How do millennials feed their growing interest in health and wellness? They search.
In our new Food Trends Report we analyzed Google Search data to find five major
trends. Here we share more insight on one, the rise of "functional foods," and why
there's a big opportunity for brands.
Today's dinner table looks quite different than it did just 10 years ago. For one,
there's likely a smartphone next to the fork. And on each plate, there might be a
different meal—mom's paleo, dad's vegan, the kids' gluten- and nut-free. At first
glance, you might think these changes are unrelated. And you might bemoan what's
become of the family dinner. But it could be that, thanks to the technology at our
fingertips, people are actually much more thoughtful about what they feed
themselves and their loved ones.
That mindfulness is apparent in micro-moments when consumers rely on Google Search to learn
more about food. Through an analysis of these searches in the food category over
the last two years, we are able to get a large-scale look at people's interests and
intentions.
Fueling interest in health and wellness with digital
"To eat healthy, you have to pay a lot of attention," says Dr. Frank Lipman, the
founder of Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in Manhattan. And people are, especially
millennials, he contends. "They are 10 times more aware than my generation," says
Lipman, and are "much more interested in staying healthy and eating healthy."
Now, the focus of people's diets is less about eliminating foods than about adding
them.
Perhaps this growing "obsession with health," as food and restaurant consultant
Michael Whiteman puts it, is in part due to the fact that people are living
longer, and want their extra years to be healthy ones. (As the saying goes "If
I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.") But
both he and Lipman point to digital as a major catalyst for our growing health food
fixation. "There's no question it's coming from the web," says Lipman.
To eat right, people are going online to raise their food IQ and make more informed
choices. In what-do-I-eat-moments, they're searching for the best foods to eat for
certain physiological benefits. According to Google Trends, "best foods for"
searches have grown 10X since 2005,1 often followed by terms like
"skin," "energy," "acid reflux," "your brain," and "gym workout."2
Google internal data, 2011 vs. 2015, U.S.
Learning about the benefits of "functional foods"
According to the new Food Trends Report, there is a growing consumer
interest in the health-enhancing role of specific foods, or what experts call
"functional foods."
A number of the top trending foods over the last two years are "healthy"
ingredients like turmeric, apple cider vinegar, avocado oil, bitter melon, and
kefir (high in trendy bacteria called probiotics). They are said to infer
benefits like better skin, libido, and energy or cures for depression, insomnia,
and pain (in fact, "benefits" is a term that's commonly searched for along with
many of these foods).2 Now, the focus of people's diets is less about
eliminating foods than about adding them.
While the concept of functional foods has been around for decades, interest in
these specific foods is growing faster than before. Turmeric, a spice that's
purported to cure everything from cancer to depression, is the breakout star, with
searches growing 300% over the last five years.3
Rise in searches for turmeric since 2004
Turmeric
Source: Google internal data, 2004-2016, U.S.
In what-do-I-eat moments, searching on mobile and Mondays
In what-do-I-eat moments, people pull out their smartphones to find information on
healthy foods. For five of the top 10 trending functional foods, over 50% of the
searches are on mobile.4 In fact, according to a recent study of people
who searched for food and beverage terms, 35% did so exclusively on a
phone.5
These moments happen most at the start of the week, when people may be planning
meals, making grocery lists, or redevoting themselves to healthy eating after an
indulgent weekend. On average, searches for the top 10 functional foods across
devices peak on Mondays, and slowly decline throughout the week until interest
reaches its lowest point on Fridays.6
Google internal data, 2015, U.S.
Finding a range of recipes in how-to-add-it moments
Once people know what to eat, they want to know how to eat it. In
these how-to-add-it moments, they're looking for different forms and recipes. For
example, top associations with turmeric searches show that consumers are looking to
better understand how to consume it and incorporate it into their diets; top
associated searches include "powder," "smoothie," "recipe," and
"drink."7
YouTube is also a popular destination in these moments. The top five videos about
ways to consume turmeric (turmeric tea, "golden milk," capsules) have a combined
3.9M views.8
Beyond cooking, consumers and brands are coming up with creative ways to use these
ingredients. Top YouTube videos show turmeric being used for teeth whitening, face
masks, even dying clothes, while apple cider vinegar is being touted as a
conditioner, facial cleanser, and foot soak.
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Brands are "healthifying" products and their positioning
In response, some brands are trying to "healthify" foods by adding functional
ingredients. A survey of the supermarket shelf shows ingredients like chia, flax
and probiotics being added to crackers, chocolate, and gummies. Moon Juice,
a trendy health food spot in Los Angeles, has a line of products named after their
benefits (Beauty Dust, Brain Dust, Goodnight Dust). Even beauty brands can
capitalize on these trends. Some are adding trending functional ingredients to
their products—see Kiehl's Turmeric & Cranberry
Seed Energizing Radiance Masque, Freeman's Apple Cider Vinegar
4-in-1 Foaming Clay, and OGX's Coconut Milk Shampoo. (Ulta Beauty is one retailer doing an especially
good job capturing search interest in the latter two products.) Nestlé is going
so far as to create a line of "medical foods" to treat diseases.
Beyond "healthifying" products, brands can also make a point to better educate
consumers on functional foods and ingredients. "There's a lot of misinformation out
there," says Marie Spano, sports nutritionist for the Atlanta Hawks, pointing to
the need for clearer labeling and easier-to-understand language.
When General Mills noticed a growing consumer interest in gluten-free
foods, it responded by adapting everything from product formulations to online
advertising. As more and more people become interested in functional foods, brands
can take a cue from General Mills. These what-do-I-eat and how-to-add-it moments
offer valuable insight into consumer intentions—what people actually want to eat.
That means brands have a big opportunity to respond to this growing health and
wellness trend in innovative ways.
Sources 1 Google Trends, January 2016 vs. January 2005, U.S. 2 Google internal data, 2015, U.S. 3 Google Trends, February 2016 vs. February 2012, U.S. 4 Google internal data, January-March 2016, U.S. 5 Google/Luth, The Role of Mobile on the CPG Purchase Journey, U.S.,
April 2016. Food and beverage purchasers August 12–31. n = 318 6 Google internal data, September 2015-February 2016, U.S. 7 Google internal data, August 2015-February 2016, U.S. 8 Google internal data, January 2015-February 2016, U.S. Classification
as a ”turmeric” consumption video was based on public data such as headlines and
tags for videos demonstrating turmeric as a consumable, and may not account for
every ”turmeric” consumption video available on YouTube.
We all know the amount of time consumers spend watching video
online is growing. And our research shows consumers don’t just love
online video—they’re influenced by it. It earns unprecedented lifts in
consideration and favorability. It impacts purchase intent. And the
creators making it have never been more influential. Here’s a look at
the momentum of online video, and how your brand can tap into it.
Defining a brand strategy should always
be prior to SEO or any other marketing activity. Branding is what
dictates the direction that marketing should take, and helps make the
right judgement call. In other words, a well curated branding strategy
brings purpose and consistency to everything that a brand does. This is
why an SEO strategy can only be as good as a brand strategy is. When SEO
is built on the foundations of a brand, it is more likely that it will
increase the authoritativeness and relevancy, and in turn this will
impact brand KPIs.
If we imagine that all the links were
acquired naturally, we could say a lot about a brand by looking at its
backlinks profile, like the awareness that different campaigns generate,
for example. This is the direction that things are taking, Google even
posted on their blog recently reminding bloggers to use no follow and
disclose relationship when they’re writing a promotional post.
There’s no arguing that this is the only
way of approaching links, but how effective is it? Links are an
important ranking signal, and brands want to keep up with their
competitors. Is branded content enough to get all the links a brand
‘need’ to be on top of their game? And how much does a branded digital
PR strategy actually impact links?
I will explore this by comparing the
backlink profiles of brands that have a well-defined branded strategy
with their main competitors.
Chipotle
Chipotle is known for its mission of
delivering food with integrity, and this positioning dictates all of
their marketing activities. This strategy had very good results, sales
went up, and it generated more awareness, as we can see on this Google
Trends image:
It was only in 2014 that there were more searches for ‘Chipotle’ than for ‘Taco Bell’, its main competitor:
Can we also verify this positive trend
in Chipotle’s backlink profile? I would expect so but to answer that
question, let’s look at their Trust and Citation Flow and Topical Trust
Flow:
Taco Bell has a higher Trust Flow than
Chipotle, however the latter is getting links from a more diverse set of
sources and their topical trust flow are in line with the brand’s
strategy.
Something else I’m interested in looking
at is the history of the referring domains to see if it reflects what’s
been happening with the brand – from their main marketing stunts to any
particular situation they had to deal with.
Looking at this graph I would say that
it reflects what’s been going on with Chipotle and its main competitor.
Chipotle came from behind and got more domains linking to them than Taco
Bell in mid 2014/early 2015, however things changed again in mid 2015.
In fact, Chipotle faced a few problems in that year, like the E.coli situation, and this might help to explain what we see here.
Let’s move to another example:
Domino’s
Domino’s not only changed its product
(improved the quality of their pizzas) back in 2009 but it also changed
its communication strategy and fully embraced digital. This impacted sales positively, and gave the brand a place on tops like the most loved brands by youth in the UK. Can we get any insights about this based on their backlink profile?
Looking at the Trust and Citation Flow,
Domino’s is clearly ahead of its competitors in the UK, and it also has a
bigger number of domains linking to their website.
Before 2013, Domino’s had roughly the
same number of referring domains than Pizza Hut, however this situation
changed in early 2014 and we see the brand getting the biggest number of
referring domains more frequently, possibly due to Domino’s marketing
efforts.
Let’s look at a last example:
Red Bull
This time I will look at a brand that
creates a lot of buzz quite frequently, Red Bull, to see if the links
that they get might be related to their content strategy. For
consistency purposes, I will compare this brand with its main
competitor, Monster Energy.
Looking at the referring domains for
both brands, we see that Red Bull has more peaks than Monster Energy, so
I will make the assumption that those are not due to an industry trend
but to Red Bull activities. Multiple things can explain those peaks, but
I would expect some correlation with their content strategy. The
biggest peak happens around September 2013 so I did a time framed search
to see if there was anything going on at that time that might explain
this, and this is what I found:
Around September 2013, Red Bull released
a documentary about one of their most popular campaigns, the Strato
Jump, and this probably led to more websites linking to them.
Conclusion
A good brand is one that knows who it is
talking to, is consistent and knows how to get the message across. If
everything works well, when a brand launches a new campaign, this will
have an effect on brand KPIs like brand awareness, word of mouth, sales,
and it will generate more links.
The purpose here was to explore if a
branded strategy can impact a brand’s backlinks profile. There’s only so
much we can say by looking at 3 examples, however I believe that we can
see some correlation here. A branded strategy doesn’t necessarily mean a
higher Trust Flow but it can impact the number of links a brand gets
and their relevancy, and we can always expect that to influence the
Trust Flow positively. Any marketing team can match the content plan
against its backlink profile to analyse if there’s any correlation
between campaigns and links, and do the same thing for their
competitors, this will give some insight about how people react to
different campaigns and what generates more awareness, which can be very
useful to any brand working on its content strategy.
Security and privacy are of utmost importance to our
clients, our clients’ end users, and to Google, and secure transmission
of our JavaScript libraries and measurement data is essential to that
end. To implement secure transmission, Google Analytics uses HTTP Strict
Transport Security (HSTS), which instructs browsers that support HTTP
over SSL (HTTPS) to use that encryption protocol for all communication
between end users, websites, and our servers.
The HTTPS encryption affects all traffic from supported browsers. To
ensure security for our clients, there is no method by which you can opt
out of HTTPS encryption of your traffic.
There is no implementation impact to site owners. No code changes are
required. Google Analytics takes care of everything required to encrypt
your traffic.
Impact to traffic between your site and Google Analytics servers
Traffic that is encrypted via HTTPS can be slower than unencrypted
traffic. Slower traffic can result in lost hits from users who close a
web page before the tracking beacon is sent to Google Analytics, for
example, if a user closes a page within 1 second of opening the page.
This same issue of lost hits exists with unencrypted traffic, but can be
equal to or greater with encrypted traffic.
Encrypted traffic can also be blocked by firewalls for security
reasons. If end users are accessing your website from behind a firewall
that blocks HTTPS, then measurement data from those users cannot be
collected.
Ads that only appear on the page when AdSense thinks they’ll perform well.
Page-level ads offer visitors a great mobile experience—they only appear on the page when it makes sense.
And they’re easy to set up. Place the same piece of code just once on pages you want to show ads on, and AdSense takes care of the rest.
Page-level ads are:
Easy to change: Add code once, then turn on one or both types of page-level ad format from your account—no need to change code on your site again.
Additional ads: They don’t count toward your AdSense ad limit on each page.
Always up to date: The code you add now makes it easy to enable new formats in the future.
Key features
The key features of Page-level ads include:
They're simple to set up. With Page-level ads you only need to place the ad code on your pages once, and you put the same ad code on each page.
They're optimized. To ensure that you and your users get the most from this ad format, AdSense will only show Page-level ads when they’re likely to perform well and provide a good user experience.
It's easy to change Page-level ad settings. Once you've added the ad code to your pages, you can turn individual Page-level ad formats on or off from the My ads tab in your AdSense account. The ad code remains the same, even when you change your Page-level ad settings.
They don’t count towards your Google content ad limit per page.
Ad formats
Currently, the Page-level ads family includes the following ad formats:
Anchor/overlay ads
Anchor/overlay ads are mobile ads that stick to the edge of the user's screen and are easily dismissible.
Picture of an anchor/overlay ad Some important things to know about anchor/overlay ads:
They're shown by AdSense at optimal times to help increase your revenue and provide a good user experience.
They don't count towards your three ads per page limit.
They only serve on mobile-optimized webpages on high-end mobile devices.
Vignette ads
Vignette ads are mobile full-screen ads that appear between page loads on your site and can be skipped by users at any time.
Picture of a vignette ad Some important things to know about vignette ads:
They're shown by AdSense at optimal times to help increase your revenue and provide a good user experience.
They're displayed when the user leaves a page, rather than when they arrive on one, so the user doesn’t have to wait for them to load.
They're limited in number per user to maintain a good user experience.
They don't count towards your three ads per page limit.
They only serve on mobile-optimized webpages on high-end mobile devices.
In the past year, empowering ads on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard have more than doubled.
Brands are spreading messages of gender equality, love, and body positivity. To
celebrate, YouTube have showcased the top empowering ads that have appeared on the Ads
Leaderboard from 2013 to 2016.
Sona MedSpa, the largest medical spa company in the US, used Facebook’s
lead ads to offer special promotions and free consultations. When people
clicked on the ads, they landed on a contact form pre-populated with
information based on what they share with Facebook—making it quick and
easy to submit.
Sona MedSpa’s lead ad campaign succeeded in reaching potential customers
and generating a higher return on ad spend than the company’s previous
campaigns.
Between August–October 2015, it achieved:
Nearly 2X increase in leads compared to leads generated by link ad campaigns
66% lower cost per acquisition compared to the CPAs of previous link ad campaigns
Get inspired by Sona MedSpa’s success, and then create your own lead ads.
Sona MedSpa
Success Story
A lead generation makeover
The
national medical spa promoted its services by offering people
free-of-charge consultations via mobile, without leaving Facebook,
successfully increasing new leads whilst maintaining a low cost per
acquisition.
nearly 2xincrease in leads compared to previous link advertising campaigns
66%lower cost per acquisition compared to previous link advertising campaigns
Their Story
Look good, feel good, safely
Sona MedSpa
is the largest full-service aesthetics company in the US, helping
clients look and feel their best with medical spa services, including
laser hair removal, fat reduction, skin rejuvenation, Botox and body
contouring. Services take place in a safe and comfortable spa
environment, with oversight by a medical professional.
Their Goal
Enhancing qualified leads
Sona Medspa wanted to generate qualified leads for its services and convert more people into clients in a cost-effective way.
Mobile
continues to be an important part of our overall strategy, and anything
we can do to simplify a customer's experience on mobile is a huge
benefit. Lead generation from Facebook has far exceeded our
expectations.
Rene Fielder, Marketing Director, Sona MedSpa
Their Solution
Contacts for consultations
Sona MedSpa used a series of Lead adverts
on mobile to reach men and women in 7 US markets around its locations
with information about its different spa services.The Lead adverts
offered special promotions and free-of-charge consultations, with 'Learn
More' call-to-action buttons. When prospective customers clicked on
these, they landed on a contact form pre-populated with information
based on what they shared with Facebook, making it quick and easy to
submit.
Sona
MedSpa's lead advertising campaign succeeded in reaching potential
customers and generating a higher return on advert spend than the
company's previous campaigns. Between August and October 2015, it
achieved:
a nearly 2x increase in leads compared to previous link advertising campaigns;
a 66% lower cost per acquisition compared to previous link advertising campaigns.
As the largest minority group in the United States, Hispanics are a powerful audience. Traditionally, advertisers have reached these consumers via TV networks: In 2014, 78% of advertisers’ budgets went to TV ads, while only 7% were dedicated to digital. But more Hispanics watch YouTube than any cable network in the U.S. And when they’re researching something they want to buy, Hispanics who say they go online favor digital sources over family, radio, and TV. To learn more about this audience and its behavior online, we partnered with Ipsos Connect to survey self-identified U.S. Hispanics online, and here’s what the study found.
Brand advertisers used to think of TV first when they wanted to
reach their target audiences. Now, their audiences are reaching for
their phones. We’re living in a multi-screen, multi-platform world,
where one in three consumers say they’ve never had cable or no longer
do. The result is that the old way to reach consumers has gotten harder
and more expensive. The good news is, there’s an easy way to reach
“cord-cutters” and “cord-nevers”: online video.
When it comes to video's role in your Olympic marketing plan, no doubt sports
content and real-time marketing are key components. Kate Stanford, director of
YouTube Advertiser Marketing, spells out how and why brands might want to expand
their YouTube strategy to capture the full opportunity.
The 2016 Summer Games are just around the corner, bringing together thousands of
the world's best athletes for 17 days of competition and camaraderie, with billions
of fans tuning in across the globe to watch.
While much of this watch time will happen on TV, digital is playing an
ever-increasing role. In the last 12 months alone, YouTube watch time for sports
like track and field, gymnastics, swimming, and volleyball exceeded total watch
time for all of the estimated content ever broadcast on ESPN by 30X.1
And those numbers will undoubtedly rise as the games take center stage.
In fact, search interest on YouTube was higher for the last Summer Olympics than
for the last World Cup or each of the past six Super Bowls.2
As Olympic audiences shift online, so should the brands trying to reach them. Many
Olympic video marketing plans focus on producing sports-related content targeted at
sports fans. And while that strategy is a great start, to make the most of the
Summer Games on YouTube, here are three ways to expand your strategy and capture
the full opportunity:
1. Don't create video content around sports alone. Expand your content strategy to
the culture around the games.
There are rich territories for brands to explore—beyond sports—when it comes to
content creation.
Sports-related content is a no-brainer, especially if that's an easy tie-in for
your brand. But the Summer Games are much more than a sports competition alone.
They're a cultural event in a foreign locale with representation from nearly every
country across the globe. Naturally, the games spark interest in music, language,
travel, and cooking related to the region where they're hosted, and even beyond.
London travel-related search interest on YouTube nearly doubled during the Summer
Games in 2012.3 And during the 2014 Winter Games, Sochi travel-related
search interest grew more than 20X year over year.4 The fact that we saw
search interest increase while the games were live (versus the months preceding the
games) suggests that it was driven by fans who watched the games and were inspired
to learn more about the host city.
Another major event—the Super Bowl—provides a source of inspiration. Visit
California realized its opportunity when Super Bowl 50 was hosted in San Francisco.
Football wasn't the most obvious brand territory for Visit California to play in,
but knowing that the spotlight would be on California, the brand took the
opportunity to highlight the wonders of the Golden State with a three-episode
YouTube video series, "Bay Area or Bust." The series
featured football legend (and former San Francisco 49er) Joe Montana hitchhiking
his way to the stadium for game day with YouTube creators like Brandon Armstrong,
Brittani Louise Taylor, and Tyler Ward.
"The 'Bay Area or Bust' web series was a modern way to celebrate one of the biggest
sporting celebrations of the year in a uniquely Californian way," said Caroline
Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California. "The series allowed us to connect to
a wider audience and showcase California's beauty, road trip experiences, and love
of sports."
2. Don't look for audiences on just sports content. Reach broader, but smarter.
If your aim is to reach a broad audience with your games-related messaging, you'll
be limiting your reach if you only target sports fans.
It's not just sports fans who tune into the games. More than 1 in 3 people who say
they rarely or never watch sports content, report that they plan to watch the
Summer Games.5
And sports fans aren't just watching sports-related content. In fact, Olympic fans
in the United States are more likely than the average YouTube viewer to also watch
content about gaming (1.8X), auto (1.9X), and travel (2.3X).6
This means that you can't reach your full potential audience by targeting sports
content alone. Rather, you have to reach viewers no matter what they're watching,
which requires being broader, but also, smarter.
This is where custom
affinity audiences come into play. With custom affinity audiences, advertisers
can both create and target specific segments, like "Brazilian-travel enthusiasts"
or "Olympic-viewing moms," and reach them across YouTube and more than 2 million
websites.
Google data, April 2016, United States. Categories of video content based on anonymized, aggregated user behavior on YouTube.
Our own Google Play team saw success with this kind of approach during the Oscars.
The team wanted to make it easy for movie fans to find the winning
movies in the Google Play store as soon as they were announced.
In order to reach the broadest, but most relevant audience possible during this
short period of time, the team didn't just reach fans on movie-related content. The
team used affinity audiences (like "movie lovers") to ensure it was connecting with
movie fans no matter where they were across the web. The campaign saw a 59% lift in
searches for Google Play Movies among those who saw the ads.7
3. Don't just create real-time marketing. Gather real-time insights.
When time's precious, like the 17 days of the Olympics, every moment counts.
Real-time marketing enables brands to quickly and scalably create and launch an ad
that's highly relevant to a live moment. But speed isn't only important to
execution. It's equally important to measurement: What's working, how well, and
among which audiences?
Take, for example, the Conservative Solutions PAC's work during the Republican
presidential candidate debate in October 2015. As Marco Rubio discussed national
security in a debate, BASK Digital Media pushed out ads with actual quotes from the
candidate in real-time to likely voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
Not only did the team connect with real-time relevance, it also used its learnings
about how the ads performed to optimize on the fly. "Using Google's real-time ads,
we were able to achieve immediate massive scale in Iowa and instantaneously echo,
with online ads, the messages the candidate was delivering during the debate. Not
only that, but we were able to see which messages were resonating with our key
audiences by looking at performance reports and optimizing our campaign
accordingly," said Amanda Bloom, media director, BASK Digital Media.
Speed isn't only important to execution. It's equally important to measurement.
One place to start gathering real-time insights is in the demographics report in
YouTube Analytics. This can help
you understand the age and gender distribution of viewers engaging with your
content. Ask yourself, is the demographic you're trying to reach the one that your
videos are actually connecting with?
Also consider using YouTube Analytics to A/B test ad creative in just one to two
days. By running two versions of creative, you can then go to Analytics and see how
they compare for metrics like skip rate and watch time.
And when it comes to brand metrics, like moving the needle on purchase intent and
brand searches, try using Brand Lift, which in as little as three to five days provides even
deeper insight into how your campaigns are performing for metrics like
consideration, interest, and purchase intent. Advertisers like Mondelez and
Mountain Dew are using these test-and-learn
approaches with creative to drive greater results.
Interested in more sports and industry-related content? Sign
up for sports alerts with our newsletter.
As we approach the Olympic opening ceremony, it won't just be the athletes on the
field vying for gold. Over the 17 days of the Olympic Games, marketers will compete
to capture consumer attention. As major sporting and cultural events become richer
because of digital, these moments are becoming more personal. Marketers can make
the most of these moments by embracing the culture around the games, finding fans
even when they're not tuning into sports-related content, and building a feedback
loop so you can learn and optimize your campaigns in real-time.
Sources 1 Google data, U.S., Classification as a "track and field,"
"gymnastics," "swimming," or "volleyball" video was based on public data such as
headlines and tags, and may not account for every such video available on YouTube,
Mar. 2015–Feb. 2016. Content broadcast by ESPN was estimated by adding the number
of days since its first broadcast. 2 Google Trends, YouTube Search, Worldwide, Jan. 2011–Mar. 2016. 3 Google Trends, Travel Category, YouTube Search, Worldwide, Aug. 2012
v. Aug. 2011. 4 Google Trends, Travel Category, YouTube Search, Worldwide, Feb. 2014
v. Feb. 2013. 5 Google Consumer Survey, U.S., Apr. 2016. 6 Google data, U.S., Apr. 2016. Categories of video content based on
anonymized, aggregated user behavior on YouTube. 7https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/real-time-marketing-oscars-google-play.html
A month or so after Google told us they would be removing the 1-to-10 PageRank scores from their toolbar feeds, they removed it this past Friday.
Google told us they would be removing PageRank scores from the Google Toolbars last month. Well, now, Google has finally and fully cut the data from the Toolbar and any tool that tries to fetch that score.
There are dozens of reports across the web of people asking over the weekend where their PageRank has gone. Well, their PageRank still exists, but the Toolbar version of that PageRank is gone, gone forever.
It has been years since Google updated the PageRank scores in their Google Toolbar, and Google has been trying to demote the importance of PageRank over those years, as well. Last month, Google told us they would officially remove the 1 to 10 scores from their Toolbar feed and that it would go dark in the coming weeks. Well, this past Friday, April 15, 2016, it went dark.
Marketers who rely only on demographics to reach consumers risk missing more than
70% of potential mobile shoppers. Why? Because demographics rarely tell the whole
story. Understanding consumer intent is much more powerful. Lisa Gevelber, Google’s
VP of marketing, shares how starting with intent can help you reach more of the
right people than demographics alone.
For years, we as marketers have been using demographics as a proxy for people who
might be interested in our products. But our research shows that marketers who try
to reach their audience solely on demographics risk missing more than 70% of
potential mobile shoppers.1 Why? Because demographics don't help us
understand what we really need to know—what consumers are looking for in an exact
moment or where they are looking to find it.
Intent beats identity. Immediacy trumps loyalty. When someone has a want or need,
they turn to their smartphone for help—whether it's a karate newbie watching an
expert do a move on YouTube or a mom looking for the best deal on a pair of
sneakers. When a need arises, people turn to search and YouTube to look for
answers, discover new things, and make decisions. We call these intent-filled
moments, micro-moments. And
they're the best opportunity marketers have to connect with people at the exact
moment they are looking for something.
Understanding consumer intent and meeting their needs in the moment are the keys to
winning more hearts, minds, and dollars.
Relying on demographics is limiting
While demographics will always have a place in the marketing playbook, the brands
that understand and respond to intent are better positioned to be there and be
useful for all of their potential customers, not just those that fit an age and
gender profile.
Source:
Mobile search & video behavior analysis, Millward Brown Digital,
U.S., January-June 2015, base = mobile video game searchers
Consider video games. You might think video game shoppers are mostly young men
hunched over a bag of chips in their parents' basement. But the data shows only 31%
of mobile searchers for video games are men ages 18 to 34.2 Target
demographically and you'd miss out on the other 69% of mobile users who are
explicitly expressing interest in buying the next big game.
And if you're a video game marketer looking to reach those in your category with
video ads aimed at men ages 18 to 34, you'd miss out on 71% of the potential
shoppers who are engaging with relevant YouTube content.3 That's because
on YouTube, which is fast becoming the new buyer's guide and owner's manual for
games, mobile users are watching video to learn how to do things and explore their
passions. But these people aren't
all the same. They're arriving with various intentions. Some want advice,
others seek inspiration, and others want product reviews.
Sources:
* Mobile search & video behavior analysis, Millward Brown Digital,
U.S., January-June 2015 // ** Mobile Purchasers & Influencers
Report. Google / Ipsos MediaCT, Ipsos Online Omnibus, August 2015,
N=5025 Online smartphone users 18+, skin & body care influencers in
past 6 months
Or here's something really different: baby products. According to our research, 40%
of baby product purchasers live in households without children.4 This is
also true for 52% of baby product influencers. These people could be grandparents
and cousins, friends, and co-workers. And search is their #1 way of finding out
about these products.5
As you can see, if you want to reach this valuable audience, demographics alone
won't cut it. Marketers who consider intent from the onset are primed to win
consumer hearts, minds, and dollars.
Source:
Mobile Purchasers & Influencers Report. Google / Ipsos MediaCT,
Ipsos Online Omnibus, August 2015, N=5025 Online smartphone users 18+,
baby product purchasers in past 6 months
Home Depot is a real-life example of a brand that understands the power of intent.
Years ago it figured out "do-it-yourselfers" were turning to their
phones—especially YouTube—to learn everything from "how to tile a bathroom floor"
to "how to build an outdoor fire pit." So to be more useful in these I-want-to-do
moments, Home Depot built a content marketing strategy centered around "how-to"
videos on YouTube. Today the collection has hundreds of videos, with the top 10
videos each reaching a million views or more. The full Home Depot "how-to"
collection has received more than 48 million views.
"Mobile has significantly changed how we connect with customers at The Home Depot,"
said Trish Mueller, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at The Home
Depot. "We're now laser-focused on how we can use digital to deliver against our
customers' needs every moment of the day and every step of their home improvement
experience."
Getting started with moments of intent
Knowing your consumer's intent means you can meet them in the moments that matter
and deliver helpful content. Here's how you can start to put intent at the center
of your strategy:
Be there
When your potential customers turn to Google and YouTube in their moments of need,
make sure you are there.
Use Google Trends to explore
search trends and queries in your category to understand what consumers are looking
for. Make sure you are there and useful in these moments of intent.
Be useful
Once you've ensured you're there to meet your customer, you then need to be useful in that moment. Otherwise they will simply move on
to another brand. Our research shows 51% of smartphone users have purchased from a
company/brand other than the one they intended to because the information provided
was useful.6
Think about unique, tangible ways your brand can help solve a problem or make life
easier in real-time during a micro-moment. Here are some examples to get you
thinking:
Provide local inventory information so they can see what's in stock nearby.
Develop how-to videos.
Offer the ability for consumers to seamlessly check out with an "instant buy"
button.
To see more tips on being there and being useful, learn what other brands are doing
in our Micro-Moments Playbook. Sources: 1 Mobile search & video behavior analysis, Millward Brown Digital,
U.S., January-June 2015, base = mobile video game searchers 2 Mobile search & video behavior analysis, Millward Brown Digital,
U.S., January-June 2015, base = mobile video game searchers 3 Mobile search & video behavior analysis, Millward Brown Digital,
U.S., January-June 2015, base = video game shoppers who engaged with relevant
YouTube content on mobile 4 Mobile Purchasers & Influencers Report. Google / Ipsos MediaCT,
Ipsos Online Omnibus, August 2015, N=5025 Online smartphone users 18+, baby product
purchasers in past 6 months 5 Mobile Purchasers & Influencers Report. Google / Ipsos MediaCT,
Ipsos Online Omnibus, August 2015, N=5025 Online smartphone users 18+, baby product
influencers in past 6 months 6 Consumers in the Micro-Moment, Wave 3, Google/Ipsos, U.S., August
2015, n=1291 online smartphone users 18+
How to Identify the Right KPIs for Online Video: Lessons From Google BrandLab
When it comes to measuring a video ad’s success, views aren’t everything. Kim
Larson, who works with hundreds of brands each year as the global head of BrandLab,
shares her four-step method for getting to the right key performance indicators
(KPIs).
At Google BrandLab, we've run more than 400 workshops from San Bruno to Singapore.
We've partnered with thousands of brand marketers to learn about their challenges
and help them think digital-first. And over the years, there's one question we've
heard again and again from marketers when the conversation turns to YouTube:
"How many views means my video is successful?"
Views may be the proverbial public scorecard, but they're not always the best way
to track progress against a brand's unique goals. At the BrandLab,
we refocus teams on identifying the right KPIs for those goals. We use a
thought-provoking exercise designed to unpack the question we wish we were
asked more often:
"Which KPIs should we be tracking to understand if our video campaign is
successful?"
Below, we share that exercise with you—the questions we ask, the answers we work
toward—so that you can help your teams look beyond views, too.
Question #1: What is your primary marketing goal for this campaign?
As brand teams write briefs, they typically want their video advertising campaigns
to increase awareness and consideration and ultimately influence their online or
offline sales. While consumers may not have a simple, linear experience anymore
thanks to a growing number of touchpoints—online shopping, reviews, mobile, social,
etc.—most marketers agree their target audience fits into one of three categories:
unfamiliar with a product, on the fence about a product, or ready to act. With each
new campaign or initiative, it's important to know where your target audience is in
their journey and their intent. Based on that, which of the three possible brand
goals is your #1 priority?
Question #2: What are the KPIs for that marketing goal?
The second step after you've landed on your marketing goal is to take a closer look
at the campaign's KPIs. At the BrandLab, we use the chart below to help brands and
agencies select KPIs that are easy to track and align with their marketing goals:
Question #3: What are the best video analytics tools to measure your KPIs?
You've got your primary goal. You've got the KPIs that align with that goal. It's
time to figure out how you'll measure them. There are three primary tools used to
measure campaigns on YouTube: Brand Lift, YouTube Analytics, and reporting in
AdWords. If you want to go beyond those tools and poll consumers on more specific
questions, try running a survey with Google Consumer
Surveys.
YouTube Analytics, Google Analytics, and AdWords will help your team measure
metrics like watch time, view through rate, and clicks. These metrics can act as a
helpful scorecard, and you can log in while your campaign is running to track
progress. But translating views or clicks to lifts in awareness, consideration, or
purchase intent gets tricky. That's where our Brand Lift solution comes in. It
measures your campaign's impact on big-picture brand metrics.
Lastly, you can poll consumers with Google Consumer Surveys. These surveys don't
have to be tied to a specific advertising campaign, but you could capture exposures
to your channel or your ads and survey those exposures specifically. And you can
ask those folks just about anything: if they've heard of your brand; when they'd
like to hear from your brand; what kind of device they use; whether they prefer red
or blue logos… the sky's the limit.
Question #4: How will you optimize for your KPIs?
After you determine your KPIs and how you'll measure them, a natural next step is
to ask, "What's a good industry or competitive benchmark?" Unfortunately, it's not
always that simple.
Creative choices—length, music, logos, celebrities, etc.—vary too greatly among
video ads for a fair apples-to-apples comparison, as do KPIs (was your competitor
aiming for clicks or views?), targeting (larger audience? smaller?), and budget
(did they have twice the budget to promote?).
Instead of looking exclusively at competitive or industry benchmarks, we encourage
marketers to set their own. Consider comparing your current campaign to past
campaigns, for which your team will know creative variables, KPIs, targeting, and
budget. If you don't have another internal campaign that has the same KPIs,
consider using in-campaign reporting and optimization to adjust creative and
targeting midstride. An example of this might be A/B testing your own creative to
establish a baseline.
One of the great strengths of digital marketing is real-time optimization. For
example, you might use Brand Lift at the start of your campaign to figure out
what's resonating, and then adjust your targeting or placements to reach the
audience with whom your ads are working best.
Putting one brand through the exercise above, and why it matters.
The Tide Pod Challenge is one
example of a brand staying focused on the right KPIs. Tide executed its first major
collaboration with YouTube creators through a series of "challenge" videos on
Tide's YouTube channel. The team wanted to authentically speak to the millennial
audience about the power of Tide Pods. Here's what happens when you put the Tide
Pod Challenge campaign through the exercise above:
Question #1: What is your marketing goal for this campaign?
Tide's primary brand goal for these videos was consideration.
Question #2: What are the KPIs for that marketing goal? As we
mentioned in the graphic above, one good indicator of consideration is
view-through rate (VTR). So, Tide focused on VTR as their primary metric for this
campaign, coupled with Brand Lift.
Question #3: What are the best video analytics to measure your
KPIs? Tide saw its highest VTR ever on this campaign, measured using
YouTube Analytics. Those views translated to a best-in-class consideration lift,
measured through Brand Lift.
Question #4: How will you optimize for engagement? In the second
iteration of Tide's campaign, the team optimized for VTR using retargeting. Tide
retargeted certain videos to its channel subscribers and to subscribers of the
featured YouTube creators. Thanks to its efforts to optimize, Tide achieved a
cost per view (CPV) of 50% less than previous campaigns.
The Tide team led its campaign with a clear brand goal. The company measured the
right KPIs using YouTube Analytics and Brand Lift. It optimized in real-time for
efficiency and effectiveness. But above all, the Tide team kept the focus on their
prize (versus focusing solely on views).
The goal of every BrandLab is to address a specific brand challenge. Once we've
helped a brand team figure out a plan, we follow up to see what worked. Listening
to hundreds of brands talk through hundreds of outcomes from this exercise, here
are three insider tips people wished they'd known at the outset:
Get everyone on board before the brief: Socialize your KPIs with
your team and agency partners at the outset—even before you write your briefs.
Different KPIs can affect the creative, the targeting methods, even the ad
formats (e.g., skippable vs. non-skippable).
Hold each other to your decision: Once everyone, including
senior leadership, has agreed to specific KPIs, hold each other to it. Nobody—not
even the CMO—can flip-flop and suddenly ask about views when everyone has been
driving toward shares or clicks.
Check-in often: Set up a cadence for analytics reports from your
team. Know when you'll sit down to track progress against KPIs, pause
lower-performing ads performers, and increase spend on engaging content that's
delivering the target KPI.
Hopefully now you have a better approach for tackling the question of "How many
views means my video is successful?" The solution is to evolve the question to,
"Which KPIs should we be tracking to understand if we're successful?" Honing your
digital video strategy to find the most appropriate KPIs and metrics will not only
ensure that your campaign goals are met, it'll enable your brand to reach your
target audience in the most important moments along their customer journey.
Improve the quality of your creative by following these tips:
Single Focal Point.
Ensure that you’re only asking people to look at one thing. If you’re trying to include too many things in one image, consider carousel or video ads. Also, once you take your photo, consider cropping it so it’s framed nicely.
Visual Consistency.
Make
sure all of your ads within a campaign tie together visually. Then
people will more easily recognize your ad and stop to see what else you
have to say.
Build for Mobile.
Design
your ad assuming it will be viewed on a mobile phone. Think about the
size of each element in your image or video and take a look at it on
your phone before running the ad. Check out our mobile ads guide.
Use an eye catching image.
Choose
an interesting subject and shoot for quality. Go for high resolution
and crisp images, paying attention to angle and lighting. Don’t be
afraid to use smartphones with apps and filters for great images.
Connect with them when they look
Once
you have their attention, reward them for stopping. This is your chance
to communicate your key message in an inspiring way that will make them
glad that they stopped as well as remembering what you said.
Integrate your Brand.
We’ve
learned that branding is really important to connect with people and
help them remember your ad. However, we don’t recommend just pasting
your logo on top of your image. Instead, have elements of your brand,
such as your logo, your location or your products, in the image in a
natural and authentic way.
This
Sona Med Spa example was carefully crafted to have the brand’s logo in
the background, on the wall of the spa, with the woman in the
foreground.
Inspire them to act
Once
you’ve caught their attention, it’s your chance to close the deal. Tell
them what’s in it for them and what the benefit is, so they’ll take the
desired action.
• Use your copy or a call-to-action button to motivate them to act
• Leverage the ad unit’s full creative canvas to get them to engage
(Cross-posted from the Google Security Blog.)
In November,
we announced that Safe Browsing would protect you from social
engineering attacks - deceptive tactics that try to trick you into doing
something dangerous, like installing unwanted software or revealing your personal information
(for example, passwords, phone numbers, or credit cards). You may have
encountered social engineering in a deceptive download button, or an
image ad that falsely claims your system is out of date. Today, we’re
expanding Safe Browsing protection to protect you from such deceptive
embedded content, like social engineering ads.
Consistent with the social engineering policy we announced in November,
embedded content (like ads) on a web page will be considered social
engineering when they either:
Pretend to act, or look and feel, like a trusted entity — like your own device or browser, or the website itself.
Try to trick you into doing something you’d only do for a trusted entity — like sharing a password or calling tech support.
Below are some examples of deceptive content, shown via ads:
This image claims that your software is out-of-date to trick you into clicking “update”.
This image mimics a dialogue from the FLV software developer -- but it does not actually originate from this developer.
These buttons seem like they will produce content that relate to the
site (like a TV show or sports video stream) by mimicking the site’s
look and feel. They are often not distinguishable from the rest of the
page.
Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning. We'll continue to improve Google's Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safe online.
Will my site be affected?
If visitors to your web site consistently see social engineering
content, Google Safe Browsing may warn users when they visit the site.
If your site is flagged for containing social engineering content, you
should troubleshoot with Search Console.
