Every once in a while, while watching YouTube, I’ll get an ad that is, effectively, a full music video. And usually, it’s music I think is pretty good.
I would add that song to my library, I would give it another listen, I’d share it.
But…unless I’m really quick on the draw, I can’t.
Here’s one example:
Okay, we’ve got an artist here called “The Rain”. That’s fine. Somewhat generic name, but I can probably google the text on screen, if I remember it. But to actually click the ad? Look at that url: youtu.be/morning
Obviously, that’s a dead link. Why? Someone is spending money to show me a song and promote this, with no way to get to the actual product, unless I screenshot it and manually search later.
Here’s a worse one, which came on the youtube app for Apple TV.
Another dead link, this time without the youtu.be shortener. And there’s no text on screen at all to hint you. Don’t get me wrong, when you upload an ad (which you’re paying for), they *ask you* what URL you want to put on screen. Did you think about it for even a second? Maybe just…put her full name? (Liza Yohannes)
Her channel url is actually https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGa4utyo1azJWSS8PbR2s3A
And it has no shortname attached to it at all. Bravo. You guys put all this production into making a video and can’t figure out how to promote it.
Okay, well, I can just go through my YouTube control panel and see which ads I’ve been shown recently? Right? Wouldn’t that be a useful feature in today’s information overloaded, videos-running-in-background world?
You’d think so, but that feature doesn’t exist either.
I wish I could come up with a fix for this, or some kind of point to make other than that “This Just. Makes. No. Sense.” But I can’t.
This is the worst timeline.
