Google’s affiliate program, YouTube, has announced changes to the product tag displays in its shopping affiliate program videos. The platform is now adding dynamic tags, which will show certain tagged products based on the viewer’s interaction with it.
The shopping affiliate program on YouTube allows eligible creators to include products in their video clips and earn a commission from any sales made through links on their videos.
Now, a “view products” icon, as seen in this image, appears behind the shopping tags on the video clip, but there are also two new versions of the shopping tags that are being tested by YouTube:
- If the user interacts with tagged objects – shows interest – then the shopping product tags will be displayed on the video and in the description.
- The tags will appear in the description of the video if viewers don’t show any interest in them.
In other words, YouTube wants to minimise the disruption to users who don’t want to buy the products being shown in the tag by offering a “predictive” approach to adjusting the in-stream tag displays.
According to YouTube, the change will only affect the location of tagged products, and it won’t affect the reach, discovery or recommendations of a video.
YouTube has been working to grow its shopping affiliate program to allow creators more avenues for monetising their content, as well as to promote more shopping in-stream.
YouTube last month made the program available to creators in the U.K. The company also unveiled a major new expansion of what can be showcased in the display area with a new partnership with Amazon.
