If you’ve noticed product carousels popping up alongside YouTube ads on your smart TV lately, you’re onto something. Google has officially expanded its shoppable connected TV ads to all Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns, letting viewers browse and buy products without leaving their couch. This rollout is one of the biggest moves yet to turn passive TV watching into an active shopping experience.
- According to YouTube, including QR codes in ads has increased conversions by over 100%, helping advertisers reach customers who only watch YouTube on TV screens.
- By 2026, interactive shoppable ads are expected to represent 10% of all CTV ads, with shoppable CTV ads converting 5x better than standard video ads.
- Strike Social reported seeing a 30% to 40% reduction in cost per acquisition for campaigns using YouTube-based CTV offers.
How YouTube’s Shopping Ads Actually Work
The shopping connected TV ads pull images and product data from an advertiser’s Google Merchant Center account product feed, then turn them into a clickable carousel with QR codes that link to each individual item. Think of it like window shopping, but you’re on the couch with your phone in hand.
The shoppable format for Connected TV allows advertisers to present products on the right side of the TV screen during ads. This creates a kind of “virtual storefront,” and viewers can use their remote to browse and select products. If they select one, they’ll see a QR code they can scan with their phone, which gives them a direct link to purchase.
Shopping ads will also be available via DV360, said Romana Pawar, senior director of product management for YouTube Ads. Pawar stressed that these types of shopping CTV ad campaigns will, for now, primarily run on YouTube’s smart TV app.
Why the Living Room Is Google’s Next Battleground
2024 was the year when YouTube viewing in the US flipped and TV surpassed both mobile and desktop as the primary screen for YouTube consumption. Meanwhile, YouTube has dominated Nielsen’s streaming TV ratings for nearly three years running.
Nielsen reported that YouTube has been the top platform for streaming watch time in the U.S. for over two years, beating out Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video. That’s a lot of eyeballs watching content on big screens instead of phones.
YouTube campaigns on CTV generated over 50 million monthly average conversions in the fourth quarter. Numbers like that explain why Google keeps pushing resources into this space.
Advertisers Are Already Seeing Results
The quiet rollout didn’t go unnoticed by performance marketing agencies. Even before YouTube expanded access to its shoppable CTV ads, agencies had already noticed an increase in available TV impressions through both PMax and Demand Gen. Mike Ryan, head of ecommerce insights for Smarter Ecommerce, told AdExchanger that while reviewing aggregated data across almost 1,000 client accounts, he noticed the volume of TV impressions starting to rise steeply in late Q2. “This scale wasn’t possible on TV within these campaign types last year or the year before,” Ryan said.
Although TV still represents a relatively small share of overall impressions, Ryan’s data suggests that for Demand Gen, it’s gone from less than 0.5% to somewhere around 1.5%, which is still “millions and millions” of impressions for most advertisers.
Demand Gen campaigns that include TV screens drive an average of 7% additional conversions at the same ROI. That’s the kind of efficiency that makes marketing teams pay attention.
What Advertisers Need to Get Started
YouTube started with Google Merchant Center advertisers first because they already have robust product catalogs that can be easily converted from desktop and mobile into carousels for CTV. Although YouTube’s original Brandcast mockups showed examples of video creative, the only requirements Google has for these ads so far is that the product images be 500 x 500 pixels or larger, and that advertisers opt in to targeting audiences on TV screens.
The barrier to entry is pretty low if you’re already running Google Shopping campaigns. Your existing product catalog does most of the heavy lifting.
The TV Ad Race Is Heating Up
By 2026, Insider Intelligence expects only three companies, YouTube, Amazon, and Disney, to each capture over 10% of U.S. CTV ad sales. YouTube alone is forecast to net about 11.9% of CTV ad revenues in 2026, or around $9.21 billion in net CTV ad sales.
QR code usage in CTV ads grew 3x year-over-year, reflecting advertiser efforts to connect large-screen viewing with mobile engagement. The “second screen” behavior where people scroll their phones while watching TV is being turned into a direct sales channel.
For brands looking to reach customers where they’re already spending time, shoppable CTV ads offer a clear path forward. The TV experience is becoming less about lean-back entertainment and more about lean-forward engagement. Whether viewers will love or hate that shift is another question entirely, but advertisers are betting big on it.
