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Google Expands Preferred YouTube Ad Spots to Canadian Buyers

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Google Preferred, the video ad sales offering that makes the top 5 percent of YouTube content available through select agency partners, is now available in Canada. Google Preferred was announced in April 2014, at the company's NewFront event, and was previously available in the United States and United Kingdom.

Three agencies—Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP—have already signed on for early access to the program, and will begin running ads in May. Google says that other agencies who make considerable year-long commitments to Google will be able to join the Preferred program starting in July.

To determine what YouTube content is available to Preferred buyers, Google creates a preference score that looks at viewing and user engagement metrics. The Canadian score will be based exclusively on Canadian metrics. As with Google Preferred in other markets, advertisers buy into one of 13 verticals—such as food, beauty, and music—rather than buying an individual channel. The Canadian offering will include a French language vertical.

The U.S. offering proved surprisingly successful, selling out in October. Google studies showed that Preferred ads led to an 80 percent increase in brand recall.

Google plans to bring Google Preferred to several additional markets, as well, but didn't offer details.

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