As we all know, the US General Election is just around the corner and all political campaigns are now in the final stages of their canvasing with advertisements about the candidates their parties have chosen. YouTube has been a major host of many advertisement campaigns, but now, according to a report by Bloomberg, the famous video platform is finding it hard to accommodate all the ads, especially the ones that target viewers from states of critical swing. The slots for these ads have decreased on YouTube and now, the prices for the placement of political ads in those regions have increased quite dramatically too.
Bloomberg further reported that political parties are merely able to spend up to 25% of their all ad-spend budget on YouTube marketing (even if they want to spend more). This is because YouTube surprisingly gets crammed up pretty bad and it hardly has any more space for placing three-quarters of these ads.
Another reason for this is that whatever little space YouTube is left with, higher-paying political campaigns win those slots and usurp all the space, so many other parties do not even get a chance to find a space for their ads on the platform. As per Reid Vineis, the VP of political ad firm, Majority Strategies, this is one of the major reasons why more than three-quarters of political ads do not find a place on YouTube, and this has resulted in them to migrate towards other forums like Roku and Hulu for the placement of their political video ads.
On the other hand, YouTube told NBC that it is not just political ads, but YouTube has been seeing high demands in other ad categories that are related to the election or political campaigns. These ad categories include those of car sales and other holiday-related shopping ads. However, YouTube is sort of denying this space cramming issue by saying that it has plenty of advertising inventory that can still accommodate the majority of ad campaigns.
Whether that is true or not, YouTube’s parent company Google has reportedly sold around $140 million worth of space of political ads in the US in one month alone. And that includes space on YouTube and various other platforms by Google.
Let us see how all these political campaigns will eventually turn out and what is the outcome of the election? Hopefully, something better comes up this time around!
Bloomberg further reported that political parties are merely able to spend up to 25% of their all ad-spend budget on YouTube marketing (even if they want to spend more). This is because YouTube surprisingly gets crammed up pretty bad and it hardly has any more space for placing three-quarters of these ads.
Another reason for this is that whatever little space YouTube is left with, higher-paying political campaigns win those slots and usurp all the space, so many other parties do not even get a chance to find a space for their ads on the platform. As per Reid Vineis, the VP of political ad firm, Majority Strategies, this is one of the major reasons why more than three-quarters of political ads do not find a place on YouTube, and this has resulted in them to migrate towards other forums like Roku and Hulu for the placement of their political video ads.
On the other hand, YouTube told NBC that it is not just political ads, but YouTube has been seeing high demands in other ad categories that are related to the election or political campaigns. These ad categories include those of car sales and other holiday-related shopping ads. However, YouTube is sort of denying this space cramming issue by saying that it has plenty of advertising inventory that can still accommodate the majority of ad campaigns.
Whether that is true or not, YouTube’s parent company Google has reportedly sold around $140 million worth of space of political ads in the US in one month alone. And that includes space on YouTube and various other platforms by Google.
Let us see how all these political campaigns will eventually turn out and what is the outcome of the election? Hopefully, something better comes up this time around!
Photo:: SOPA Images / Getty Images
