Making Insights Come True on YouTube

What if all marketing insights came true? Or more literally, what if every ad campaign drove brand metrics or sales? It would truly be amazing, but is this even a realistic question? I want to dig into what that means and how we can make insights come true in the context of YouTube with a new tool and a few practical tips.

Let’s start from the very beginning … every campaign starts with an insight. The stronger the insight the higher the likelihood you end up with a strong creative execution and the right media plan. Then we measure the results and see if the results show us whether our insights come true or not. Naturally, things don’t always work out smoothly. Sometimes, our insight might not be the strongest. Other times, we might not have the best execution. And often, when we get the results, it might be too late to correct the current campaign.

Of course, we can always bake the learnings from past campaign results into future campaigns. But what if we could see how our campaign is performing in-flight?And not only understand video engagement metrics like view through rate and watch time or social activity, but also brand metrics like ad recall, brand awareness or follow-on search activity?

We have been using a new tool called “Google’sBrand Lift solution” to answer exactly that question. This tool allows advertisers to gather brand metrics about YouTube ads in a matter of days in a controlled experiment setting. (Click on the image above to see how it works.) Thousands of advertisers across a variety of verticals have already used this tool on YouTube to test and optimize their video ads since we launched it in 2014. We ran some meta-analysis to look at the findings from the tool to help advertisers with practical tips.

After analyzing around 50 campaigns from well-known Fortune 100 brands and category leaders, running on Google Preferred (some of YouTube’s most popular channels), we found that 94% of the campaigns drove a significant lift in ad recall, with an average recall lift of 80%. We also found that 65% of Google Preferred ads saw an increase in brand awareness, with an average lift of 17%.

We also measured YouTube’s impact on what we call “brand interest,” or interest in a brand as measured by an increase in organic searches for it on Google. YouTube proved effective here as well. Looking at over 800 Brand Lift studies, we found that 65% of YouTube campaigns drove a significant lift in interest, with an average lift of 13%.

These numbers definitely tell a compelling story for how YouTube campaigns are driving brand impact. But that’s not all, as not every campaign works as planned. So let’s talk about two ways you can put this tool and other near real-time measurement tools to use to create impact.

Test your creative in-market

Faster collection of brand metrics means you can test your video campaign in-market (in-flight) -- figuring out what works, fixing what doesn’t -- before you burn through too much of your media budget. For example, Mondelēz International did this for the launch of Trident Unlimited, producing two versions of the same spot: One in which the actor put gum in his mouth at the start of the ad, another in which he was already chewing gum.

A Brand Lift study told Mondelēz that the second version had a higher recall rate. After optimizing budget behind version two, recall rose to 97%. By A/B testing campaigns and gaining near-real-time data, advertisers like Mondelēz can optimize on-the-fly and make campaigns truly resonate.

Optimize your media plan in-flight

Brand metrics also help you ensure you’re reaching the most appropriate audience. YouTube allows you to target your video ads, then use Brand Lift data to inform you about the age ranges and genders that are impacted the most by your campaign. Brands can then refine their targeting and increase spend where it will be most effective.

Nissan Canada, for instance, created two TrueView ads for the launch of its Micra model in July 2014. A Brand Lift study confirmed that one ad was much more effective at increasing ad recall, but also that the ads resonated strongly with women ages 25-34 and 45-54. Nissan now had an ad proven to be effective, a more specific demographic to focus the spend on and a platform to get the ad in front of the target audience.

In conclusion, I believe tools like Google’s Brand Lift Solution that help advertisers get to near real-time insights on brand metrics represent a new frontier of opportunities for online video campaigns. You’re measuring what matters most -- how your content and your media dollars are moving the needle on brand metrics -- and doing it in near-real-time to drive a more effective spend.

Discover more brand marketing insights at thinkwithgoogle.com/youtube-insights.

Cenk Bulbul is the Head of Strategy and Insights for Brand Advertiser Marketing team at Google, where he is responsible for the B2B marketing strategy for YouTube as well as publishing insights based on case studies and research. It is a good day on Cenk's team if their strategy and insights helped brand advertisers build successful marketing campaigns leveraging YouTube and other Google Brand Ad Solutions. Cenk can be reached at