Did you know that implementing Augmented Reality (AR) in advertisements can give brands the freedom to create more engaging ads for their products? Tech giants like Google are already taking advantage of such new and advanced technologies. In fact, after some updates to the Google and Android developer platform, ARCore, brand designers can create richer and more life-like experiences for their users. But that’s not all. Google is also testing other new display ads formats for its entire network. So, here is a sneak peek of what to expect!
AR Beauty Try-on for YouTube
Make-up tutorials and reviews are some of the most discussed topics on YouTube. In order to improve the UX and help brands engage their customers better, YouTube is now introducing a new AR feature, called AR Beauty Try-On. It allows viewers to virtually try the reviewed make-up on, while still watching their favorite influencer.
The new AR feature is expected to provide a split-screen experience. Meaning that, when available, the YouTube make-up review video will play at the top of the screen and a stream from your own camera, underneath. The AR feature will provide the viewer with a palate of the make-up colors to choose and try on. Just like that:
In order to test the new project, Google offered it to some YouTube curators through their branded content program, FameBit. In general, the idea behind FameBit is to help brands find YouTube influencers who can market their products through paid sponsorship.
Already several beauty brands have tasted the new AR Beauty Try-On. The results show that 30% of viewers chose to activate the experience and they spend over 80 seconds on average trying on make-up virtually. Even though, that 30% doesn’t sound so satisfactory, the viewers engagement with the products was very high.
One of the first brands that showed interest in creating an AR Beauty Try-On campaign is M·A·C Cosmetics. The brand will also be able to see real-time results from the try-on activity. What differentiates YouTube’s new AR feature with all the other Beauty Try-On apps, is that it focuses more on the advertisement opportunities then just on being a fun tool for its viewers.
Swirl for 360° product view experience
Another cool ad format that Google wants to launch will allow customers to view products in 360° view mode. The feature will be called Swirl and is currently available through Display and Video 360. It will support product rotating, zooming in and out, or playing an animation.
For Swirl ads, brands will be able to use a new editor on Google’s 3D platform Poly. It provides more editorial control over 3D objects as well as new animation settings, customize backgrounds, and realistic reflections.
Advertising Live Streams
To add some more excitement, Google is providing influencers and brands the option to advertise their Live Streams. To do that, advertisers can use Google Web Designer and Display & Video 360 platform to edit and manage their ads.
At the moment the new function is in a limited beta phase. Importantly, live streaming is free on Youtube, so advertisers will need to pay only for the ad display. Their ads will then appear instead of normal Google display ads. This meaning that when customers scroll down through a website, they can see a Live stream ad and interact with it. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?
Google is constantly trying to improve their paid ads services and help brands create more engaging ad campaigns. Just a month ago the company launched Performance Planner, the ad spend planning tool in Google Ads and now AR for Youtube display ads. This showing that, Google is definitely trying to live up to its name, “the adtech giant”.
