YouTube doesn’t have an official MCP server, so third parties have had to take matters into their own hands.
On Wednesday, video advertising platform Pixability joined the conversation with the launch of a Model Context Protocol-enabled agent built specifically for YouTube ads that allows clients to integrate Pixability’s proprietary YouTube intelligence and data into their own platforms.
As a quick refresher, an MCP server is a standard interface that allows AI models and agents to securely and consistently access internal tools, services and data sources.
Pixability’s data combines information about videos on YouTube – things like channel, comments and sentiment – with a brand’s contextual and suitability goals. Through its partnership with Comscore, that data is paired with panel data to identify the audiences most likely to watch a given video.
For advertisers, the purpose is simple and the same as it’s always been, which is to make the most of their media buys.
But as YouTube becomes an increasingly important search and discovery channel – including for generative engine optimization (GEO) and driving AI search traffic (more on that in a moment) – brands need a better understanding of how to show up there, according to Price Glomski, SVP of partnership at Further.
Integration nation
Indie agency PMG acquired Momentum Commerce last year, and Further is the data, cloud and AI business within the broader group.
PMG has been using the new MCP integration since February to make more strategic media buys after Google told the agency that it was underinvesting on YouTube. Despite PMG’s initial skepticism, Google proved to be correct.
“It’s a new market that’s being created,” said Glomski.
PMG’s data showed that between 25% and 38% of GEO citations for its retail brand clients were coming from YouTube, but it hadn’t been prioritizing YouTube to that extent.
According to Glomski, integrating with Pixability’s data and “contextual background” seemed like a good way to scale its YouTube investment and target people based on the video content they watch.
YouTube used to be seen as a “dumping ground for old videos” that brands didn’t give much thought to, according to Pixability CEO David George.
But the evolution of creator marketing combined with YouTube’s role in GEO citations have made the channel top of mind for advertisers.
The new MCP integration gives Pixability’s customers access to YouTube data that they can use across paid, organic and creator media, George said. Pixability also provides its clients with “guidance” on how to access the data based on individual customer needs, he added.
But the MCP is a lot easier to use than a typical API.
Whereas an API is a one-way conversation, making scaling much more challenging, an MCP “creates a back-and-forth” that allows each company’s agents to “talk to each other systematically,” said Glomski.
Teamwork makes the dream work
But the agents don’t just spit out objective information; they surface insights and flag potential revisions.
For instance, a brand could ask its agent to suggest relevant channels and audiences to target, said Scott Klein, Pixability’s chief innovation officer.
For example, a brand’s agent might confer with Pixability’s agent to review Pixability’s channel recommendations before reporting back to the advertiser. But Pixability’s agent can also highlight “additional insights,” Klein said, like noting that a certain demographic is underrepresented within a target audience.
The advertiser can then request new audiences that include those missing groups and keep going back and forth with the agent until they’re satisfied that the targeting strategy will “really resonate” with the intended audience, said Klein.
Glomski anticipates that the MCP connection will reduce PMG’s planning time by between 25% and 30% now that data analysts can skip over the manual steps of compiling data and drawing connections. Instead, he said, “I can go do it myself as a layman,” by querying PMG’s preferred AI model using natural language.
In addition to saving time, the MCP integration is also more cost-effective for advertisers. In the past, said Klein, a client would have had to pay to ingest Pixability’s tech stack, integrate it into their data warehouse and incorporate it into their existing tech stack.
MCP is “lowering the bar” to access, he said.
