Origin Energy knows the best moment to acquire new customers is when people are moving home. But online competition is fierce by the time they start researching energy providers. Origin used Life Events targeting on YouTube to reach people long before that, boosting branded searches and engagement.
Results
+36% lift in ad recall
+60% lift in searches for “Origin Energy”
50% lower cost-per-view (CPV)
The Challenge
Aussies usually only look to change their energy providers when one of two things happens: 1) They get a big bill from their current energy provider, or 2) They move home. Origin Energy, an Australian energy retailer, wanted to be there in the moments movers turned to the web to find a new energy provider.
Origin’s challenge was that search terms related to moving home can be extremely competitive. Many industries, including insurance providers, moving companies, and furniture suppliers, compete for attention in the same space and at the same times.
YouTube’s new Life Events targeting offered Origin a data-driven way to reach Australians earlier in the awareness and consideration phases of the process.
The Approach
Leveraging signals across Google properties helps Origin move ahead of the pack
In the months and weeks before moving home, Aussies likely conduct dozens of searches across all Google properties. They may open Google Maps and search “moving boxes near me” or head to YouTube for tips on how to pack dishes. Then there are the Google searches even further up the funnel, where people research things like mortgage rates and available homes in certain neighbourhoods. All of these actions form powerful data signals that advertisers can leverage to reach people in the right moments.
"We’ve leveraged Life Events to reach people at a time where we can actually add value and make moving house that little bit easier.”
YouTube’s new Life Events targeting helped Origin serve TrueView ads to people not only in the moments they searched for “energy companies Sydney,” but also in the moments before they had even thought about how to keep the lights on.
A TrueView ad that speaks to people’s needs in the moment
Moving home can be an exhilarating—and overwhelming—time. Origin Energy’s TrueView ad was designed to speak to people’s frames of mind and address their needs with a simple message: Get your power sorted in minutes.
In addition to running the TrueView ad, Origin Energy made sure its YouTube channel was filled with videos that provided movers with additional useful information. This helped keep people engaged—and built affinity for the brand. Compared to standard campaigns, the Life Events campaign drove a 76% increase in subscribers to Origin’s YouTube channel and a 99% increase in social engagement. Now, Origin can continue to build relationships with this new influx of viewers.
“Moving home can be incredibly stressful. People need energy, and we’ve leveraged Life Events’ data-fueled intelligence to reach a pointed group of people at a time in their lives where we can actually add value and make moving house that little bit easier,” said Will Murphy, digital marketing manager at Origin Energy.
Life Events campaign drives lifts across the board
Reaching people at the right times with the right messages helped Origin Energy’s Life Events campaign outperform its standard campaigns on all metrics. Standout engagement metrics included a 100% decrease in CPV, 68% increase in earned views, and a 70% increase in clicks.
The brand also saw great boosts in brand metrics, with a 36% lift in ad recall and a 60% lift in brand searches. Life Events helped Origin not only drive topline awareness and consideration, but also drove people to take action and seek out the brand.
“Life Events now forms a new complement to our tightly orchestrated digital portfolio,” concluded Murphy.
The Products
Life Events targeting
TrueView
The Results
