesn't Reach YouTube Viewers

At next week’s NewFronts, Google and its YouTube unit will be talking about the results of its Google Preferred ad package.

A new analysis done with research company Complete, found that desktop viewers who watch Google Preferred tend to be younger and more likely to be online shoppers in the market for products. And the study adds the majority are viewers not reached through other video platforms.

The survey found that one in 10 Google Preferred desktop viewers do not watch traditional TV at all and 90% of them do not visit any of the top five full-episode players offered by the big broadcast networks and Hulu.

Google Preferred is a package composed of some of YouTube’s most popular channels. It is sold with metrics and guarantees familiar to national television advertisers.

Based on the research, Google says that viewers ages 18-34 who watch video on smartphones are 2.3 times more likely to go to YouTube first for online video than to other platforms.

Google Preferred watchers are 2.7 times more likely to be online shoppers than the online population, and are in the market for a large variety of products, the survey found.  Among the categories where Google Preferred scored high were luxury cars, apparel, beauty, computers and tablets and home furnishing.

And those Google Preferred watchers are 29% more likely to visit a brand site immediately after visiting YouTube versus all YouTube viewers. They’re also 46% more likely to search for a brand on YouTube.

Details of the new survey can be found at Google’s blog.

The new results follow data released by Google showing that advertisers who participated in the Google Preferred program showed an 80% increase in ad recall and an 17% increase in brand awareness over the course of a year.

Of the 100 big brand advertisers who participated in the program last year, 30 of them had never participated on YouTube before and now they’re coming back, Google says.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.