Comscore and YouTube have expanded their partnership by integrating Comscore Campaign Ratings (CCR) with YouTube Shorts and In-Feed inventory, making available a range of additional ad data specific to those outlets, across connected TV, mobile and desktop. In the months ahead, the toolkit will also add measurement of Masthead inventory. YouTube has been connected to CCR for standard video inventory and YouTube TV since Q4 2021. YouTube Shorts is a fast-growing part of the Google-owned video ecosystem, averaging over 70 billion daily views, according to YouTube and Comscore.

The number of channels uploading Shorts globally has grown 50 percent year-over-year, according to internal YouTube data shared in a blog post by Comscore Chief Information Officer Brian Pugh, who adds that “views of YouTube Shorts on connected TVs globally have grown by more than 100 percent from January to September 2023.”

The new feature has been rolling out gradually, and is already in use with clients including the National Football League, according to MediaPost, which says the expanded reporting capability “uses Google’s Ads Data Hub for Measurement Partners (ADH) to allow brands to gain cross-platform insights into the performance of their complete YouTube strategy.”

The integration gives advertisers the big picture with regard to impressions, reach and unique audiences across total YouTube inventory, informing decision-making and strategic optimization, MediaPost reports.

Comscore notes the expansion is well-timed as new types of advertising, including “retail media,” take off, “as brands look to create e-commerce driving content as an addition to their traditional advertising strategies.”

Comscore data shows a surge in audience actions linked to retail media YouTube Shorts content, up 188 percent since early 2021. “This trend reflects the seismic shift since the pandemic in the confidence of audiences interacting with short-form retail media content,” Comscore reports.

YouTube Shorts launched in 2020 and added advertising in 2022. “But, until recently, marketers haven’t been able to plan specific campaigns for Shorts because the inventory couldn’t be bought separately from other YouTube supply,” writes AdExchanger, noting that “when inventory is bundled, buyers have little way of knowing whether their ads are running on a connected TV, desktop or mobile device.”

Comscore offers a variety of cross-platform CCR solutions, including for automotive, politics and health.

“We, alongside with Google, are working to ensure that we integrate into the various offerings that Google brings to market,” Comscore Chief Commercial Officer Steve Bagdasarian told MediaPost, adding that “we want to make sure that that advertisers are best informed and trust the data.”