Investing in video creative can be a costly undertaking, so it stands to reason that close attention is paid to the outcomes of running a YouTube campaign. This blog will delve into Google’s Brand Lift offering and how it can help paint the whole picture of campaign performance.
Despite launching TrueView for Action, video, as Matt explained in his post about brand awareness, is primarily used for upper funnel activity. So engagement metrics (VTR, CTR, watch time, earned likes etc.) alone will not provide the whole story when it comes to analysing performance.
Why use Brand Lift?
This suite of engagement metrics provides a great starting block but is not the holy grail of campaign success. VTRs include users not actively engaged with their screens, CTRs can be affected by heavy handed mobile users and a lack of earned likes certainly doesn’t spell campaign disaster. What about those that skipped the ad but remember the brand? Or those who watched intently until the end but felt no need to like or click?
Up steps Google’s Brand Lift solution! Brand Lift measures the direct impact of your YouTube activity on those who have been exposed to your ads, providing insight on the following metrics:
- Ad recall: the extent to which an ad is remembered regarding a brand, product or service
- Awareness: the extent to which consumers are familiar or aware of a brand, product or service
- Brand interest: the increase in organic searchers that can be directly attributed to the campaign in question
- Consideration: the extent to which consumers consider the brand, product or service when evaluating making a purchase
- Favourability: a measure of respondent’s overall (positive) opinion of a brand, product or service
“But how?” I hear you cry!
How Google’s Brand Lift Measures Campaign Performance
Well, Google firstly create two groups: one comprised of those who have seen your ad, and a control group comprised of those who have seen other ads. Data is then compared between these groups using two sources and metrics expressed in Relative Lift, which is the percentage increase in those exposed to an ad vs. those not exposed.
YouTube Surveys
A survey will be administered around 24 hours after seeing (or not) an ad to those who fall in either of the two randomised groups. The survey is usually made up of one or two multiple-choice questions which endeavour to find out one of the aforementioned metrics. e.g. for Ad Recall the question would be “Which of the following have you seen online video advertising for recently?”
The multiple-choice responses are customisable allowing for rival brands or products to be used as a comparison to your own.
Google and YouTube Searches
Using organic search data on Google and YouTube, brand interest can be measured. Comparing the difference in organic search behaviour between users from both groups allows for insight into the uplift in brand related searches that can be attributed to your video activity.
Our Final Thoughts on Brand Lift for YouTube
Brand Lift is particularly useful for new product launches, rebranding campaigns and sales promotions. It can be used to distinguish which aspect of your campaign is having the most effect on your audience allowing actions to be taken mid-flight to improve performance.
But the best part is, it’s a free service! So, if the campaign meets the minimum spend requirement, running Brand Lift will only add to the set of metrics already at your disposal allowing for both actionable and robust insights into overall campaign performance.
If a video campaign is on the horizon for your brand, contact us now to find out more!
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