When it comes to measuring a video ad’s success, views aren’t everything. Kim Larson, who works with hundreds of brands each year as the global head of BrandLab, shares her four-step method for getting to the right key performance indicators (KPIs).
At Google BrandLab, we’ve run more than 400 workshops from San Bruno to Singapore. We’ve partnered with thousands of brand marketers to learn about their challenges and help them think digital-first. And over the years, there’s one question we’ve heard again and again from marketers when the conversation turns to YouTube:
“How many views means my video is successful?”
Views may be the proverbial public scorecard, but they’re not always the best way to track progress against a brand’s unique goals. At the BrandLab, we refocus teams on identifying the right KPIs for those goals. We use a thought-provoking exercise designed to unpack the question we wish we were asked more often:
“Which KPIs should we be tracking to understand if our video campaign is successful?”
Below, we share that exercise with you—the questions we ask, the answers we work toward—so that you can help your teams look beyond views, too.
As brand teams write briefs, they typically want their video advertising campaigns to increase awareness and consideration and ultimately influence their online or offline sales. While consumers may not have a simple, linear experience anymore thanks to a growing number of touchpoints—online shopping, reviews, mobile, social, etc.—most marketers agree their target audience fits into one of three categories: unfamiliar with a product, on the fence about a product, or ready to act. With each new campaign or initiative, it’s important to know where your target audience is in their journey and their intent. Based on that, which of the three possible brand goals is your #1 priority?
The second step after you’ve landed on your marketing goal is to take a closer look at the campaign’s KPIs. At the BrandLab, we use the chart below to help brands and agencies select KPIs that are easy to track and align with their marketing goals:
You’ve got your primary goal. You’ve got the KPIs that align with that goal. It’s time to figure out how you’ll measure them. There are three primary tools used to measure campaigns on YouTube: Brand Lift, YouTube Analytics, and reporting in AdWords. If you want to go beyond those tools and poll consumers on more specific questions, try running a survey with Google Consumer Surveys.
YouTube Analytics, Google Analytics, and AdWords will help your team measure metrics like watch time, view through rate, and clicks. These metrics can act as a helpful scorecard, and you can log in while your campaign is running to track progress. But translating views or clicks to lifts in awareness, consideration, or purchase intent gets tricky. That’s where our Brand Lift solution comes in. It measures your campaign’s impact on big-picture brand metrics.
Lastly, you can poll consumers with Google Consumer Surveys. These surveys don’t have to be tied to a specific advertising campaign, but you could capture exposures to your channel or your ads and survey those exposures specifically. And you can ask those folks just about anything: if they’ve heard of your brand; when they’d like to hear from your brand; what kind of device they use; whether they prefer red or blue logos… the sky’s the limit.
After you determine your KPIs and how you’ll measure them, a natural next step is to ask, “What’s a good industry or competitive benchmark?” Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. Creative choices—length, music, logos, celebrities, etc.—vary too greatly among video ads for a fair apples-to-apples comparison, as do KPIs (was your competitor aiming for clicks or views?), targeting (larger audience? smaller?), and budget (did they have twice the budget to promote?).
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Instead of looking exclusively at competitive or industry benchmarks, we encourage marketers to set their own. Consider comparing your current campaign to past campaigns, for which your team will know creative variables, KPIs, targeting, and budget. If you don’t have another internal campaign that has the same KPIs, consider using in-campaign reporting and optimization to adjust creative and targeting midstride. An example of this might be A/B testing your own creative to establish a baseline.
One of the great strengths of digital marketing is real-time optimization. For example, you might use Brand Lift at the start of your campaign to figure out what’s resonating, and then adjust your targeting or placements to reach the audience with whom your ads are working best.
The Tide Pod Challenge is one example of a brand staying focused on the right KPIs. Tide executed its first major collaboration with YouTube creators through a series of “challenge” videos on Tide’s YouTube channel. The team wanted to authentically speak to the millennial audience about the power of Tide Pods. Here’s what happens when you put the Tide Pod Challenge campaign through the exercise above:
Hopefully now you have a better approach for tackling the question of “How many views means my video is successful?” The solution is to evolve the question to, “Which KPIs should we be tracking to understand if we’re successful?” Honing your digital video strategy to find the most appropriate KPIs and metrics will not only ensure that your campaign goals are met, it’ll enable your brand to reach your target audience in the most important moments along their customer journey.
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