New Google research: Reaching your audience effectively with YouTube TrueView Ads

With many Americans spending as much time online as watching TV, media-savvy advertisers are turning to creative new formats to attract attention and customers. We recently surveyed more than 1,600 Americans aged 18-45 and got some interesting insights into TrueView Video Ads, the family of YouTube ad formats that give viewers choice and control over which advertisers' messages they want to see and when.

Some of the best findings from our study include:

• 8 of 10 viewers preferred TrueView to standard in-stream ads
• 9 of 10 viewers thought TrueView created a better viewing environment
• 8 of 10 viewers thought the skip button was very clear
• Only 1 viewer in 10 always skips ads

Other results give insight into how advertisers can make their TrueView ads even more effective so that viewers watch, not skip, their ads. Based on the research, here are some of the best ways to make your TrueView ads stickier:

Make great ads that people want to watch and that spark their curiosity.

Viewers have the option to skip a TrueView in-stream ad after five seconds, so piquing their interest quickly is important. By far the most popular survey response from people who chose to watch an ad was this one: �I was curious to see what the ad was for.� Attention-grabbing openers and humor also keep people watching.

Include branding in those first seconds.

TrueView advertisers pay only when people actually watch their ads. They�re buying real value, not paying per impression. So, insert your logo or brand name in the first five seconds�which cost you nothing if the viewer doesn�t keep watching. Enjoy those free impressions!

Include new, different information in your TrueView ad if it�s been airing on TV.

In our study, we found that seeing ads on TV affected whether viewers later skipped those same ads on YouTube. To keep them engaged across multiple screens, be sure to provide new product information in the TrueView ad messaging and make it personally relevant to the viewer. Check out this case study from HGTV for great ideas on tweaking and optimizing your TrueView ad.

To read full details of the study and get more tips about creating effective TrueView ads, visit Think Insights.

Posted by Christina Park, Product Marketing Manager, Think with Google

Love at first Search

More and more people are falling in love with Valentine�s Day. According to a recent survey by ORC International, Valentine�s Day is now the number two gift giving holiday, right behind Christmas, with 88% of Americans saying they plan on giving a present to their loved ones. This should be great news for businesses, but marketers still have trouble making a love connection with consumers based on charts that look more like dated EKG readings than real-time insights into the heart of the consumer.

Since getting the affections of one person is hard enough, below are some timely insights from Google�s �database of intentions� to keep you ahead of the game as you create your Valentine�s Day campaigns.

Search is where the heart is

Already we�re seeing Google searches related to Valentine�s Day increase 35% compared to last year. Not only are more people searching, they�re searching earlier - last year people began looking for Valentine�s Day ideas on January 9th. This year the upward trend began two days earlier, on January 7th.

Across categories, jewelry is seeing a 42% increase in mobile and desktop queries compared to January of last year; gifts jumped 27%, and flowers saw an 18% spike.

Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice

The results from this graph show women look for gift ideas earlier and more often than their male significant others. Maybe men are more last minute about buying gifts than women, but it doesn�t mean they�re cheap about it! In 2011 the average man spent $158 for Valentine�s Day, about $80 more than women.

Looking for a change of heart?

Valentine�s Day is less than three weeks away, which means that this is the great opportunity for marketers to influence people with their products since consumers are still searching for ideas. If you look at the word cloud below (spoiler alert!), a good chunk of people are searching for �diy valentines gifts� and �valentines day baskets,� which means there will be quite a few people unwrapping homemade gifts or pre-made gift baskets this year. The biggest cluster of phrases, �valentines day border,� �valentines day drinks,� and �valentines day meals,� signal that people are also planning on celebrating in style. Now would be a good time to promote recipes and decoration ideas in your campaigns.

For more useful trends and tips for your campaign, download and review the 2012 Valentine�s Day Consumer Intentions Deck on Think Insights. Hopefully it helps you steal away some hearts!

By Christina Park, Product Marketing Manager, Think with Google

Think With Google�s December Adventure: Mobile Tips Recap

Think With Google�s December Adventure continued this week with a focus on mobile.

Here are the four mobile-related insights and tips we covered this week (and a fun factoid):
Click on the titles to view the original posts and comments.

#1 Monday: Search from mobile devices up 5x in the past two years!

• Capture the mobile opportunity with separate campaigns targeting mobile devices only. Advertisers with mobile-optimized sites and mobile-targeted campaigns have seen an average 11.5% increase in mobile CTR.

#2 Tuesday: 59% of users visit a business and 40%+ make a purchase after using their smartphones to find local information

• Use AdWords location extensions to showcase key business information, including your address, phone number and driving directions.

#3 Wednesday: 65% of tablet owners use their tablets at least one hour per day

• Target tablet devices as part of your AdWords campaigns and, if you have tablet specific products or services, create tablet-only campaigns.

#4 Thursday: 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from mobile-optimized websites

• Get best practices and personalized tips on how to make your website more mobile-friendly at www.HowToGoMo.com.

#5. Friday Fun Factoid: One, Two, Dial my Smartphone

• Sign of the times: We agree with this article and predict that more kids will know how to use a smartphone than know how to tie their shoes. Watch endearing video on the post to see just how important it will be to market your content to the four screens: mobile, tablet, laptop and TV.

To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

YouTube and TV: better together

Each day, people watch more than 3 billion videos on YouTube - the equivalent of every American watching about 9 videos a day. U.S. online consumers now spend as much time online as they spend watching TV. With the consumer shift to online media consumption, many of our advertisers wonder how online video ads measure against traditional TV ads. Do traditional and new media ads complement each other? Which format drives recall most effectively?

To get answers, we partnered with Ipsos to measure the relative and combined effects of YouTube in-stream ads and TV ads on ad recall and brand metrics across six advertiser campaigns.

After conducting tests of 15- and 30-second spots on YouTube pre-roll instream ads and TV ads, the results revealed that YouTube and TV ads work better together. People who watched both YouTube and TV ads showed a 2X increase in brand recall than people who only saw TV ads. Those that only watched a YouTube ad had a brand recall rate 1.5X those who only watched a TV ad.

Hotels.com, one of the advertisers that participated in the study, uses YouTube video ads to drive incremental reach for TV campaigns. "Our customers are online today, so it only makes sense for e-commerce brands like Hotels.com to find entertaining and engaging online formats to interact with our audience," says Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing for Hotels.com. "YouTube video ads is a great distribution vehicle for us to efficiently maximize our reach, but the fact that is has the added impact of improving our overall ad recall metrics is a tremendous win."

This study comes on the heels of our multi-screen research, which found that brand recall jumps dramatically for consumers shown ads across all screens - TV, PC, smartphone and tablet devices. As more people consume media across multiple devices, having a multi-channel campaign strategy helps reach consumers at different points throughout the day.

To learn more about our study, download the infographic and slides from Think Insights or check out our video. And, when planning your media buys, consider using a combination of YouTube ads and TV ads to help you achieve higher ad recall than TV ads alone. You can find out more information about YouTube video ads here.

Posted by Lizzy Van Alstine & Christina Park, Google Research and Marketing

Think With Google�s December Adventure: Search Tips Recap

As we announced earlier this week, we'll be sharing insights and daily tips this month on�Think with Google's Plus Page, to help you make the most of your holiday marketing.

Here are the four search ad related insights we covered this week (and a fun factoid):
Click on the titles to view the original Google+ posts and comments.

1. Monday: 57% of shoppers still plan to do most of their holiday buying after Cyber Monday���Prepare for the big shopping days ahead by scheduling budgets to meet demand. Learn how in the "budget scheduling" section of this helpful article to learn how.
2. Tuesday: Online ads are surprisingly under-served during the holidays���Take a look at the seasonal spike in shopping queries versus the level supply of ads. Grab people's attention with ads at the top of the page by taking advantage of our newly launched options for Automated Rules.
3. Wednesday: Searches for "layaway" are heating up���Layaways are catching fire again with budget-conscious consumers at retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart - especially in the Southern US. Geo-target your campaigns to areas where holiday shoppers are looking through the Location Targeting Tool.
4. Thursday: December has arrived, bringing eight projected $1 billion+ online shopping days���Target those last-minute, undecided buyers with keyword terms such as "quick and easy gift ideas." The rush to purchase gift cards has also started, so make sure you have relevant keywords and ads.
5. Friday Fun Factoid: The Cold Truth���Did you know people in the US catch an average of three colds a year, per person? At about 1 billion colds annually, that's nothing to sneeze at. And this year's cold season could be worse than usual: Cold- and flu-related searches on Google are up by 61% so far over the same period last year. That means we'll see 14.1 million more cold- and flu-related searches this December than last December. So wash your hands before hitting the keyboard and bundle up, folks!

To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Holiday insights and tips from Think with Google!

Think it�s too late for holiday marketing initiatives? Think again!

Today the Think with Google team launches December Adventure, where every weekday between now and December 23, they�ll share useful, surprising and delightful insights and opportunities for sparking your online holiday sales via search ads, mobile and more. It�s prime time for online shopping, so follow Think with Google on Google+ for daily tips! You can also add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Our December Adventure is just beginning - so bundle up, log on, and get ready to grow your holiday business day by day. Click here to visit Think with Google on Google+.�To share the glow of these holiday insights, use�#decemberadventure.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Think Insights with Google is out of beta and packing a data punch

Quick pop quiz:

1. Based on search history, in what month does consumer demand for pretzels peak?

2. Search adds how much (in $) to the world�s GDP?

3. In 2011, what percent of people dreamed and brainstormed about their next vacation?

4. What percent of the daily queries on Google.com have never been seen before?

These are just a few of the questions that can be answered on the new Think Insights with Google, our information and resource hub for marketers. The site is fresh out of beta and sports a playful new look, helpful tools, more studies, the latest trends and exciting videos. We invite you to visit the site, take a look around and see what�s new.

If you only have a few minutes to spare, try playing with our new Real Time Insights Finder tool. With just a few clicks you can spot emerging trends and gain valuable consumer insights, all in real time. For example, the most popular video in common among males 25-34 in Italy and the U.S. is the Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game trailer.

To stay informed on updates to the site, add our Think with Google page on G+ to one of your circles or subscribe to our newsletter.

Use Think Insights as a one-stop shop for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research that is forward-thinking and rooted in data. We look forward to hearing your feedback and working to make your Think Insights experience as useful as possible.

Posted by Laura McClung, Ads Marketing

Think with Google: "Word of Mouth" study shows Google directly informs 146 million brand conversations a day

There are more than 2.4 billion conversations about brands every day, according to our latest "Word of Mouth" study with Keller Fay. More than half of consumers involved in these conversations say they�re likely to make a purchase based on what they talk about. We wanted to know more about how media and the Internet play into all this conversation, so we took a look at what effect the Internet and search have on word of mouth. The study shows how media and marketing channels provided content before, during, and after consumer conversations by surveying 3,000 adults across 12 categories.

It turns out that while most people still talk about brands face to face, their conversations are informed by the Internet more than any other media source. And when they�re online, users go to search sites more than any other. This is even more true after conversations, especially those sparked by TV. People follow up by searching for more information and prices more than any other online activity, including social media.

Check out this video or see here on Think Insights for more information on the full study!

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

Editor's note (Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 2:45 pm): The post originally said that there are 2.4 million brand conversations happening every day. The correct number is in fact 2.4 billion, so the post has been updated to reflect this.

Because Data Beats Opinion: Introducing Think Insights with Google

It�s one of our company�s guiding principles that data beats opinion. And as such, we�ve put a lot of effort into asking some interesting questions�How do new mothers use the Internet? When do people really start their holiday shopping? What trends typify today�s Hispanic web user?�and answering them with concrete information.

(click for full-size image)

We�re now pleased to share this knowledge at Think Insights with Google, the website where we�ll be publishing our learnings and insights about digital marketing trends. From papers to case studies to videos, Think Insights' content represents the ongoing work we�re doing to better understand how web users are embracing new media platforms and how marketers are adapting to this changing terrain. We�ll be updating this site frequently, so if you'd like to keep up with our latest news, sign up here for your monthly Think Insights fix.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew