Advertisers on YouTube will now be able to serve Shopping Ads on the YouTube mobile app.

The change comes as a way for YouTube to improve its advertising offering and for Google (which owns YouTube) to capitalise on user data.

“We’re starting to see some different behaviors on YouTube,” said YouTube director of product management Nicky Rettke.

“Users can be in very different mindsets depending on what they’re doing. Users in an immersive mindset watching a video, they might be a little bit less ‘clicky’. A user browsing through their home feed, they’re actually in a pretty open mindset to discovering new content.”

Advertisers can bring their own custom audience segments or use Google’s data to find targeted viewers.

A carousel of the Shopping Ads will appear on the mobile home screen and search results page.

“One thing that we know that video alone can drive conversion even if users don’t click in that moment,” said Rettke.

“Video is such a compelling medium that you can inspire users to take action even if they’re not clicking right then and there, and we see that type of behavior with direct response video ads.”