[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: Every day, more and more brands
choose YouTube to tell their most important stories.
But how can you make YouTube work for you?
We have analyzed thousands of ads
to identify which creative decisions are
the most important when crafting a successful video ad.
We call these insights the ABCDs,
and they can help you when you're planning your ad.
Now it is important to keep in mind that these insights are
not a formula for creative.
Research shows that a strong creative idea is still
the single most critical factor to give your work impact.
But once you have a creative idea,
the decisions you make in executing it
can help you build a more effective ad for YouTube.
To demonstrate these decisions, let's imagine
we have the following ad.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So there's our creative.
It's just an example, but our research
shows there are four key ways we could have executed
that story for more success.
The first thing successful YouTube ads do
is grab attention and sustain it.
You're more likely to engage and drive results
with a narrative arc that drops viewers
right into an immersive story.
Now there are many ways to do this.
Some ads use strong colors or even bring
their most exciting scenes right to the beginning.
However, another way could be to open your ad
with a powerful close-up shot.
The second thing effective ads do
is incorporate strong branding.
How you put your brand into your story is vital.
Again, there are many ways to do this, perhaps with graphics
on screen or in voiceover.
Looking at our example ad, we might do it better
with a product close-up.
The third thing successful ads do
is build a connection with the viewer.
By getting your audience to think or feel something,
you're more likely to get them to engage with your ad.
Again, there are many ways to do this.
Your storyline, music, and cast could give you options.
But imagine in our example, we go for a more involving moment
between our characters.
Finally, successful YouTube ads have a strong direction.
By including a clear and simple call to action,
your audience is better equipped to take
the action you want them to.
It also has a chance to set some clear expectations so people
know what they will get.
This could be in a voiceover or shown on screen.
But, for our example, maybe we try
sharpening up our own graphic.
So those are the ABCDs for effective video
ads on YouTube--
Attention, Branding, Connection, and Direction.
Let's see how they've changed the way that we
executed our example creative.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[VOCALIZING]
As you can see, it's the same story.
But our insights tell us we've given it a much bigger chance
of success.
Now let's talk about how we could fine-tune our creative
based on the specific marketing objective we're
trying to achieve.
Is our campaign trying to raise awareness, push consideration,
or drive action?
Let's start with awareness.
An awareness campaign raises the profile
of your product, service, or message.
To execute this creative to drive awareness,
we're going to want it to work harder to attract attention.
We could do this with some dramatic action or perhaps,
as we've suggested here, by adding an audio cue.
We also need to focus more on branding.
So we might include multiple branded elements.
In addition, we want to increase our ad's connection,
perhaps by making more of the human story.
Finally, we still need our direction as informed
by the core ABCDs iteration.
Our refined awareness ad now looks like this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEWING]
[VOCALIZING]
But what if our brief is to drive consideration?
A consideration campaign helps your audience imagine
using your product or service.
To execute this creative to drive consideration,
more emphasis needs to fall in how we brand.
In our example, we could shift more focus to the product.
When we connect, we might use people to demonstrate
the product promise.
And then we would want to strengthen our direction
with a call to action that creates urgency.
Here's our complete consideration ad
[VOCALIZING]
[CHEWING]
Now, finally, let's talk about how
we could refine our creative for an action-based objective.
An action campaign directly prompts your audience
to engage with your product or service in some way.
Here, for strong branding, your product
needs to be put front and center in your ad.
We want the story to revolve around it.
We also want to connect the specifics.
So people know exactly what they're getting,
we also might make that connection more
about the product rather than the human story.
Finally, we need to contextualize our direction
to make the call to action even stronger.
All together, that makes our action ad look like this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Fishos, Fishos, Fishos, Fishos, Fishos, Fishos.
[CHEWING]
[VOCALIZING]
So there you have it.
As you can see, from our very first execution,
we've now got some quite different ads,
even though they're still telling the same story.
And we could keep going.
There are many different ways to execute the ABCDs.
You can grab attention with a creepy atmosphere.
You can brand with a voiceover.
You can connect with celebrities.
Some solutions will work better with your brand or story.
As I said earlier, these aren't a formula for creative ideas,
but research shows that by taking these guidelines
into account when executing your ads,
your YouTube campaigns will work harder and achieve
greater success.
[MUSIC PLAYING]