Google Ads is launching video experiments in the next few weeks, which will be easy to set up and quick to deliver results. These experiments will allow advertisers to test videos on their ad campaigns and rely on proven results, which in return will bring a true impact from their marketing efforts.
You can listen to episode #51 of the TWIMshow podcast, where Sajid Islam covers this update in greater detail. He is excited that we will no longer doubt and think “would this video work well or will this one”, as these experiments will allow us to compare and reflect on results.
You will be able to measure the effectiveness of your video ads through Brand Lift – a free tool for measuring and improving video ad campaigns focused on recall, brand awareness, and consideration, rather than the traditional clicks, impressions, and views metrics. Moreover, you will be able to improve your decision-making process and results on YouTube.
In 2019 and 2020, advertisers who successfully used creative experiments saw a 60% higher ad recall, and according to Google, successful experiments were “those with a significant difference in Brand Lift between experiment arms.”
You can experiment with different visual language elements, such as framing, pacing, brightness, or text. For example, you can have supersized text. You can experiment with making certain text elements bigger, including logos, to see if they will drive more brand awareness.
You can also try tightening the framing, for example, zooming in on important subjects, people, or products, to see if that will drive higher consideration. Lastly, you can make it easy to buy – consider placing your Call-To-Action (CTA) at the beginning of the video instead of the end, and see if that will lead to more conversions.
This is how the process of implementing video experiments works:
First, you need to set up “experiment arms” – 2 to 4 groups. Then choose which campaigns you want to include in the experiment, including a different video for each campaign. And finally, select a metric that you will use to measure and compare the campaigns’ performance, for example, “Conversions”.
Setting up video experiments is easy when following the following instructions, as advised by Google:
- Login to your Google Ads account.
- Find “Video Experiments” on the left side of your page menu and under “Drafts and experiments”.
- Start a new experiment by clicking the +.
- Create a name and an objective for your experiment and each experiment arm.
- Click on “Select Campaign” and assign a campaign to each arm, but bear in mind that you can only have one campaign per arm.
- This step is optional: Click on “Add experiment arm” if you want to add up to 4 experiment arms, but you have 2 already by default.
- Select your success metric, “Brand Lift” or “Conversions”, from the “Select a metric” drop-down menu.
- Finally, your video experiment is done, so click “Save”.
- This is another optional step: If your success metric is “Brand Lift,” you can click on “Create Product” or “Brand” in the notification that appears to create a Brand Lift study.
- When you’re ready to end your video experiment, go to “Video Experiments” in Google Ads and click on “End Experiment”.
Let us know when you get to experiment with your videos. If you are stuck or something is unclear, you are welcome to book a no obligations consultation with us.
