SPEAKER: It's a great time to send us
your questions at #AskGoogleAds because we're
going to be talking with a few YouTube experts
about a huge announcement from the keynote. (SINGING) Bumper
Machines.
And now, it's for our second segment of "Under the Hood."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NICK ROSE: What excites me about coming into work
is solving interesting problems in new and exciting ways.
ERICKA MENDEZ: We are starting to explore what machine
learning means for creative.
Those advertisers who have no video, little experience.
We're trying to create a suite of new products
that can help the brand pop on our platforms
and be ready to start running campaigns on YouTube.
WEILONG YANG: This is a first step
towards our vision of applying AI in video creations.
NICK ROSE: A bumper ad is a six second long non-skippable ad
on YouTube.
ERICKA MENDEZ: Bumper is a perfect format for that
on the go mobile person.
NICK ROSE: Bumpers are really, really good
at blasting a message out to a very, very large audience very
quickly.
ERICKA MENDEZ: Our research shows
that when you run a three bumper sequence,
you actually have 107% higher ad recall and 134% higher purchase
intent.
We know that, for example, if someone already
has a context from a 30-second video, when
you use the bumper to remind them,
they already know what was happening.
So now, you are just keeping that sweet thing,
that one last piece of message that you
wanted to communicate to them.
NICK ROSE: Bumpers can be kind of expensive
and non-trivial to make.
If you're an advertiser, you might have a 30-second long ad,
you might have a 60-second ad.
But it's not always clear how you transform that
into a compelling six-second long narrative that
works for everybody.
We reached out to the research and machine intelligence team.
And we asked them how they could help
use Google's machine learning technology
to solve this use case.
WEILONG YANG: The first thing we do
is we sit down and watch a lot of video ads.
And we have also interviews with the professional video
editor at Google.
And we watch them manually cut on bumper ads.
Cutting video ads from 30 seconds to six seconds,
you actually need to remove 80% of the original video,
and at the same time, preserve the most important part
and maintain the same message.
We looked through the whole process,
and we found this is a very complex process, even
for humans.
ERICKA MENDEZ: We wanted to create
a tool that would enable advertisers to take a long form
video, put it on the Bumper Machine,
let the machine put it down into multiple bumper options.
NICK ROSE: All I need to get started
is a link to your YouTube video that's 90 seconds or fewer.
Then you've hit Generate Bumpers,
and Bumper Machine will provide you
in about a minute with several different bumpers
that you can edit or choose from.
What goes on under the hood in this process
is actually a lot more complex.
First, the algorithms analyze each frame within the video.
A video usually consists of multiple shots and clips,
so it's important to find the right frames to use.
Each of these frames gets evaluated and assigned
a visual score using a variety of machine learning models.
For example, one of the models looks
at each frame of the video to detect
whether a person is in frame.
This is done using visual recognition capabilities, which
can identify if a person is in frame
and how close or far they are.
Another model using similar technology
helps find branding elements within the video.
We have trained the model to identify
when logos, text overlays, and products
appear so we can use the best branding shots
in the final bumper cut down.
Lastly, to make sure that the video isn't blurry or choppy,
we use a combination of rule-based decisions
as the final step to selecting which scenes make the cut.
And the final six second ad is created.
WEILONG YANG: Bumper Machine just a start.
And there is a lot of things we can do to help the advertiser,
to help YouTube's users, to make editing and creation much
easier and faster.
NICK ROSE: What excites me most about the future
of this product is being able to expand this tool
to other types of formats.
Maybe if we can help you create a good six-second long video,
we can also help you create good 15
seconds or good 30-second long video ads as well.
ERICKA MENDEZ: We know that the creative process
can be very complicated.
And so Bumper Machine will add value
to that creative process for both advertisers and brands
and just help them build better creative.
And so being able to take that first step is very exciting.
I feel like I'm making a difference, really helping
these advertisers create better strategies that can drive
their business objectives.
SPEAKER: Joining us now are Ali and Nick, product
managers from the famous Bumper Machine team.
Welcome to the show.
ALI MILLER: Thank you.
NICK ROSE: Thank you.
Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER: Ali, did you just invent something
that is going to replace video editors
and creatives altogether?
ALI MILLER: Definitely not.
So one of the great things about Bumper Machine
is that you can use it for a variety of purposes.
So one great way that we've seen people
try it is to gain inspiration for what they actually want
to build as a final bumper ad.
So you can take a look at what six seconds can actually
do with a video and then build a customized version
yourself with all of the expertise and creativity
that professionals can bring.
But if you don't have all of those resources,
it's a great way to just get started with bumpers right away
without investing all of that time and money that
could go into professional video production.
SPEAKER: Nick, Bumper Machine literally
got a standing ovation in the live keynote room, which
is ridiculous and amazing.
What was the insight behind building the Bumper Machine?
The consumer insight?
NICK ROSE: Yeah.
I think the main insight is our consumers really,
really love bumpers.
And they really, really like the fact
that in six seconds or fewer, you
can tell a very snappy narrative and a very compelling
narrative.
So Bumper Machine really just takes
the heavy work out of making that six-second ad because we
know that that can be hard if you
don't have the time or the money or the expertise.
SPEAKER: Yeah.
Got it.
So Twitter is actually blowing up and dying
to know some hot questions.
ALI MILLER: Tell us.
SPEAKER: For Ali, is one bumper ad really enough?
Is a six-second ad really enough?
ALI MILLER: Yeah.
So we think that bumpers are really
powerful to tell a quick story, right?
So if you can fit in a single message, a single joke,
a single example of how a product is used,
it can be a great way to get that message across.
We also encourage that people use bumpers
alongside our existing formats like skippable 30
second ads or TrueView ads.
So working with these formats together can actually get you
increased effectiveness, increased reach,
increased awareness, and ROI results for your business.
So we really recommend using different formats together
to get the best results.
SPEAKER: I didn't realize you could use TrueView and bumper
ads together.
That's pretty cool.
ALI MILLER: That's right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER: The next question is, will we
be able to simultaneously test machine creations like assets
in response and display ads?
Do you get the question?
Because I don't.
ALI MILLER: So--
SPEAKER: Or Nick, why don't you take this one.
Sorry.
NICK ROSE: You know, I think that the Bumper Machine
is a very first good step in terms of how do you quickly
make easier bumper ads.
And you can take the TrueView ads that have different assets
and kind of see how they would appear as bumper ads.
You know, if this is successful and people like it,
we can take that learning to other areas
like display ads and other formats.
SPEAKER: Got it.
And then I think we have time for one last question.
They're actually mentioning machine learning,
which is funny--
with Bumper Machine, how does machine learning
look at the contextual relevance to determine
a coherent message?
ALI MILLER: Yeah.
So we use the machine learning primarily
actually to pick out the elements of the original video
that are potentially the most interesting or powerful.
So for example, close ups on faces or a brand message
or a product in action.
And then we'll put those segments together
to create a cohesive message.
SPEAKER: Yeah.
ALI MILLER: But then the great thing
is that video is then yours to use in a campaign exactly
as you like.
So one of the other things we talked about this morning
in the keynote was the power of contextual and audience
targeting solutions, right?
So you can use custom audiences to build
exactly the right pairing of the message with the audience
that you're trying to reach.
And so you can put that all together
to make sure that the bumper is delivered in a way that's
best for your business.
SPEAKER: Got it.
So I only watch cooking shows on YouTube.
So I would get a Le Creuset ad or something.
ALI MILLER: Exactly.
Exactly.
SPEAKER: Awesome.
That's so cool.
ALI MILLER: Right ad, right user, right time.
That's the whole idea.
Yeah.
SPEAKER: Well, thank you so much for joining.
I feel very flattered that you came on our show
because it's such a big hit.