How to build a winning YouTube campaign
In order to find out what makes a video ad perform well, I reviewed the winners of the YouTube Works Awards, where the most effective campaigns of 2018 are awarded. These awards are chosen by a team of judges regarding the most creative, compelling and effective campaigns of 2018.
From analyzing what are the criteria that made these campaigns stand out above the rest, I bring you what are the points that as an advertiser can help you create better campaigns on YouTube.
How to create a winning ad
Spark: Get information from YouTube statistics
For the creators of the winning campaigns, YouTube was not just another platform where they uploaded an ad but it was also the place where they got the inspiration they needed to create their pieces. According to the company, the 86% of the YouTube Works Awards finalists used data from the Anaytics section of YouTube to identify the information that later served as a “spark” to bring their ads to life.
As an example we have Liquid Plumr, who discovered an increase in the number of users experimenting with their product to unclog pipes in a fun way. With this information, they created a series of videos where they collected this trend and in turn helped to show the product. With this series of videos achieved an increase in brand recognition and user acceptance of the product on a 38% and 40%, respectively.
Samsung did something similar with its winning campaign showing off the new Galaxy. Knowing how popular the so-called “YouTubers” can be within Generation Z, the audience they were trying to reach, they created a series of videos called “Make"Or do in English. The influencers who made this series for the company generated content using their new mobile phone. According to Samsung as a result of this series, 17% of users who saw these ads were more likely to purchase a Galaxy as their new phone.
Cues: Use audience cues to communicate your creative and media approach
When people surf the web, whether it's to research their family vacations or to see the highlights of their favorite sport, they are giving all kinds of clues or "cues" about their passions, interests, and needs.
The most effective advertising campaigns rely on this information to determine what type of content to create as well as what media to target. So one way to find what information is relevant to your audience is to use the audience personalization process.
The company Xfinity in its campaign "Data in dollars" or "Data (mobile telephony) in dollars", presented a series of 6-second video ads in which the user could know how much money the video that was going to cost him to be reproduced, using your current telephone operator.
The agency that made this concept used a wide variety of themes that users like to see on YouTube. For example, if someone was about to watch a makeup tutorial, they would see a 6-second video ad, which with a makeup-related topic, would tell them how much it would cost in dollars to use their mobile data to see said video. .
The story: Use the best technique and way of telling a story
People love a good story or story, however only the 40% of advertisers use this resource as a communication technique.
The most effective YouTube campaigns have managed to tell a story and the best example of this is “Dundee: the son of legend returns home”. In this example, the agencies involved created a series of trailers or trailers, which made the public believe that it would be a sequel to a 1986 film, when in fact they were promoting Autralia as a tourist destination. The team created a YouTube channel dedicated to showing the different "trailers" and used "In-Stream" ads, those that run before or during the video you are watching. Two weeks later they released another video "trailer" revealing the reality that it was an advertisement and not a movie.
The elaborate story not only captured people's imagination and attention, but the average tourist was able to spend up to 30% more on their visit to the country. In addition, an increase in 12% of visitors from the US was achieved in the following 12 months after the campaign was launched.
Keep these three points in mind when creating your YouTube video campaigns, as they are the necessary ingredients for you to get the best return on your investment and brand awareness.
