Google is getting to talk about its two favorite things during IAB’s NewFronts this week: AI and creators.
On Monday, in advance of its first of two presentations, it announced multiple new features coming to YouTube and DV360 for CTV and video advertisers.
First up, YouTube is expanding its Creator Partnerships Hub (formerly BrandConnect and FameBit before that) to include a new Gemini-powered AI search function. This will allow advertisers to more easily find creators that already produce content relevant to their brands using natural language prompts related to tone, subject matter and aesthetic.
The tool is designed to save time, said Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, YouTube’s director of product management, during a press preview last week. But doing manual searches isn’t only time-consuming, she said. Without automation, brands may miss smaller, quality creators that would make good partners.
Using agentic AI to develop contextually relevant lists of video influencers has already become a cottage industry, including among members of YouTube’s Measurement Program. Pixability, Channel Factory and VuePlanner, for example, all offer something along those lines.
However, YouTube’s own internal tools will enable more direct integrations so advertisers can directly bulk-message relevant creators and put paid media toward user-generated videos as part of the creator partnership boost.
It’ll be interesting to see what the vendors that rely on YouTube’s API will do to keep their own products competitive in response.
Agentic assistants
Moving over to DV360, advertisers will now also get more access to YouTube creators, according to Bill Reardon, general manager of enterprise platform for Google Ads.
In addition to the creator partnership boost, advertisers can buy YouTube pause ads and creator takeovers by acquiring all of the inventory on the select channels that make up the top 1% of creators.
Meanwhile, more Gemini-assisted AI agents are coming, too, of course.
The new Ads Advisor tool can edit, optimize and report on campaigns built in the Google Marketing Platform and even offer analysis on why certain creative assets were rejected within DV360 alongside recommend fixes.
Google also plans to use its Gemini technology – together with new updates to its confidential matching identity model, now called “Confidential Publisher Match” – to better manage household frequency and cut down on ad repetition across DV360 inventory, Reardon said.
Overfrequency is a long-standing problem, especially across video and streaming.
“We think that delivers a better user experience,” Reardon said, and “a better experience for the advertiser as well.”
