The point of advertising on YouTube, like any other, is to be effective in the marketing tasks for which it is used. To do this, sometimes it is not enough to follow a standard advertising strategy
. To effectively promote a product or service on a popular video platform, a marketer may need to go beyond conventional marketing thinking.
You will learn how to creatively improve an existing or create a new advertising strategy for promotion on YouTube.from the practical experience of Ben Jones― International Director of Creative Works at Google. We took a close look at his Think with Google blog column, where he talks about stereotypes about YouTube ads, and reframed them into actionable guidelines.
5 misconceptions about YouTube advertising
The effectiveness of YouTube ads is a rather imprecise concept, since the goals of each advertising campaign are different and, accordingly, the indicators will be different. But what many advertisers have in common is the idea of how to achieve the goal they want.
A large number of stereotypes have accumulated around promotion on YouTube, which hinders the growth of marketers within their projects. Ben Jones highlights 5 key misconceptions that all advertisers on the video platform need to overcome.
5 misconceptions about YouTube advertising:
- Success on YouTube is achieved through trial and error;
- Quality YouTube ads must meet strict guidelines;
- Ads at the end of the funnel are not as effective as those at the beginning;
- Experimenting with creative campaigns is very difficult;
- A TV ad will be effective on any platform.
How to improve the effectiveness of advertising on YouTube?
So, let’s turn the outdated ideas about YouTube promotion into real opportunities to improve the effectiveness of your ads on the site. Here are 5 ready-made recommendations:
1. Follow the ABCD principle
A key principle of creating effective advertising on YouTube is enclosed in the abbreviation ABCD, where A is Attract, B is Brand, C is Connect, and D is Direct. This simple ABC is based on years of research by Google: the company has analyzed tens of thousands of ads from around the world to identify the specific elements that make ads perform.
The principle is deciphered as:
A: Attracting attention;
Try to grab the user’s attention from the first seconds.
B: Brand presentation;
Integrate your brand in a simple and natural way using mentions.
C: Interaction;
Communicate with emotions, address emotions and tell stories through storytelling. Encourage the viewer to interact with your content.
D: Call to action or Direct.
Clearly formulate a call to action, and tell what you expect from the buyer.
Ads that follow the ABC of effective and creative video as a guide has shown that improving the likelihood of short-term sales can increase by 30%, and increase brand contribution in the long term by 17%. These principles will better prepare you to take risks and make better creative choices in different ad formats.
Example: YouTube video connect to the services of the future “AlfaStrakhovanie” – the video for the promo mobile application was created exactly according to the ABCD principle.
Description: First, the actor Konstantin Kryukov “attracts the attention” of the viewer against a futuristic background, then his story about how you can save money in the application describes the features and benefits of the service (“brand presentation” and “interaction”). Finally, it uses a “call to action” inviting the viewer to connect to the service. The video has received almost 200 thousand views.
2. Use all your creativity
Important! Apart from the ABCD principle, there are no universal rules for creating effective ads on YouTube. For an advertiser, it is more important to evoke an emotion in the viewer than to simply stand out from the competition visually.
Examples of such ads on YouTube:
- Documentary Series
- Interview with CEO
- Music video featuring a YouTube blogger. In the first 24 hours, became the #1 video in terms of the number of views worldwide and increased sales by 100% compared to last year.
- Product review by the buyer.
- Anime series. The product is the protagonist, and the disease is the supervillain. The product sold out instantly, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) were exceeded, and sales of the product as a whole increased by more than 100%.
YouTube is a breeding ground for creativity and everyone has the opportunity to participate in the creative process. Both users and advertisers. This gives viewers the opportunity to get to know the brand, product, or service, which as a result again provokes new ideas from marketers.
Example: Coca-cola and Pulpy. Series about a fictional agency hello People Agency.
Description: The agency wins the tender for Pulpy advertising, and then develops advertising campaigns, designs, and promotions within the real activities of the brand. The series entertains users and organically talks about the product, immersing viewers in the creative process.
Thus, Coca-Cola abandoned the standard distribution of the drink and increased the involvement of the target audience, focusing on the core of the audience (young people who know what a routine is in life and at work). The results pleased with the increase in image metrics and brand media indicators.
- Show the user your product and motivate them to place an order
With YouTube video ads, you can guide a user to purchase while being creative, creative, and straightforward with the ad.
Important! Advertising at the bottom of the screen, designed to encourage action, can get a bad reputation (cheapen reputation or brand valuation). However, there are many successful examples where creative videos with clear CTAs become effective and receive positive reviews.
How do brands get creative with calls to action?
They just think of advertising as the start of a sales journey. Their goal is to show the consumer the product and bring it to the checkout. This is especially true on YouTube, where 63% of viewers in Google’s researched markets say they bought something from a brand after seeing it as an ad on the video platform.
A creative way to make eye-catching ads for the end of the funnel personalize ads with the interests of the viewer, evoke strong emotions and then make a more targeted proposal.
Interesting! McDonald’s in Malaysia, used reverse psychology when the team told consumers not to look for where the product was, knowing it would spark curiosity and encourage them to do just that.
Example: Gucci UK in collaboration with director Harmony Korine filled colorful video ads with a nostalgic touch for a bygone fashion.
Description: During the holiday campaign, creative ad sequencing was used to increase customer engagement.
- First, the specialists raised brand awareness by posting a campaign teaser, which led to a full director’s cut on YouTube.
- Then, to increase willingness to buy the product, Gucci played a 6-second series of promotional splash screens for viewers who showed interest in the teaser.
- Finally, the brand served a specific shopping ad to those viewers who used TrueView for Action and TrueView shopping ads and were taken directly to a purchase page.
The campaign was viewed 5.4 million times worldwide with a 58% completion rate and generated 44.5K clicks to the Gucci website.
4. Experiment with creative campaigns, it’s so easy!
There’s a difference between being experimental with video ads and doing one-off testing. In the first case, it requires deep data analysis and the ability to go beyond, capitalize on long-term learning and not rely on old assumptions. The second is something you do from time to time when testing out a new approach to creating ads and is best suited for learning specific campaigns.
Important! Experimental Approachto creating a video can bring long-term prospects and pay off. However, this does not mean that you will need to act randomly or spend a lot of resources. Ask new questions to users, use content optimization opportunities, get up-to-date data. Successful experiments with different creative ads result in a 60% increase in ad recall.
Start by changing one variable, such as simple tempo editing, opening scene cropping, and promotional text.
Even the smallest changes can affect the results. The more you experiment, the more you understand not only what creative elements to use for your brand, but also your audience.
Example: Experimenting with different types and formats of YouTube videos during the launch of Citymobilto’s new regions.
Description: The team tested the effectiveness of different elements of the video: making it more dynamic, changing the background color, adding people, a call to action element, demonstrating the application, and experimenting with the length of the video.
The team used hyper-local advertising, which helped triple overall sales in Russia despite the height of the pandemic. Next, the brand turned to personalization: the team made five creatives each, which were selected based on the cultural characteristics of the region. After that, CPA improved by 15%, and installs per thousand impressions (IPM) increased by 6.5 times.
Aspiration technology
Aspiration- a social benefit-oriented alternative to digital banking – when it comes to video creatives, an experimental approach is taken.
The team constantly tests the entire production process. They run ads with headline variations, calls to action, and even landing pages to fully optimize their ads for success.
By running different versions and looking at the results of Brand Lift and Search Lift, you can determine the most effective YouTube ads that are worth supporting.
Interesting! Through these optimizations and experiments, Aspiration was able to increase relative brand awareness by 25%, email leads to 16,000, and reach over 3,400 new users.
5. Create online ads for digital channels and succeed on all platforms, including TV
Creating cross-platform videos usually requires more effort and resources than most brands and companies can afford.
Important! If you create ads that target an online audience, you can get equally good results on all platforms. They are made and adapted for mobile devices. Advertising with loud sound, framing, contrasting text and picture will attract the attention of viewers from the first seconds.
For YouTube, there are several additional options available, such as massively personalizing your video ads (Greek pizza chain Pizza Fan), or converting a TV ad into a video ad using a video sequence (LinkedIn UK).
As part of its first branding campaign, LinkedIn UK presented a beautiful 60-second TV spot. The team developed the test. The first is to launch a TV commercial on YouTube to see how it works. The second is the launch of content specifically for YouTube: four separate short videos with a large screen logo, audio, and video sequence to show viewers over time.
Undoubtedly, resources adapted for YouTube worked better. “We saw a 20% increase in engagement, a 178% increase in ad recall, and a campaign that is 2.3 times more cost-effective in terms of brand promotion,” says Catriona O’Leary, group brand manager for commercial media.
Example: Comprehensive SubscriptionVK Combo from VKontakte.
Description: The goal is to tell the audience about the product and show different scenarios for its use. The solution is YouTube videos in the In-Steam format with a clear promotion principle, where each segment of the audience conveyed its own unique message. The plot videos are divided into three parts:
- Involving a person by addressing him from a familiar context.
- Designation of which service will meet the needs of the user.
- Demonstrate the benefit of a discounted subscription.
With a toolvideoMixerthe team made 82 personalized videos: DCO creatives were automatically assembled from video templates, taglines, corporate identity elements, and voiceovers. As a result, 4 million users saw the ad, and its recall increased by 27.5%.
Well-known brands around the world are constantly trying to rethink long-held ideas about how YouTube ads work and what advertising strategies to follow.
Advice! Follow the basic principles of effective creative ads, think creatively and go beyond judgment, create online ads for digital channels and take advantage of the opportunities that YouTube has to offer – using experimental thinking – and you can create effective video ads.
Findings
- YouTube is a video platform and placement for advertisers. Reactive ads help brands achieve high results on the platform and in business.
- Use the basic principles of effective YouTube ads and experimental strategies to create a unique video or video ad.
- 5 misconceptions about YouTube advertising: success on YouTube comes through trial and error; Quality YouTube ads must meet strict guidelines; ads at the end of the funnel are not as effective as at the beginning; experimenting with creative campaigns is very difficult; ads for TV will be effective on any platform.
- Forget about old YouTube ad ideas, experiment, and create the best-performing ads!
Editorial Team
