Welcome to the final installment of our Ramadan Insights series, where we deep dive into the different metrics used to examine the success of an ad campaign. After data mining and insight generationto help you come up with the big idea, then executing an elegant media plan, the last stage of the process of planning an ad campaign is dedicated to assessing how well it performed. We break it down for you.
Welcome to the final installment of our Ramadan Insights series, where we deep dive into the different metrics used to examine the success of an ad campaign. After data mining and insight generation to help you come up with the big idea, then executing an elegant media plan, the last stage of the process of planning an ad campaign is dedicated to assessing how well it performed. We break it down for you.
1. Viewability
Online, it is important to track how many people are viewing your ad and be able to measure the ad’s impact on your brand and sales. The reality is that eyeballs alone are not enough: did your ad capture the attention of consumers and are you able to measure the impact on your brand? This journey begins with an assessment of viewability.
The definition of a viewable impression based on the international advertising standards, MRC (Media Rating Council), is as follows: A Viewable Impression requires a minimum of 50 percent of pixels in view for one consecutive second for display and two consecutive seconds for video1.
Debbie Weinstein, Google’s managing director of YouTube/Video Global Solutions, shares February 2017 figures that showcase how YouTube, as the largest video network, beating the industry benchmark of 66%:
- YouTube viewability : 93%
- YouTube audibility : 95%
- 100% of GDN ads are able to be seen
Targeting viewers, and ensuring that they enjoy your content, is key. Want to know how Arla Foods Lurpak was able to target people effectively last Ramadan with ads that promoted cooking recipes? Hint, it involves programmatic. Read the complete the complete case study for details here.
2. Reach
Unique reach assesses the number of viewers reached from your target audience. Unique reach reporting is available when you run a campaign on YouTube and/or the Google Display Network and are de-duplicated across devices.
Getting eyeballs and reach is not enough to convert a consumer into a client. Once someone has been exposed to your video or display ad, you want to understand how he has engaged with them.
A few metrics worth checking: If your ad is a video, you want to assess the view through rate: in other words, how many people didn’t skip your ad. You can also measure the completed view rate, in other words how many people found your video so interesting that they decided to watch it until the end. Lastly, you might also want to check the audience retention rate, which is available in YouTube Analytics to help you understand which part of the video caught the attention of your audience and which did not. This is a goldmine of information for creative agencies and brand managers to identify what type of content is best able to retain an audience.
Etisalat Egypt had a brilliant approach last Ramadan that took advantage of the knowledge that people view content on several different platforms. Google Preferred and multiple Masthead ads were utilized during Etisalat’s Ramadan campaign. When Etisalat measured campaign reach, number of views, number of impressions and brand lift, the results exceeded expectations. Organic views went up by 204% and watch time grew by 50%. Engagement – including video shares – saw a 150% boost. Read the details on how they were able to drive brand awareness and outperform TV metrics with a YouTube Ramadan campaign here.
3. Impact
Impact on Brand
Lastly, you want to asses the impact on the audience that has been exposed to your ad. A brand lift survey is particularly useful to measure the impact on brand equity. Did your paid media campaign translate to uplift? Important areas to assess include:
- Brand awareness: how many people know about the brand thanks to the ad?
- Ad recall: how many viewers remember seeing the ad?
- Favorability: how well liked is the brand?
- Consideration: which brand would a viewer of an ad aspire to purchase?
- Purchase intent: which brand would a viewer purchase?
OLX Egypt completed this exercise after running a 40 day Ramadan campaign last year and measured the impact of the YouTube campaign on ad recall, brand awareness and interest using a Brand Lift Study – something not possible in a standard TV campaign. As it happens, the brand produced best-in-class results, coming up in the top 25% among similar companies. Read the full details on the OLX Egypt case study here.
Impact on Sales
The holy season of Ramadan is a time is a good time to assess differences in consumer behavior, as Google search trends have shown (see Part 1 of our Ramadan Series.) As a quick recap:
Fashion and Beauty peak: 18% and 9% increases, respectively, and have the highest YouTube watch time of the year. Food Delivery and Recipes search queries spike 50% higher than the annual average. Interest in Cars, Jewelry and big ticket items increases. Auto searches rise 15%
Cairo-based Edfa3ly’s Black Friday campaign on the Google Display Network boosted revenue by an incredible 85% month on month thanks to a remarketing campaign across search and display. Details can be found in the case study here.
Cost of media
The last stage of the process is to measure the cost of your media; in this case, it is insightful to deep dive into the metrics and take into account the cost of reaching each person and engagement levels.
It is important to measure impact across different media platforms to ensure that comparisons are being made fairly when it comes to cost. Are you buying the same value for each type of medium? This is an increasingly important question at a time when new publishers and platforms are emerging.
We hope you enjoyed our Ramadan Insights series. Wishing you all a blessed Ramadan season!
