To fully measure the impact of its YouTube ads on omni-channel customers, The Warehouse needed the right tools. By leveraging Brand Lift solutions for a series of YouTube campaigns, it was able to drive an averaged 82% lift in brand search interest while helping to boost e-commerce sales by 32%.
Goals
Raise brand awareness and ad recall
Boost in-store and e-commerce sales
Improve understanding of advertising effectiveness
Approach
Advertised on YouTube with TrueView
Ran a series of Brand Lift studies to measure impact of YouTube ads on target audience
Continually optimised campaigns based on research learnings
Results
Averaged results for all six studies showed increases in ad recall (+35%), consideration (+16%), and brand interest (+82%)
YouTube campaigns helped drive 32% YoY growth in e-commerce sales
Measuring the effectiveness of omni-channel retailing and advertising is a challenge on the minds of lots of New Zealand marketers. As retailers move more of their marketing budgets online, businesses can’t afford to overlook the value online channels have in driving both on- and offline sales.
New Zealand retailer The Warehouse tackled this challenge head-on. As a customer-led, people-centric business, The Warehouse focuses its digital strategy on reaching consumers in their I-want-to-buy micro-moments—but it needed to determine if its campaigns were actually reaching people in the right moments. To measure the effectiveness and impact of its YouTube ads outside of just media metrics, The Warehouse turned to the power of Google’s Brand Lift solution.
Brand Lift studies revealed a new target audience and lift in brand metrics
Traditional metrics like watch time, views, likes, shares, and comments are important to get a general feel for how a campaign is performing. The Warehouse wanted to dig a little deeper, though, and Brand Lift was key to measuring more in-depth brand metrics. Michelle Anderson, The Warehouse's executive general manager of data, said, "As a progressive retailer we need to dig deeper than just standard media metrics to understand our customers. YouTube and Brand Lift provides us a platform to do exactly that."
By measuring its YouTube campaigns with Brand Lift, The Warehouse was able to see the impact of its ads in just a few days. Insights gleaned from the studies could also help the company discover new opportunities for consumer engagement.
One study for a new in-market brand revealed a 200% increase in ad recall for an individual demographic segment, identifying a new target market for the brand. In another study, consumers exposed to one particular YouTube campaign generated a 115% increase in organic search interest for the brand. Leveraging these findings allowed The Warehouse to optimise its ad spend and better understand how its video ads affect a range of consumer behaviours.
Brand Lift also showed the impact of seasonality of consumer behaviour. For those engaged with its YouTube ads during Christmas, The Warehouse saw a 38% increase in ad recall, offering the company new insights into developing seasonal content.
Boosted brand metrics like these are typically a good indication of increased sales, but the next question was seeing how true would this would be for New Zealand’s famous "Red Sheds."
YouTube advertising elevates The Warehouse's in-store and online sales
Reaching consumers online showed strong results: The Warehouse's YouTube campaigns helped contribute to a 32% growth in e-commerce sales for Q2 YoY, along with boosting in-store conversions. This makes sense considering more than 50% of The Warehouse's in-store sales are preceded by a visit to the retailer's website, which shows the tremendous value online media channel improvements have in driving offline success.
"As a progressive retailer we need to dig deeper than just standard media metrics to understand our customers. YouTube and Brand Lift provides us a platform to do exactly that."
Combining and leveraging the measurement tools of YouTube, Brand Lift, and Google Analytics allowed The Warehouse to better meet customers where they are while more clearly understanding how online video channels work to drive the bottom line. To remain a leader in offline and online sales, it's clear that an online presence and wielding the power of YouTube is paramount.
