How to Maximise Conversions with Youtube's TrueView for Action Campaigns

Since its humble beginnings in 2005, Youtube has become an addictive phenomenon with over 1.5 billion users uploading over 400 hours of video every minute and consuming billions of hours of video every single day.

Not to mention, the social media marketing service has even opened up a plethora of opportunities for advertisers, with Youtube stating that the top 10 ads on the site in 2017 generated 539 million views, 14 hours of viewing time and 3.6 million likes. In fact, a further study by Google and ComScore also revealed that 48 per cent of online video consumers identified Youtube as their top preference for video consumption.

At RGC Advertising, we are a Sydney based social media ad agency and we believe Youtube is a valuable advertising platform for a variety of industries. As a Google Partner, we receive exclusive access to workshop events and recently were invited to participate in Google's Youtube Expert Day. With numerous statistics supporting the video advertising service, our online marketing agency has decided to share key Youtube insights that we learnt at the event in order to help your brand maximise conversions on the highly lucrative platform.

Why Creative Is Important

In the media, we constantly hear statistics regarding reduced attention spans and an increase of information to blame for the decline. As a result, captivating creative has become more important in order to engage consumers and persuade them to take action in a short amount of time. Furthermore, the rise in ad blocking technology has further put pressure on compelling creative to avoid consumers disregarding advertisements in the first place. 

However, these statistics are not the only contributing factor highlighting the need for engaging creative. Youtube themselves cited a ComScore study which revealed that sales were largely impacted by creative (50%), followed by price, promotion and distribution strategies (35%) and overall media strategy (13%). Furthermore, a 2013 Harvard Business Review report reflected similar results in which captivating creative contributed 49% to overall sales. As a purely audio-visual platform, Youtube facilitates a brands ability to create truely engaging creative which in turn captures the audience's attention, influences behaviour and results in conversions.

So how can brands employ captivating creative on the digital marketing service, Youtube? First and foremost, it is imperative to understand Youtube's features in order to develop the best creative. For example, viewers have the option to skip an advertisement after just 5 seconds of viewing the ad. Therefore, it is important for brands to capture the audience's attention immediately to prevent an immediate disregard for the message. Youtube advertisements also feature a clear call to action button to influence instant behaviour, while also allowing brands to explore how sight and sound can work together to further influence action. In fact, across key measurements of recall, brand awareness and consideration, ads that are displayed in an audio-visual format receive significantly higher results in comparison to those that only use one of the features. 

Google Video Services

Aiming to help brands develop captivating creative that attracts audiences and influences behaviour, Google-owned Youtube has recently added video solutions to their extensive range of online marketing services. This exciting addition for the Google and Youtube platforms now provides both advertisers and digital advertising agencies with an easy to use system that simplifies video content creation. There are 4 main video services on offer by Google which include:

• Mobile Makeover: to provide an exceptional experience for mobile viewers
• Content Edit: to add, change and delete content to optimise for social media marketing purposes
• Duration Edit: to shorten or lengthen video creative to suit various digital formats
• Advanced Creation: Providing the ability to add graphics, voice over and other valuable assets. 

Attract Based On Audience Intent

While creative plays a significant role in capturing audiences and increasing conversions on the social media platform, Youtube understands that there is a perception that other pay per click services such as Google Ads (also referred to as search advertising or formerly referred to as Google AdWords) can achieve the same, if not better results as it captures audiences based on their intent. However, Youtube has combined the best of both worlds, merging search and video features in order to attract more engaged and highly relevant consumers. 

By analysing consumer behaviour across the Google network (comprising of Youtube, Google Chrome, Google Play, Google Maps and Search), Youtube has created unique and highly relevant audience types. These custom intent audiences include stronger affinity and in-market segments, life event audiences and consumer patterns. By using such intent signals and these highly relevant audiences, brands are able to reach their desired consumer in a more engaging and targeted format. In fact, an online investment company, Betterment, recently utilised Youtube's high intent audiences and achieved a 143% increase in brand-related searches and a 50% decrease in cost per sign up in comparison to non-branded searches.

Another exciting feature that has been developed by the Youtube platform is the addition of location extensions. As discussed in a recent blog post, location-specific targeting, particularly in today's mobile society, provides immense benefit for marketers. Location extensions increase the relevance for consumers and simplifies the consumer journey by providing all the information they need directly ad the advertisement.

As we discovered at the Youtube Expert event, the social media platform is working towards providing exceptional marketing opportunities for brands and social media marketing agencies. By emphasising the importance of engaging creative alongside the addition of beneficial video editing services, brands have the opportunity to create truly captivating advertisements that drive behaviours. Furthermore, by refining audience segments and incorporating location specific extensions, consumer engagement can be further enhanced, cementing Youtube's place in an overall social media marketing strategy. 

RGC Advertising is a full-service social media and Youtube advertising agency based in Sydney, offering a range of online advertising and marketing services that connect consumers to brands. For more information on pay per click services, content marketing strategies, social media marketing or other digital media solutions that our online ad agency can offer, please do not hesitate to contact Richard on (02) 8883 2988 or email [email protected]

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Richard Gerretson-Cornell is the founder of RGC Advertising, which is an award-winning digital advertising and marketing agency in Sydney, Australia.

He is a passionate advertising and marketing professional, with a mission to connect consumers to brands.

Since 1998, Richard has been directing his team of industry professionals to produce advertising and marketing campaigns for some of Australia's leading consumer brands and also delivers keynote speeches to international brands on the latest online advertising and marketing innovations.