How To Send Your Video Performance Through The Roof

Apr 14

As AI optimisation grows in power, the field of video creative planning and creation becomes the area where marketers can really make a difference to performance. We’ve always known that ‘content is king’ but now content is everything.

As Google completes the rollout of Performance Max and its mandatory use of video, high quality video assets remain one of our few levers to maximise both PMax and YouTube performance. Get them right and you can stay ahead of your competition.

The Fundamentals of YouTube

As Google’s strongest platform for video engagement is YouTube it is important to make that the focus when building out video creatives. On that basis, there are three fundamentals to building for YouTube:

Build for mobile - Globally, more than 70% of watchtime on YouTube happens on mobile devices
Build for sound on - 95% of ads on YouTube play with sound on. For viewers watching audio and video combined, there’s a 20% lift in brand awareness and consideration
Build for the attention - As the most popular ad format is skippable ads, it is important to capture and retain the viewer’s attention so they engage more fully by taking a ‘dessert before mains’ approach with your content

Another fundamental driver of strong creatives is having synergy with programmatic and social advertising which falls outside of Google. This involves using the same or similar assets that use the same brand music, aesthetics and USPs to create a brand identity and take a full funnel marketing approach. Brands using three or more channels in a campaign enjoy a 287% higher purchase rate than those with a single-channel campaign.

The ABCDs of Creatives

Google has a strong framework called ‘The ABCDs of Creatives’. This is broken down into Attract, Brand, Connect and Direct.

‘Attract’ encompasses grabbing your audience's attention early on and keeping them engaged.

‘Brand’ focuses on having a strong brand presence throughout so audiences know who they are watching.

‘Connect’ emphasises the importance of connecting with your audience to make them think or feel something for driving ad recall as well as purchase intent.

Finally, ‘Direct’ is capitalising on the previous points with a strong call to action.

Whilst this is a strong base on which to build creatives, it is important to understand the finer points of the framework are not universal and businesses need to tailor to their brand and audience. For example, a fun brand mascot works effectively for brands such as ‘compare the market’ but for brands with a serious image this may not be a viable option. Tone of voice is another aspect to consider as the required style and level of colloquialism will differ greatly between demographics and age groups.

PMax and YouTube campaigns go hand in hand with strong search campaigns. Kinase as a PPC driven agency and Google premier partner are able to use Search campaigns and Google tools to build comprehensive audience profiles for our clients’ brands which heavily inform the way we help clients shape their creatives.

For example, one assistive tool Kinase is able to provide to clients is creative workshops. We are able to take clients through the creative framework and how we would tailor it to their brand and KPIs with examples, group discussions and an audit of any activity run previously. As we run activity across several brands and industries, we have a deep understanding of making strong video assets and are up to date with Google’s data driven best practices.

Though the reasoning behind understanding and implementing best practices is owing to the necessity of video within PMax campaigns, Google intends PMax to complement the other campaign types such as video campaigns. If a business has created videos for PMax, it would be beneficial, therefore, to use those same assets in video campaigns where we have more control over bidding, audience targeting and advanced tactics such as video sequencing. Google has found an average of +13% conversions at a similar CPA, plus the assistive value of visual formats when running PMax and YouTube together.