YouTube Brings Showtime Listings To Movie Trailer Ads

Google is making it easier for YouTube users to purchase movie tickets. The company has detailed a new ad experience for the platform that allows advertisers to include showtime listings for a movie when presenting its trailer as an advertisement. The company teases other interactive elements for ads, as well, such as enabling the viewer to book a trip from the ad.

Videos play at the beginning of just about every video you'll watch on YouTube, sometimes also appearing during content and immediately following a video. Google is making them more useful for viewers who are actually interested in what they see while offering advertisers a new experience option that could help convert potential customers.

Google refers to these as more actionable advertisements, ones that use extensions to present extra info related to the ad. This can include location-based showtimes for a movie, assuming the advertisement is the movie's trailer.

A travel ad might include links that direct the user to book a trip to the destination, app ads can include a link to get the user to download the product, and more. According to Google, it already has some major advertisers on board with the new ad extensions, including 20th Century Fox.

Google demonstrates the extensions as presented to mobile users via the YouTube app; it's unclear whether users on desktop will similarly see these extensions.

SOURCE: Google