Google VP shares how brands can turn YT viewers into shoppers with new e-commerce tools in SEA

Creators are only too aware of the impact they have on various verticals. There has been a 9% CAGR in the number of video influencers since 2022 — people with a significant social presence and over 10,000 followers.

YouTube Shopping heralds several opportunities to engage and sell for brands, increased monetisation for content creators, as well as a simplified path to purchase for consumers.

Helping brands sell better

YouTube Shopping is the next step for a platform that has for long been used by brands to reach, engage, and connect with their consumers. This is borne out by a global Nielsen MMM meta analysis which shows that YouTube drives 2.3x higher long term return on ad spend (ROAS) than paid social. 

One of the best strategies that brands have been implementing to build audience connections on YouTube is via partnerships with creators. Using their authentic voice, creators help brands target a relevant audience, resulting in remarkable success. To cite an example, Pantene Indonesia’s ‘Recharged Hair, Recharged Me’ campaign used Keanu, a male comedy creator for a series of playful ads that encouraged the sale of conditioner to women. The campaign resulted in double digit sales growth, besides winning top honours in the Brands & Creators category in the first YouTube Works Awards for Southeast Asia in 2023.

YouTube Shopping has been tailored to work across the various video formats on the platform. Creators who have tagged their short videos with relevant products are seeing higher views. Livestreams can be used by creators to showcase products that they have partnered with in a dynamic setting, giving them the chance to address audience questions in real time. And of course, given YouTube’s strengths across multiple video formats, brands can use a judicious mix of long and short creator assets to run demand gen with Feeds ads, expanding their reach to new audiences across YouTube’s most immersive and visual touchpoints.

Chadha said, “The proportion of online sales as a part of overall commerce is still small, and there's a ton of headroom for growth. YouTube Shopping reduces friction and allows brands that were constrained by distribution to reach a vast audience.”

YouTube Shopping opens several opportunities that did not exist previously. For instance, partnership ads have been used by advertisers for a while now to incorporate YouTube creator videos into their ad campaigns. With YouTube Shopping, they can now connect these partnership ads with content from a creator that has a direct link to purchase, compressing the journey from discovery to sale. Chadha said, “Having authentic voices who can promote products at scale is how brands can benefit the most.”

Opening up new monetisation opportunities for creators

Creators on YouTube have built vast, dedicated communities for a number of reasons: from being authoritative voices on certain products and categories, to their status as a great source of everything from inspiration to entertainment. Any brand that seeks a collaboration is thus tapping into a wellspring of respect and love, painstakingly built over several years. A presence on one of the oldest and most popular platforms translates into a greater degree of trust when it comes to creators on YouTube. A survey conducted by Kantar reveals that 85% of viewers in Thailand agree that YouTube creator content is more trustworthy, than other platforms (81%). The number goes up to 89% for viewers in Vietnam. In Indonesia, 67% of users trust brands that YouTube creators / influencers talk about compared to 47% on Instagram and 50% on TikTok, per research from Kantar.

YouTube Shopping allows creators — many of whom are well respected brands in their own right — to monetise their equity in ways never seen before. With the affiliate program in place, they can get their content before a larger number of brands and viewers across YouTube, thus increasing their earning potential. Besides, the love of fans for a brand and a creator is more lucrative than before. Creators earn a commission on the purchase of every product that has been tagged by them. 

Chadha explained, “The funnel is now more efficient. The time to purchase can go down which hopefully leads to more returns for everyone.” Creators benefit from a collapsed timeframe to purchase, quicker access to revenue from a sale, and a far wider range of partners extending to categories that they may not have previously promoted. 

The eligibility criteria for YouTube Shopping balances popularity of channels on the platform, while simultaneously addressing marketer concerns around issues like brand safety. Currently, YouTube Shopping is open to all channels with over 10,000 subscribers, provided they are not focused on content aimed at children or not directly linked to music labels, distributors or publishers. For eligible creators, YouTube Shopping could mark the rise of a fresh wave of entrepreneurship — particularly in areas like licensed merchandise from content creators.

Helping consumers move from product discovery and research to purchase

For consumers, YouTube has pioneered different ways of product discovery and pre-purchase research. Powered by innovative creators across the world, several formats have originated on or been popularised by the platform: unboxing videos, product teardowns, comprehensive user guides, and reviews that track performance over an extended timeframe — allowing for unprecedented levels of informed decision making. 

Viewers who turned to YouTube for information now have the option to complete a purchase within the platform, alongside useful information that they may need at the moment — price or other product details that may have previously been the domain of ecommerce sites.

YouTube is working to make the purchase experience seamless, uncluttered, and non-intrusive. However, acknowledging that YouTube Shopping is in its early days, Chadha said, “We are working closely with brands and creators. There is a bit of hand holding in the early days to make sure that we get this right, and a lot of self-monitoring as well to ensure that we are reaching the standards that we expect of ourselves.”

 Unleashing a fresh wave of Southeast Asian commerce

Even in the early days of its launch, YouTube Shopping has seen tremendous interest from creators. Chadha said, “We have had events with thousands of creators, because they see the power of the platform, and are very excited.”

One of the biggest tech creators in Indonesia, Jagat Review, said that his earnings from the YouTube Shopping affiliate program made up 50% of his channel monetisation through the test period of July to October 2024. Speaking about his experience on the platform, he said, “I see YouTube Shopping as an expansion of my relationship with viewers. As a creator, my intention is to objectively review gadgets, and I hold my viewers' trust in high regard. Now, they can easily find ‘where to buy’ links after watching.” Being part of YouTube Shopping has not necessitated any radical changes for the content creator. He said, “I don’t see a need to shift my content strategy or change my creator identity to maximise affiliate revenue. I can continue creating videos that my viewers already love and tagging products related to the content I made.”

Early reports from Thailand indicate that a creator in the beauty category has seen channel earnings rise by over 100% in the first month. Chadha said, “There are positive early signs. We have seen great momentum both from creators and from our affiliate partners at Shopee.” YouTube Shopping can be expected to expand to other markets within Southeast Asia through the course of next year. Chadha is quite certain that in next year’s YouTube Works Awards, there will be a Best of YouTube Shopping category. 

But even more critically, a bright future awaits the vertical thanks to marketers across the region being able to leverage the strengths of YouTube as an aggregator of audiences to the largest extent possible; a boost in monetisation for content creators and their chance to grow their own personal brands; and finally, a simple, efficient and convenient path to purchase for consumers on YouTube. Industry experts and research have all pointed to a surging market for video commerce — YouTube Shopping will go a long way in helping it attain its full potential.