For sure, Investment in video creative will be costly, so for small businesses, we need to pay attention to the outcomes of running a YouTube campaign. I don't write frequently but today I would like to recommend a tool for small businesses, called as Brand Lift. As medium-size and big company, we often requested research agency to conduct brand health tracking and we also have seperate budgets for creative and media. However, for small businesses, saving money is one of the top priorities.
However, just notice that you need to pay for the video campaign at least 3,500 USD and the brand lift survey is free. So it should be suitable for those who spent their budget on Youtube but they didn't leverage this tool.
What is a Brand Lift Study?
Brand Lift Study aims to provide more than just the basic metrics of how audiences respond to videos. The effectiveness of an ad campaign is also evaluated by how it affects brand metrics. Brand Lift is a measurement of the direct impact your YouTube ads are having on perceptions and behaviors throughout the consumer journey. Within a matter of days, Brand Lift gives you insights into how your ads are impacting the metrics that matter, including lifts in brand awareness, ad recall, consideration, favorability, purchase intent, and brand interest, as measured by organic search activity.
How does it works?
How to Define Your Survey Questions - Which Metrics?
When you create a Youtube Brand Lift Study, you have the option to ask anywhere from one to five questions. There are five categories of questions you can ask, each of which will measure a specific metric. 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: which of the following brands have you seen online video advertising for recently
Awareness: which brands or products are you familiar or aware of?
Consideration: which brand, product or service you consider to buy when evaluating making a purchase
Favourability: a measure of respondent’s overall (positive) opinion of a brand, product or service
Brand interest / Purchase Intent: the ability to buy your brand
For example:
Q: Which of the following brands have you seen online video advertising for recently? (ad recall)
Number 1 Energy Drink
Red Bull
Sting
Wake Up
Q: Which of the following brand you will surely buy? (Consideration)
Number 1 Energy Drink
Red Bull
Sting
Wake Up
How Much and How Long?
The Brand Lift Study itself don’t cost money. However, Youtube does require a minimum spend, which varies by region and metric. Generally, minimum spend will vary from $3,500 for one question (to measure one metric) to $56,000 for five questions (five metrics).
In terms of runtime, the minimum is one week. However, it is recommended that you run your campaign for at least two weeks to get the best results.
How Does Brand Lift Measure Campaign Performance?
At first, Google will 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.
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.
How Do I Set It Up?
Once you have decided what metrics you would like to measure, your budget, and your runtime, it’s time for you to contact a Google representative who will help you set up the brand lift study. It is important that you do this BEFORE turning your campaign live. Once a campaign has started, it is too late to start running the Brand Lift Study.
Analyzing the Results
After your ads have run on Youtube long enough for Google to collect statistically significant results, they will send you a Brand Lift Report. Here’s what the report will give you, and what you should focus on:
Executive Summary: The executive summary will provide you with your campaign’s reach and frequency, and most importantly, the percentage “lift” that was measured in each category that you measured. The results will also be accompanied with some broad comments and recommendations. For example, in our DC Vote Brand Lift Study, we saw that our ads provided over a 450% lift in Ad Recall and nearly a 30% lift in Favorability, both of which were marked as best in class according to Google’s standards. Because, in this case, the ad provided significant “lifts” on both metrics that we measured, Google noted that we have a powerful ad that we should ensure reach as wide an audience as possible.
Metric Highlights: There will then be a slide dedicated to each metric that you measured. In each slide, results will be broken down further by demographic, device, and exposure level. Google will then, again, give you recommendations based on these results. For example, in the DC Vote Brand Lift Study, we found that on the ad recall metric, females saw a higher lift than males after being served the ad. Thus, Google recommends creating an extra budget or increasing bids for the female audiences. Similarly, we found that our ads resulted in the largest “lift” when served to 18-24 year-olds, so Google recommended increasing bids and budgets for this age group to maximize our reach across this age group.