I walk you through why YouTube is a great option for your advertising dollars, how to set up a Video Action Campaign (VAC) and creative best practices to get viewers to take action and purchase.
2. About Me
● I live in Pleasant Grove with my wife, our 4
kids, and a goldendoodle
● I’m the CEO at Wallaroo Media where we
help DTC brands scale their businesses
with advertising: Google & YouTube,
Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest & TikTok
● I’ve been doing Google Ads since 2008
○ Pre-roll ads launched Nov 2008 (non-
skippable)
5. What’s on the agenda for tonight?
1. Overview of YouTube
2. Video Action Campaign Best Practices
3. The ABCDs of Good Creative
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13. Discover the Opportunity to Truly Connect with People
Bumper Ads
:06s pre
and post-roll
In-stream
When a user’s
watching
YouTube
Discovery
When a user’s
searching or
browsing
YouTube
When a user’s
scrolling the
YouTube
homepage
Home Feed
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16. 43%
of shoppers used YouTube to research and shop.
In 2020,
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17. of YouTube viewers reported that they bought brands as a
result of seeing them on YouTube.
Consumers continue to turn to YouTube to make
purchasing decisions
average lift in search conversions.
are more likely to go online to buy something they saw on
YouTube vs the competitive average.
70%
36%
8%
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18. 76%
of consumers buy from a retailer in their initial consideration set.
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#UtahDMC
19. 1. Create VIDEO ADS that can be used as awareness and brand
consideration drivers to help convert prospects into purchasers.
2. Launch campaigns EARLY to capture consumer attention weeks
(or months) before they plan to buy.
How do you enter the initial consideration set?
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21. 2020 | CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
more conversions per dollar are driven
by Video action campaigns than other
TrueView for action campaigns.
Source: Google Internal Data, Global, Aug 2020 to Sept 2020. CPD spend weighted by ad group for Video action campaigns vs. TrueView for action campaigns with 330 advertisers
22. TrueView for Action Campaigns
On April 25, 2022, all existing TrueView for action campaigns were
automatically upgraded to video action campaigns (VACs).
What does this actually mean for advertisers?
Ad formats: skippable in-stream ads and in-feed video ads are both used
within one campaign
Inventory: VACs show in more places on and off YouTube (home feed)
Ad assets: Option of longer headline and description for YouTube Home
Feed
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23. 2020 | CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
Action =
Conversions
CONVERSION
Viewer clicks on video ad and
converts
Viewer watches video for more than 10
seconds and converts later
24. 2020 | CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
Use Google Ads conversion tracking and optimize to your desired
conversion event with Enhanced Conversions turned on. Set your
Attribution to data-driven.
Conversion Tracking
Start with tCPA bidding and ensure a minimum of 10x budget to
bid ratio for tCPA campaigns
Bid and Budget
Start with custom audiences, remarketing audiences, similar audience,
and customer match and DO NOT enable audience expansion. Create a
list of placements where your customers are watching videos.
Audience Strategy
Add sitelink extensions, link your product feed and run 3+
creative variants
Creative
VAC “Best
Practices”
25. 2020 | CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
of people typically switch
between online search and
video when researching
products to buy.
Attribution & Tracking
Source: Google/Magid Advisors, "The Role of Digital Video in People’s Lives”, US, July 2018, n=2,000, US, A18-64 general online pop.
AdWeek New York | October, 1 2018
26. Bidding + Budget
The BID
● Use historical account or store data to calculate this
● Add 20% to give the algorithm some flexibility when learning
● Account CPA = $25 * 120% = $30
The BUDGET
● Minimum 10x your desired CPA
● $30 x 10 = $300/day
● Give it minimum 2 weeks to learn
● Total investment:
○ $300 x 14 = $4,200
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27. Align Audience Targeting with Full-funnel Strategy
Demographics
Affinity Categories
Custom Interest
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION ACTION
Custom Segments
Life Events
In-Market
Customer Match
Remarketing &
Similar Audiences
28. Align Audience Targeting with Full-funnel Strategy
Demographics
Affinity Categories
Custom Interest
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION ACTION
Custom Segments
Life Events
In-Market
Customer Match
Remarketing &
Similar Audiences
29. Lower Funnel Audiences
1. Custom Segments: enter relevant keywords, websites and apps to
reach your ideal audience.
2. Customer Match: upload your store’s 1st-party data using email,
phone, first name, last name, country and zip code.
3. Similar Audiences: expand your reach to new potential customers
who have characteristics similar to your existing customers (lookalike
audience)
4. Remarketing: use your data segments (website visitors, app users,
YouTube users) to recapture their attention
@ericdfarmer
#UtahDMC
30. 1. YouTube Channels
2. YouTube Videos
3. Video Lineups (popular videos, interest-based)
4. Websites
5. Apps
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Take Advantage of Placements
31. HOW DO YOU PRODUCE CREATIVE THAT MAKES
CONSUMERS WANT TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT?
32. Your Creative is the Most Important Factor
50-80%of ROI is driven by creative
5-35%of ROI is driven by targeting
@ericdfarmer
#UtahDMC
33. New to YouTube, Used to Facebook
Is it an engaging video ad with conversion power?
Is it already hitting your CPA target?
Does it have meaningful sales volume?
Does the landing page convert cold traffic?
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#UtahDMC
34. Things to Keep in Mind
1. 96% of the time YouTube videos are played with the SOUND ON.
2. Videos perform better with VOICE OVER + TEXT ON SCREEN.
3. 60-180 SECOND ads is the sweet spot.
4. The video does ALL THE WORK. You can’t rely on copy.
5. SHOW AND TELL. Demonstrate the benefits while talking to your
viewers.
6. End with a solid OFFER and CALL TO ACTION.
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35. Google Confidential & Proprietary
Attract
A
Hook consumer’s
attention & get them
to tune in
Brand
B
Help consumers
see/hear your brand
Connect
C
Make consumers think or
feel something about
your brand
Direct
D
Get consumers to
take action
35
Remember your ABCDs
@ericdfarmer
#UtahDMC
36. Google Confidential & Proprietary
Attract
A
Use tight framing on the subject
Aim for 2-3 shots in the first 5
seconds
If people appear in your video,
open with them on-screen
Use stunning, delightful,
shocking, or memorable
imagery
Brand
B
Introduce your brand or
product in the first 5 seconds
Optimize logo placement for
your marketing objective
Show visuals (mascots,
colors) unique to your brand
Use on-screen actors that fit
your brand’s demos
Connect
C
Treat function and emotion as
levers that can work together or
independently
Tell a story by introducing a
problem and then solving it
Lean into emotional levers like
action, humor and intrigue when
it works for your brand
Make people core to the story
cause they’re relatable
Direct
D
Show offers and calls-to-
action through text cards,
simple animation or
voiceover
Make offers inspire a sense
of urgency
Use specific CTAs (e.g.,
Visit site, Sign up, Buy now)
36
Remember your ABCDs
41. In Summary...
1. Pretty much everyone watches YouTube. Your target audience is
definitely watching YouTube, so get in front of them with YouTube
ads.
1. Creative matters most. The best products won’t convert with bad
creative. Get this right before spending a dime.
1. Understand the investment upfront and commit to it. There are no
guarantees, but give yourself the best chance to succeed.
@ericdfarmer
#UtahDMC
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Whether you’re trying to generate leads, web traffic, or online purchases, YouTube can drive results across the entire customer journey at a tremendous scale -- with over 2 billion monthly users (which is more than the populations of China, USA and Brazil combined).
There’s no longer a clear path from the point of product discovery to action.
Instead, people constantly jump between exploration and evaluation before deciding on a product or service to buy.
As a result, YouTube has evolved from a singular entertainment destination to a prominent knowledge hub.
We’ve seen Video action campaigns drive over 20% more conversions per dollar than other TrueView for action campaigns.
With improved conversion tracking to cover actions across-devices, we can better demonstrate the impact of your campaigns.
But let’s remember that we’re talking about a video ad. Users will click on the ad, sure, but many will just watch some or all of it and come back online later to buy your product.
To that point, we optimize conversions coming from two different types of engagements:
Clicks on the video
Watching the video for more than 10 seconds (engaged-view conversions)
As a reminder here are the four best practices you need to know for success.
On top of all this there are also a handful of Video Betas available specific to video action campaigns like Sitelinks which drive 40% higher conversions and 20% higher clicks as well as Lead Form Extensions which provide a frictionless way for customers to provide information to advertisers directly in YouTube.
A user can convert in three ways from video ads: Click, Engaged View, and View through Conversions. Google Ads captures all three of those while Analytics solely captures Click through conversions, which may lead to under-reported conversions. Here is a guide to support you in setting up Google Ads Conversion Tracking. If you prefer to receive support from an implementation specialist, I'd be happy to schedule a time for you.
And as we’re committed to providing you with even more insights for your campaigns, we're backing video action campaigns up with more transparency in how your users are viewing your campaigns across Google’s networks.
Attribution reports will enable you to see how Video action campaigns impact your other Google marketing channels, like Search, to harness the full value of video and Google.
This means you can better understand how your viewers are jumping between Search and YouTube before they decide to convert.
NOTE: This does not include GVP
[SPEAKER NOTES] As we dig in, a quick refresher on ABCD: what does it stand for, again? And how should you think about it in the context of consumers?
A - Attract: Hook consumer attention & get them to tune in.
B - Brand: Help consumers see/hear your brand.
C - Connect: Make them think or feel something about your brand.
D - Direct: Get them to take action.
[Additional background for your own knowledge or as response to a customer question]
Do the framework pillars align with marketing objectives? (i.e. are A & B more significant for upper funnel metrics like Ad Recall? Are C & D more significant drivers of Consideration and Purchase Intent?)
By nature, A & B are inherently more focused on an ad’s initial moments, to get people to notice and remember the brand for the ~5 seconds you have their attention. To that end, D is inherently more focused on getting them to act.
That said, our research showed that there are many elements that, when present, are levers for one or more marketing objective. There are also some elements that can drive full-funnel impact.
[SPEAKER NOTES] Summary of guidelines across ABCD pillars.