YouTube's biggest advertiser event of the year, Brandcast, took place in New York on 13 May 2026. Most of what was announced is aimed at large brands buying through YouTube's sales teams, and neither of YouTube's official posts gave markets or dates. Around it, YouTube made smaller changes that affect every campaign: how ads run in live streams, what Shorts ads can do, and how people can buy from the TV screen.
What Brandcast announced
- Custom Sponsorships, where AI finds videos that fit a moment the brand wants to own.
- A Masthead with a Custom Content Shelf: the large ad at the top of the home feed, now with a curated row of videos alongside the main creative.
- Buy with Google Pay on connected TVs, so a viewer can buy in two clicks with the payment details saved in their Google account.
- Affiliate partnerships boost, which lets a brand put paid media behind creators' YouTube Shopping affiliate videos.
- Video creation with Google's AI models, including Gemini and Veo.
- Retail data from Costco and Dollar General in Display & Video 360, which is a US offer.
YouTube's headline statistic was that when creators talk about products, viewers are 13 times more likely to search for the brand and five times more likely to buy. It comes from Google's internal data on 60 brands in February 2026, and a trade report gives a different sample for the same figures, so treat it as indicative.
Live streams: ads beside the stream
YouTube introduced side-by-side ads for live streams in September 2025 on computers and TVs, and began rolling them out on phones in April 2026. The ad plays next to the stream, whose picture stays on screen with the sound muted, instead of interrupting it. They are served automatically as mid-rolls on eligible streams rather than bought as a separate format, and do not show on streams with captions turned on. YouTube also holds back ads while live chat is at its busiest, and gives viewers who send Super Chats or gifts moments without ads. It says more than 30 percent of US live watch time in 2025 was on TV screens.
Shorts ads: comments and the mobile web
In December 2025 YouTube made three changes to Shorts ads:
- Comments can be turned on for eligible Shorts ads, shown alongside the original Short's comments, and the advertiser can switch them off. Trade coverage says the brand's channel must be linked to Google Ads or Display & Video 360.
- Shorts ads now run on the mobile website as well as in the app.
- Shorts creators can link to the brand's website in branded content.
Ads longer than 60 seconds can also serve in Shorts; they play for up to three minutes and then loop.
The TV screen
- Shoppable connected TV ads became generally available in Demand Gen in January 2026. Google says Demand Gen campaigns that include TV screens drive an average 7 percent more conversions at the same return.
- Pause ads, shown when a viewer pauses a video on a TV, are bought only by reservation and only on connected TVs, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the countries listed.
- For big moments, Google has been presenting Moment Takeover, Moment Spotlight and Creator Takeover as ways for a brand to own a tentpole.
This matters in the Gulf because YouTube on TV is large here. Google said in October 2024 that YouTube reached more than 12 million adults on TV screens in Saudi Arabia and more than 2.5 million in the UAE, and a Kantar study it cited found YouTube plays a key role in purchase decisions for 87 percent of UAE viewers and 86 percent of Saudi viewers. Google has not published a newer figure.
What is older than it looks
- Peak Points, ads placed at moments of peak engagement, was announced at Brandcast 2025, not 2026.
- Thirty-second non-skippable ads on TV screens date from 2023.
- Claims that pause ads can run in Demand Gen on phones come from agencies. Google's help page says they are reservation only and TV only.
What to do with it
- For campaigns where TV matters, test Demand Gen with TV screens included and a shoppable format, and measure conversions over a longer window.
- Turn on comments for Shorts ads only when someone will moderate them, in Arabic as well as English.
- For Ramadan and other tentpoles, plan reserved TV formats such as pause ads well ahead.
- Ask YouTube's sales team which Brandcast formats are sold in the UAE and Saudi Arabia before building a plan around them.
The ad mockup generator on this site shows an ad in YouTube's in-stream player, in Shorts and in the feed, with the skip button and the call to action where YouTube puts them.
