Digital Marketing Director Vanessa Ekström is in charge of ensuring audiences know who the audiobook platform BookBeat are, what books they have, and building a marketing world that turns them into devoted audiobook listeners.
At BookBeat, a streaming service offering over a million audiobooks and ebooks and proudly part of the Swedish Bonnier Book family, we explored a compelling dynamic: how an audio-first product could thrive on a video-first platform.
Far from video replacing the audio star, it became its biggest supporter. Picture this — an advert for an audiobook appears on your TV screen whilst you're watching a video with friends or family. Before you know it, recommendations for books are shared, conversations on best genres have been ignited, and a personal pastime is transformed into a collective experience.
That’s exactly the experience we wanted to create. As a digital product ourselves, it seemed natural to try and attract more of these digitally-native, younger audiences.
We knew we needed to start with connected TV (CTV) as, in Sweden alone, 800,000 18-29-year-olds watch YouTube on CTV every month.1 That’s around 8% of the country’s entire population.
Here’s how we did just that:
A new chapter for BookBeat
Our creative strategy for YouTube was built with the platform in mind from the outset. For example, in our CTV adverts, where direct interaction isn't possible, we prioritised immersive storytelling and brand building.
That’s why we developed a series of ads that plunged viewers directly into pivotal scenes from books, such as a passionate exchange between lovers or a thrilling crime scene. With this approach we pulled them into the narrative before revealing the audiobook and a great trial offer from BookBeat:
Our next step was remixing and creating different snippets from our core creative assets to reach different stages of the funnel.
The initial immersive ‘book scene’ advert, designed for brand awareness, was edited into shorter, more direct versions. These highlighted a specific call to action or a limited-time offer for users further along their journey of signing up to BookBeat:
This adaptability enabled us to maximise our investment and ensure consistent messaging across various touchpoints, without having to tell the entire story in a single advert.
Localisation was another critical element. Whilst maintaining global campaign consistency, we made subtle yet impactful local adaptations to our creatives, recognising varying levels of brand awareness across different markets.
These tweaks involved adjusting logo placement or the timing of our brand introduction to resonate more effectively with local audiences. As well as adding more book content focused ads, highlighting various genres to spark interest, and intrigue users with our broad audiobook selection.
Plotting our media mix with ‘gripping’ insights
We were looking to connect with younger audiences at the start of our journey. We used Google Signals and audience affinity data to understand the interests and behaviours of this audience.
Our deep-dive uncovered reassuring patterns in our audience’s daily routines, affirming much of what we had hoped to see. We identified strong affinity segments among individuals who frequently engaged in activities like commuting, exercising, and travelling — precisely the moments when audiobooks seamlessly integrate into people's lives.
We also knew there was a thriving book community on YouTube. Created and consumed by passionate readers, this provided a natural and highly relevant context for our ads. By strategically placing our message within this digital, bookish environment, we aimed to be seen less like an ad, and more like an organic and fitting discovery for engaged viewers. And it worked.
Page-turning results
And our listeners certainly were engaged. An important KPI for us was view rate, to understand how long people stick with our ads. We saw a significant increase here, up 30% year-over-year, which validated our creative work and our ability to find the right users at the right moment.
Despite investing more broadly and focusing on impact with non-clickable CTV ads, we actually saw a 60% drop in our cost per acquired user.
Ultimately, the most important question for us was whether all this translated to new signups. By combining CTV with a full funnel media strategy on YouTube using multiple campaign strategies (Video Reach campaigns, Video View campaigns, and Demand Gen), the results were truly amazing. We saw a 300% increase in trial users across our markets.
What was even more surprising to us was that despite investing more broadly and focusing on impact with non-clickable CTV ads, we actually saw a 60% drop in our cost per acquired user, all while using this full funnel strategy.
The end. Or the start of something new?
Looking ahead, we have gained valuable insights from this experience that will help inform how we approach future campaigns and optimise our media mix as a data-driven company. For example, whilst we had initially focused on reaching younger audiences, we were pleasantly surprised by the positive engagement and results we saw across more mature age groups on YouTube as well.
This challenged our initial assumptions and highlighted the platform's universal appeal. It also means we can broaden our audience for our next campaigns.
We now see CTV on YouTube not just as a branding tool, but as a vital strategic part of our full funnel strategy to drive new user acquisition.
By continuing to use the platform's rich toolbox and remaining data-driven and insight-led in our approach, we are confident we’ll continue to grow. In a media landscape where digital presence is no longer optional but essential, our success with CTV has solidified its place as a cornerstone of our marketing strategy.
