Running A Creative Experiment Using Brand Lift

With the increasing focus on video marketing, this could be a big help in improving your outreach and promotional efforts.

Google has announced that it's adding a new video experiments element in Google Ads, which will enable brands to test and compare different approaches, in order to refine their video marketing approach.

As explained by Google:

"Knowing the outsized impact of creative on driving sales, we're launching video experiments globally in Google Ads over the next several weeks. These experiments are easy to set up and quick to deliver results you can act on. So whether you're looking to understand the impact of different video ads on Brand Lift, conversions or CPAs, you too can make more informed decisions that improve your results on YouTube."

Video experiments will be added within your Google Ads dashboard - in your 'Drafts & Experiments' tab, you'll soon see a new 'Video Experiments' option.

Here, you'll be able to create new video experiments to test which of your video ads is more effective on YouTube.

"With a video experiment, you can test different video ads with the same audience, and then use the results of the experiment to determine which ad resonates more with your audience."

The results will then be available in your Google Ads dashboard:

Google Video Ads

That can help brands optimize their ad spend, and generate better results - which, according to Google, can have a big impact.

"In global studies we ran in 2019 and 2020, advertisers who successfully used video experiments to optimize for lower funnel performance on YouTube saw a 30% lower median cost-per-acquisition from the better performing creative. And those who used video experiments to optimize for upper funnel impact saw a 60% higher ad recall from the better performing creative."

There are various ways in which this could be utilized to improve your video advertising approach, helping you hone in on specific elements to maximize video ad performance.

Google has also provided three examples of potential experiments for testing:

Supersize text. Does making text elements (including logos) bigger drive more brand awareness?
Tighten framing.Does zooming in on important subjects, whether they're people or products, drive higher consideration?
Make it easy to buy. Does placing the call to action at the beginning of the video drive more conversions than placing it at the end?

The key lies in limiting your variables, in order to get a clear understanding of the impact of each change. So if you were running an experiment, you wouldn't change three or four things at once, ideally, but by trying out one change at a time, you'll be able to get a better idea of the impact, which you can then incorporate into present and future planning.

Google's new video ad experiments will be available in Google Ads manager shortly. You can read more about setting up a video ad experiment here.

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