How 3 often-ignored best practices can boost your creativity
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:04 am
When we think of an advertisement, we think of advertising creativity. A memorable script has the power to make us laugh, cry or even lull us to sleep, as is the case with Sheba ’s relaxing “4AM Stories” campaign .
That power is what makes creativity a crucial pillar of advertising, accounting for nearly 50% of ROI . However, when it comes to maximizing the potential of great creative, kenya phone number material many video advertisers overlook the best practices and efficiencies that AI-powered creative tools can offer.
Google’s Head of Creative Effectiveness, Jeff Blankstein ’s team reviewed thousands of ad pieces from advertisers of all sizes and found some common mistakes that limit the effectiveness of video ads on YouTube.
3 actions to boost video performance are represented by an in-situ video ad: 1. Tailor the ad to the objective; a microscope: 2. Make experimentation non-negotiable; and a funnel with a lightbulb and a graph: 3. Adopt the ABCDs for Action.
1. Adapt the ad to the objective
Effectiveness is always a priority for marketing teams, which often means an ad has more than one objective. But an effective YouTube ad is one whose creative is tailored to a core marketing objective and designed to reach people where they are. By making incremental changes to an ad with a single objective in mind, advertisers can see great results. How do we know? Over 80% of brands that used the same ad across the funnel and saw the best results on one objective didn’t achieve the same success on the others.
Even the most effective video ads can’t do everything. Knowing this, Ugg used a combination of ads to achieve its top-of-funnel goals. The shortest ad was the most effective at increasing awareness, while the longest was the best at increasing consideration. Using more than one ad helps to raise or lower the creative levers needed to achieve a given goal.
2. Make experimentation non-negotiable
Video experimentation , an essential part of any marketing plan, helps advertisers test creative variations of ads in the market to ensure that the best-performing versions are deployed. A common misconception about experimentation is that it is a lengthy and expensive process. In contrast, video experiments are included in a YouTube media buy, and smaller optimizations can yield big wins.
Luxury retailer Coach leaned into experimentation by adding a call to action in each of its ad spots, a new YouTube strategy for the brand. After seeing that the strategy led to increased favorability and an increase in searches, the brand reinvested in testing for the second phase of the campaign. The results of that new phase showed strong favorability, consideration, and engagement.
Similarly, Celebrity Cruises tested slightly different messaging across 4 different ads. Creative that used clear branding and descriptive voiceovers saw a notable increase in consideration. This provided data that was used to create a framework for future ads, while also providing additional reasons to optimize videos.
Given its proven value, many advertisers set aside a portion of their spend for experimentation. Media Lab, the team that manages Google’s entire media strategy, allocates between 20% and 30% of each campaign’s budget for testing.
3. Adopt the ABCDs for action
Today, many advertisers are shifting to a lower-funnel video strategy using ads that reflect brand marketing principles.
Effective video ads are structured in a way that each element has an impact. YouTube’s action-optimized best practices can help creative teams harness the potential of each asset by organizing them in the most compelling order. Aligning with this framework leads to 50% more conversions per dollar and a 40% higher conversion rate.
For example, Moc Nhu, a Vietnamese shampoo brand, achieved 7x more conversions at 78% lower cost per acquisition by optimizing their Shorts, vertical, engaging, action-oriented creative pieces.
Action campaigns work best when there are at least 5 versions of the ad creative optimized for different viewing experiences, from long-form to YouTube Shorts.
Relying on AI-powered solutions from Google at every part of the process can add efficiency and create a strong creative mix. Whether it’s repurposing images and text to create a video, changing or cropping assets to fit new formats, or enhancing videos with voiceover functionality , YouTube can help teams extend existing creativity and produce new work.
Creativity is essential to reaching valuable audiences and increasing sales, but it can also be the weak link in a solid strategy. To make investments go further, brands can follow these 3 basic principles of creative effectiveness. Creativity that consistently sticks to a goal, delivers a relevant message, and applies past learnings while testing new hypotheses has the power to unlock YouTube’s full potential.
That power is what makes creativity a crucial pillar of advertising, accounting for nearly 50% of ROI . However, when it comes to maximizing the potential of great creative, kenya phone number material many video advertisers overlook the best practices and efficiencies that AI-powered creative tools can offer.
Google’s Head of Creative Effectiveness, Jeff Blankstein ’s team reviewed thousands of ad pieces from advertisers of all sizes and found some common mistakes that limit the effectiveness of video ads on YouTube.
3 actions to boost video performance are represented by an in-situ video ad: 1. Tailor the ad to the objective; a microscope: 2. Make experimentation non-negotiable; and a funnel with a lightbulb and a graph: 3. Adopt the ABCDs for Action.
1. Adapt the ad to the objective
Effectiveness is always a priority for marketing teams, which often means an ad has more than one objective. But an effective YouTube ad is one whose creative is tailored to a core marketing objective and designed to reach people where they are. By making incremental changes to an ad with a single objective in mind, advertisers can see great results. How do we know? Over 80% of brands that used the same ad across the funnel and saw the best results on one objective didn’t achieve the same success on the others.
Even the most effective video ads can’t do everything. Knowing this, Ugg used a combination of ads to achieve its top-of-funnel goals. The shortest ad was the most effective at increasing awareness, while the longest was the best at increasing consideration. Using more than one ad helps to raise or lower the creative levers needed to achieve a given goal.
2. Make experimentation non-negotiable
Video experimentation , an essential part of any marketing plan, helps advertisers test creative variations of ads in the market to ensure that the best-performing versions are deployed. A common misconception about experimentation is that it is a lengthy and expensive process. In contrast, video experiments are included in a YouTube media buy, and smaller optimizations can yield big wins.
Luxury retailer Coach leaned into experimentation by adding a call to action in each of its ad spots, a new YouTube strategy for the brand. After seeing that the strategy led to increased favorability and an increase in searches, the brand reinvested in testing for the second phase of the campaign. The results of that new phase showed strong favorability, consideration, and engagement.
Similarly, Celebrity Cruises tested slightly different messaging across 4 different ads. Creative that used clear branding and descriptive voiceovers saw a notable increase in consideration. This provided data that was used to create a framework for future ads, while also providing additional reasons to optimize videos.
Given its proven value, many advertisers set aside a portion of their spend for experimentation. Media Lab, the team that manages Google’s entire media strategy, allocates between 20% and 30% of each campaign’s budget for testing.
3. Adopt the ABCDs for action
Today, many advertisers are shifting to a lower-funnel video strategy using ads that reflect brand marketing principles.
Effective video ads are structured in a way that each element has an impact. YouTube’s action-optimized best practices can help creative teams harness the potential of each asset by organizing them in the most compelling order. Aligning with this framework leads to 50% more conversions per dollar and a 40% higher conversion rate.
For example, Moc Nhu, a Vietnamese shampoo brand, achieved 7x more conversions at 78% lower cost per acquisition by optimizing their Shorts, vertical, engaging, action-oriented creative pieces.
Action campaigns work best when there are at least 5 versions of the ad creative optimized for different viewing experiences, from long-form to YouTube Shorts.
Relying on AI-powered solutions from Google at every part of the process can add efficiency and create a strong creative mix. Whether it’s repurposing images and text to create a video, changing or cropping assets to fit new formats, or enhancing videos with voiceover functionality , YouTube can help teams extend existing creativity and produce new work.
Creativity is essential to reaching valuable audiences and increasing sales, but it can also be the weak link in a solid strategy. To make investments go further, brands can follow these 3 basic principles of creative effectiveness. Creativity that consistently sticks to a goal, delivers a relevant message, and applies past learnings while testing new hypotheses has the power to unlock YouTube’s full potential.