First Position has been expanded to include all YouTube content through Display & Video 360, offering it at dynamic CPM rates. Previously, this feature was only available on YouTube Select inventory at fixed rates.
- Now, advertisers can secure prime ad placement at the beginning of a YouTube session across any content, enhancing relevance and impact.
Why it matters. With YouTube being the largest streaming video website in the world (boasting 1 billion hours of video being watched a day) there is a lot of opportunity if you use video assets in your campaigns. With First Position, you can now ensure your ad is the first one viewers see when watching YouTube content, maximizing visibility during critical moments and potentially driving higher engagement and brand recall.
Details. First Position guarantees that an ad will be the first in-stream spot when users begin watching YouTube, making it ideal for key campaigns like product launches or cultural events.
Case studies. As usual, Google cited well-known household brands like Booking.com and IHG Hotels & Resorts as already seeing success with First Position, so you shouldn’t necessarily expect to replicate such results if you don’t have similar resources. Booking.com drove a 21% lift in ad recall, while IHG combined it with YouTube Sponsorships to achieve double the brand awareness benchmark.
What’s next. Advertisers can now leverage First Position for any campaign across YouTube’s entire content library. For more details, visit the Help Center for Instant Reserve in Display & Video 360 or Reservations in Google Ads.
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About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live, host of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup, and brand evangelist at ClickTech.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.
