If your business has a physical location, you know by now that mobile search is the new front door to your store. In fact, every month people visit 1.5 billion destinations related to what they searched for on Google. Below, we share new insights on how mobile search helps people connect with nearby stores.
PEOPLE RELY ON MOBILE MORE THAN EVER
When people want to know, do, go, or buy, they turn to their smartphones.
There are more searches on mobile than on desktop.
More than half of all web traffic now comes from smartphones & tablets.
MOBILE IS THE NEW LOCAL GUIDE
Whether it's finding the closest hardware store or hunting down a late-night eatery, mobile instantly connects people with the world around them.
30% of all mobile searches are related to location.
2.1X increase in mobile searches for “stores open now” or “food open now” in the past year.
1.3X increase in mobile searches for “where to buy/find/get” in the past year.
MOBILE’S OFFLINE INFLUENCE
Timely and useful mobile experiences don't just lead to mobile purchases. They bring people to your front door.
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day...
28% of those searches for something nearby result in a purchase.
You
may have heard reports recently about a security issue involving
LinkedIn.
LinkedIn would like to make sure you have the facts about what
happened, what information was involved, and the steps they are taking to
help protect their users.
What Happened?
On
May 17, 2016,
LinkedIn became aware that data stolen from LinkedIn in 2012
was being made available online. This was not a new security breach or
hack.
LinkedIn took immediate steps to invalidate the passwords of all
LinkedIn accounts that they believed might be at risk. These were accounts
created prior to the 2012 breach that had not reset their passwords
since that breach.
What Information Was Involved?
Member
email addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs (an internal
identifier LinkedIn assigns to each member profile) from 2012.
What
LinkedIn Are Doing
LinkedIn invalidated passwords of all LinkedIn accounts created prior to the
2012 breach that had not reset their passwords since that breach. In
addition, they are using automated tools to attempt to identify and block
any suspicious activity that might occur on LinkedIn accounts.
LinkedIn are
also actively engaging with law enforcement authorities.
LinkedIn
has taken significant steps to strengthen account security since 2012.
For example,
LinkedIn now use salted hashes to store passwords and enable
additional account security by offering their members the option to use
two-step verification.
What You Can Do
LinkedIn have several dedicated teams working diligently to ensure that the
information members entrust to LinkedIn remains secure. LinkedIn always suggest that their members visit the Safety Center to
learn about enabling two-step verification, and implementing strong
passwords in order to keep their accounts as safe as possible.
LinkedIn recommend that you regularly change your LinkedIn password and if you
use the same or similar passwords on other online services, we recommend
you set new passwords on those accounts as well.
Mobile app, mobile website,
desktop website -- how do you track their combined visibility in search?
Until now, you've had to track all of these statistics separately. Search Console is introducing the concept of "property sets,"
which let you combine multiple properties (both apps and sites) into a
single group to monitor the overall clicks and impressions in search
within a single report. It's easy to get started:
Create a property set
Add the properties you're interested in
The data will start being collected within a few days
Profit from the new insights in Search Analytics!
Property
Sets will treat all URIs from the properties included as a single
presence in the Search Analytics feature. This means that Search Analytics metrics aggregated by host
will be aggregated across all properties included in the set. For
example, at a glance you'll get the clicks and impressions of any of the
sites in the set for all queries.
This feature will work for
any kind of property in Search Console. Use it to gain an overview of
your international websites, of mixed HTTP / HTTPS sites, of different
departments or brands that run separate websites, or monitor the Search
Analytics of all your apps together: all of that's possible with this
feature.
Don't just listen to us, here's what we heard from one of the beta-testers:
It
was one of my most important demands since the beginning of Webmaster
Tools / Search Console. And I love the way it is given to us. I see that
the remarks of beta-testers have also been understood by Google
engineers. So thank you so much! -- Olivier Andrieu (Abondance)
We'll
be rolling this out over the next couple of days. If you have multiple
properties verified in Search Console, we hope this feature makes it
easier for you to keep track. If you have any questions, feedback, or
ideas, please come and visit us in the webmaster help forum, or read the help documentation for this new feature! Posted by Ofir Roval, Search Console Team
From
planning a campaign to measuring the results, Facebook can help you
build your brand in a mobile world. Use these steps as a guideline to
help you make an impact with your brand across devices.
1. Reach more people within your target
More
accurately plan reach, frequency and cost of your brand campaign while
showing your ads to people who are more likely to pay attention to them
2. Capture attention with creative
Tell your brand story with engaging ad formats like videos and slideshows that are built for mobile
3. Measure your branding efforts
Use
our brand measurement tools to understand how your campaigns influence
brand metrics such as ad recall, awareness and message association
1. Reach more audiences across devices
We
have solutions to help build your brand by reaching more audiences
where they are. You can now deliver campaigns that are optimized to
maximize ad recall. You can also more accurately plan and predict the
reach, frequency and cost of your brand campaigns on Facebook.
Brand Awareness Objective -
Select this new advertising objective to increase brand awareness by
showing ads to people who are more likely to pay attention to them. This
objective optimizes for maximum brand awareness by balancing reach and
attention.
Reach and Frequency -
This buying tool lets you more accurately plan and predict how many
people see your brand campaign, the number of times they see it and the
cost of your campaign, just like on traditional media. You can also set a
sequence to deliver your ads so that they are viewed in the order in
which they were intended to be consumed. Note that to use the tool, you
will need to target a minimum of 200,000 people.
2. Capture attention with eye-catching creative formats
Tell
your brand’s story and help build lasting awareness with engaging ad
formats that help educate, inspire and build loyalty to your business.
Video ads - Capture attention with video. With 100 million hours of video watched daily on Facebook1,
video ads are a powerful way to put your brand at the center of
personal connection and discovery of people. Video ads can start playing
as soon they appear in a viewer’s News Feed so they catch the eye of
your audience.
Slideshows -
Create engaging slideshows with your photos in just a few minutes.
Capture your audience’s attention with motion. Slideshows give you the
power of video without the cost and time associated with production.
They also consume less data than video so these ads are displayed even
on low-bandwidth devices.
3. Measure the results and resonance of your campaign
Facebook
and our measurement partners offer solutions to assess the marketing
impact of your brand campaigns, including awareness, message
association, brand favorability and purchase consideration.
Estimated Ad Recall Lift (people) -
This new reporting metric gives you an estimate of how many people are
likely to remember your ad after having seen it. It is mainly calculated
based on the number of people you reach and the time they spend looking
at your ads.
Facebook Brand Lift -
This study polls consumers about their reactions to your ad, including
if they remember seeing it and whether they would consider making a
purchase, all directly on Facebook. You get detailed results by audience
segment. We’ve also partnered with Nielsen and Millward Brown Digital
to give you third-party insights.
Having a Rapid Optimization Plan (ROP) can have a
tremendous impact on the overall business strategy when you are
launching a new website. If things don't go quite as you'd hoped, the
plan can give your organization a light to look towards. This post from
Googler Krista Seiden will have your team optimizing at full speed.
Data has become everyone's domain, in all aspects of your
marketing and business. Most companies do a good job at collecting and
reporting data and have a basic process in place. But many are stuck as
to what to do next to elevate value of data in their company. Googler
Adam Singer and a panel of industry experts offer guidance on ClickZ.
Couldn't make it to Superweek in Hungary? No problem.
Googler Daniel Waisberg shares a wrap up of the conference, where some
of the presenters talk about the industry challenges, opportunities and
ways to use your data better.
Firebase, Google's free and unlimited platform for mobile
app developers, is here! And it comes with Firebase Analytics, Google's
most comprehensive app analytics solution. We encourage you to check it
out to see if Firebase is right for you. Never fear though, mobile app
measurement in Google Analytics will continue to be available and
supported by our product team, so feel free to keep your existing
implementation.
Gain New Insights with Google Analytics User Explorer Reporting
A new set of reports in Google Analytics lets you perform
analysis of anonymized individual interactions with your websites and
apps. User Explorer utilizes existing anonymous Google Analytics data to
deliver incremental insights that marketers need to improve and
optimize their sites and apps. The feature is now available in the
Audience section of Google Analytics.
Spotlight on Attribution 360, part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite
Looking at marketing performance one channel at a time no
longer makes sense. In today's complex, micro-moment, cross-screen
landscape, the lines between marketing efforts are blurred. Traditional
marketing and digital marketing overlap, with investments online
delivering results offline, and vice versa.
Reach and timing matter in remarketing.
The more people you reach, the more chances you get to reconnect with
past site visitors.
This also means more opportunities for your ads to appear during
time-sensitive moments when your potential customers are most likely to
convert.
Watch
this 3-minute video guide to learn how to optimize your remarketing
campaign settings by removing restrictions and automating your frequency
caps.
To collect high quality leads, use a lookalike audience to reach people who are similar to your best customers.
Success Story
The news and information site, theSkimm,
used lead ads to attract new subscribers to its daily newsletter and
saw a 22% increase in lead quality. One of its key targeting tactics was
creating a lookalike audience based on the demographics of its most
active readers and targeting those people with lead ads. By creating an
audience based off its most active users, instead of people who
completed the lead ads form, theSkimm was able reach the people who
provide the most value to its business.
2. Entice and inform with your creative
Use
engaging visuals and provide direct and accurate information in your
ad. This can help you grab the attention of the right people, yielding
better quality leads and higher conversion rates.
Success Story
Teach for America,
the educational non-profit, used lead ads to create awareness of its
work and inspire people to join its corps of teachers and saw a 2X
increase in online leads. Their lead ads succinctly informed potential
recruits that “Teach For America finds, trains and places outstanding
people as teachers in 52 regions,” and featured images to inspire people
to picture themselves in a classroom. For example, women saw images of
female Teach For America teachers, while men saw male Teach For America
teachers.
3. Keep your form short and simple
Ask for only the information that you really need. Additional questions increase chances of people abandoning your form.
Success Story
The online meeting service, Cisco WebEx,
used lead ads to increase sign ups for WebEx product demos and saw a
75% lower cost per conversion than link ads. The Cisco WebEx team
monitored ad response and conversion rates
during their campaign, testing and tweaking its approach to optimize
results. The team discovered that reducing the number of fields on the
lead form increased the number of conversions and decreased the cost per
lead.
4. Take action on your leads quickly
Immediately
following up on your leads can drive the best conversion rates and
ensure your budget is spent efficiently. You can access your leads by
downloading them from your Page, integrating with the Facebook API or
one of our supported CRM providers, like Constant Contact or MailChimp. Learn more about how to retrieve your leads here.
Success Story
CDI College,
a Canadian career training institution, saw a 15-20% increase in return
on ad spend using lead ads. One key to their success was syncing their
lead ads directly to its customer relationship management system in real
time, so it could work to convert the leads quickly and efficiently.
Rich cards are a new Search result format building on the success
of rich snippets. Just like rich snippets, rich cards use schema.org
structured markup to display content in an even more engaging and visual
format, with a focus on providing a better mobile user experience.
Evolution of search results for queries like [peanut butter cookies
recipe]: with rich cards, results are presented in carousels that are
easy to browse by scrolling left and right. Carousels can contain cards
all from the same site or from multiple sites.
For site owners, this is a new opportunity to stand out in Search
results and attract more targeted users to your page. For example, if
you have a recipe site, you can build a richer preview of your content
with a prominent image for each dish. This visual format helps users
find what they want right away, so you're getting users who specifically
want that especially delicious cookie recipe you have.
We’re starting to show rich cards for two content categories: recipes
and movies. They will appear initially on mobile search results in
English for google.com. We’re actively experimenting with more
opportunities to provide more publishers with a rich preview of their
content.
We’ve built a comprehensive set of tools and completely updated our
developer documentation to take site owners and developers from initial
exploration through implementation to performance monitoring.
Explore rich card types and identify where your content fits
Browse the new gallery with screenshots and code samples of each markup type.
Test and tweak your markup
We strongly recommend using JSON-LD in your implementation.
Find out which fields are essential to mark up in order for a rich card to appear. We’ve also listed additional fields that can enhance your rich cards.
See a preview in the revamped Structured Data Testing Tool of how the rich card might appear in Search (currently available for recipes and movies).
Use the the Structured Data Testing Tool to see errors as you tweak your markup in real time.
Keep an eye out for errors (also listed in the Rich Cards report).
Each error example links directly to the Structured Data Testing tool so
you can test it.
Submit a sitemap to help us discover all your marked-up content.
Find opportunities for growth
In the Rich Cards report, you'll see which cards can be enhanced by marking up additional fields.
Monitor performance
A new “Rich results” filter in Search Analytics (currently in a closed
beta) will help you track how your rich cards and rich snippets are
doing in search: you’ll be able to drill down and see clicks and
impressions for both.
Q: Can I keep my existing rich snippets markup?
A: Yes, you can! We’ll keep you posted as the rich result ecosystem evolves.
Q: What about the Structured Data report in Search Console?
A: The Structured Data report will continue to show only top-level entities
for the existing rich snippets (Product, Recipe, Review, Event,
SoftwareApplication, Video, News article) and for any new categories
(e.g., Movies). We plan to migrate all errors from the Structured Data
report into the Rich Card report.
Every NewFronts season, the major players in digital content pitch their programming to advertisers. With those pitches comes a dizzying amount of new research and data. Below are six questions to help you gauge if you're making the most of your online video strategy, along with the newest YouTube data announced at the sixth annual Brandcast event.
1. Are you reaching the mobile majority?
When it comes to reaching your audience, the smallest screen offers the biggest opportunity:
On mobile alone...
YouTube reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any broadcast or cable TV network.
Google Preferred—YouTube’s premium content offering—reaches more people than all full episode players combined (like Hulu or Netflix).
2. Are you reaching your entire target audience?
You could be missing a sizeable chunk of your audience if you’re only advertising on TV. Fill the gap by pairing TV with online video:
Advertisers on primetime broadcast TV could have reached 56% more 18-49 year-olds by also advertising on YouTube.
3. How are you addressing online video viewability?
For your brand to have impact, it needs be seen and heard. On YouTube, engaged audiences mean:
91% of YouTube impressions are viewable compared to an industry average of 54%.
4. What content holds your audience’s attention?
YouTube creators have made YouTube’s influence greater than ever. This year alone:
8 of the top 10 most influential celebrities according to U.S. teens are YouTube stars. 800 more YouTube creators surpassed one million subscribers.
6 in 10 subscribers say their views of a brand or company have been changed by a creator.
5. Does your video strategy drive sales?
A lot of advertisers see online video as an awareness driver—and it certainly is. But online video also plays a critical role later in the purchase journey:
Two-thirds of Google Preferred campaigns measured drove lifts in purchase intent ...with an average lift of 14%.8
6. Are you ready for what’s next?
People are spending more time than ever on YouTube, in part because of innovations like virtual reality, 360 video, and casting to TVs. Audiences have made “over-the-top” video (OTT)—content delivered to TVs via the internet—the new normal over the last year:
52% growth in time spent using OTT devices to view online content on TV.
>100% growth in YouTube watch time on TVs.
Google Analytics helps brands optimize their websites and marketing
efforts for all sources of traffic, and Search Console is where website
owners manage how they appear in Google organic search results. Today,
we are introducing the ability to display Search Console metrics
alongside Google Analytics metrics, in the same reports, side by side -
giving you a full view of how your site shows up and performs in organic
search results.
For years, users of both Search Console and Google Analytics have been able to link the two properties (instructions)
and see Search Console statistics in Google Analytics, in isolation.
But to gain a fuller picture of your website’s performance in organic
search, it’s beneficial to see how visitors reached your site and what
they did once they got there.
With this update, you’ll be able to see your Search Console metrics and
your Google Analytics metrics in the same reports, in parallel. By
combining data from both sources at the landing page level, we’re able
to show you a full range of Acquisition, Behavior and Conversion metrics
for your organic search traffic. This feature out is rolling out over
the coming few weeks, so not everyone will see it immediately.
 New Search Console reports combine Search Console and Google Analytics metricsNew Insights
The new reports allow you to examine your organic search data end-to-end
and discover unique and actionable insights. Your Acquisition metrics
from Search Console, such as impressions and average position, are now
available in relation to your Behavior and Conversion metrics from
Google Analytics, like bounce rate and pages per session.
Below are some new capabilities resulting from this improved integration:
• Find landing pages that are attracting many users through Google
organic search (e.g., high impressions and high click through rate) but
where users are not engaging with the website. In this case, you should
consider improving your landing pages.
• Find landing pages that have high site engagement but are not
successfully attracting users from Google organic search (e.g., have
low click through rate). In this case, you might benefit from improving titles and descriptions shown in search.
• Learn which queries are ranking well for each organic landing page.
• Segment organic performance by device category (desktop, tablet, mobile) in the new Devices report.

New Landing Page report showing Search Console and Google Analytics metrics Additional Information
Each of these new reports will display how your organic search traffic
performs. As data is joined at the landing page level, Landing Pages,
Countries and Devices will show both Search Console and Google Analytics
data, while the Queries report will only show Search Console data for
individual queries. The same search queries will display in Google
Analytics as you see in Search Console today.
As mentioned in our Search Console Help Center,
some data may not be displayed, to protect user privacy. For example,
Search Console may not track some infrequent queries, and will not
display those that include personal or sensitive information.
Also, while the data is displayed in parallel, not all Google Analytics
features are available for Search Console data - including segmentation.
Any segment that is applied to the new combined reports will only apply
to Google Analytics data. You may also see that clicks from Search
Console may differ from total sessions in Google Analytics.
To experience the new combined reports from Search Console and Google Analytics, make sure your properties are linked,
and then navigate to the new section “Search Console”, which should
appear under “Acquisition” in the left-hand navigation in Google
Analytics.
When consumers don't have a lot of time to make a decision, they tend to focus on a
few key criteria or product attributes. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores
what this principle means for mobile marketers.
There's a certain, and quite common, mobile on-the-go mindset that's about
executing something immediately under time pressure. Because of this, some of the
well-studied social science phenomena related to time pressure are particularly
applicable in helping to understand mobile decision-making. This consideration is
key for marketers who are trying to reach and influence us in these moments.
Let's start with the obvious: The fact that we can—and often do—use mobile devices
while on-the-go is a huge differentiator between our online behavior on a laptop
versus on a mobile device.
From a social science perspective, these on-the-go mobile moments, which Google
calls micro-moments, are interesting to
consider. In these situations, we're often making decisions while multitasking,
while looking for something on the way, or by gathering information to shape what
we're seeing in front of us in that moment (e.g., in a store aisle).
To think about the mobile mindset in a concrete way, let's consider two scenarios
of booking a hotel room. One involves Robert, who is on his mobile phone but not
under any time pressure, and the other involves Tom, who is using mobile on-the-go
and feeling time pressure.
Robert is sitting on his comfy couch at home. He knows he's traveling on business
next week and while watching TV and playing with his dog, he reaches for his phone
to decide on a hotel. He has time while browsing to toggle back-and-forth among
different hotel options, considering and contrasting the benefits of different
hotels to weigh the convenience of location near his meeting versus the ability to
earn hotel points at his preferred chain, with a guaranteed king-size bed,
nonsmoking room—and also a gym.
Tom is also on his mobile phone and needs to book a hotel room, but he's at the
Denver airport. He had a late connection and just missed the last flight out for
the night. He needs to book a hotel room for tonight! He's hoping to get one of the
last available hotel rooms while calling his wife to rearrange child care drop-offs
for the morning, and postponing his next morning's team meeting because he won't be
there in time. Tom is experiencing one of the typical impacts of time pressure—the
so-called "narrowing effect"—and as a consequence he pays attention only to the
hotel's proximity to the airport. He is more likely to hone in on location and
choose one of the first hotels he finds that fits his criteria.
Understanding time pressure in customer experiences
Time pressure, a situation in which our need for time exceeds the amount of time
currently available to us, can be seen as a type of stress. To help us manage
stress, we often experience a narrowing effect, where we channel or tunnel our
focus toward a main task and ignore or filter out certain cues.
Consider the following study: People were given descriptions of 30 hypothetical car
models and were asked to give the likelihood that they would purchase a
car.1 They were given five different attributes for each car. Those who
were put in a time-pressure condition were more likely to narrow in on the negative
attributes, which they weighted far more heavily in their selection process. In
essence, time pressure encourages individuals to rule out products based on the one
attribute they don't like rather than optimize based on the many attributes that
they do like.
Time pressure narrows the consumer's focus, giving the marketer only a brief moment
to grab their attention and direct their choices.
A related study showed the same narrowing effect when people were asked to choose
apartments.2 Among all the different elements to consider about an
apartment (such as size, quality, and distance from work), people who were put
under time pressure focused primarily on the distance from work and underweighted
all other criteria.
In another example of attention narrowing, a study of military personnel under time
pressure showed that they examined less information, which led to reduced ability
to detect submarines.3
Time pressure and mobile decision-making
To continue applying these ideas to mobile in particular, let's look at another
example for Robert and Tom. This time they're both in the market for a new shower
head. Robert, who seems to get off easy in our examples, is back on his couch
planning out the bath remodel that's three months away. He's on his smartphone,
browsing shower heads with a massage spray option, in a satin nickel finish, with
different wall mount options. He's able to check the reviews and availability of
the models that meet his criteria. He's not yet sure if he'll buy online or go
in-store, but he's collecting nuggets of useful information to influence his
ultimate decision. Given his state of mind, his decision is thoughtful and
deliberate. He's looking for thorough and reliable information that will help him
make the best choice.
Meanwhile Tom is standing in the shower fixtures aisle at Lowe's and feeling some
time pressure. His contractor is plumbing his master shower this afternoon and Tom
needs to finalize his fixtures selection. There are two different shower heads with
a side mount in the chrome finish on the shelf in front of him. Because of the
narrowing effect, it's likely that Tom would hone in on one particular functional
attribute to make his decision, without considering other, more complex, criteria.
In Tom's case, he cares most about water pressure and turns to his phone for
reviews on which of the two products has stronger water pressure. Tom is also
likely to spend less time on the shopping process and would likely enjoy it less
than Robert. And once Tom starts leaning toward one of the options, it's unlikely
that he will revisit his decision and change his mind. He seeks quick, decisive
information to give him confidence so he can get things done and move on.
What does this mean for mobile marketers?
It's critical today that marketers think about the context of their customer on the
path to purchase: where they are, what device they're on, what their likely mindset
is in that given moment. Time pressure is an important factor for marketers to
consider in this mix. This is particularly true when it comes to decisions made on
mobile devices on-the-go since time pressure narrows the consumer's focus, giving
the marketer only a brief moment to grab their attention and direct their choices.
Given that time pressure creates a narrowing of attentional focus, people are less
likely to consider a larger array of options and product attributes. Marketers
should take this into account and aim to help people define the choice criteria and
the key factors for their decisions.
The move to mobile also means that it's becoming more and more important to be top
of mind with a simple and clear offering. That's why it's critical for marketers to
continue to invest in brand building and subsequently be there with their product
or message when people are making decisions.
Dan is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral
Economics at Duke University, a founding member of the Center for Advanced
Hindsight, co-creator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies,
and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably
Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, and
Irrationally Yours. He can be found at www.danariely.com.
Sources 1 Wright, P. (1974). The harassed decision maker: Time pressures,
distractions, and the use of evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 59(5),
555-561. doi:10.1037/h0037186. 2 Svenson, O., Edland, A., & Karlsson, G. (1985). The effect of
verbal and numerical information and time stress on judgements of the
attractiveness of decision alternatives. In L.B. Methlie & R. Sprague (Eds.),
Knowledge representation for decision support systems. (134-144). 3 Entin, E. E., Serfaty, D., & Alphatech Inc., Burlington MA (1990).
Information gathering and decision making under stress.
How long does it take to change someone's mind about your brand in a video ad?
Should you rush to tell your story to avoid getting tuned out, or should you
embrace a longer format to build a more captivating story? Google partnered with
Mondelez International to find out.
The standard TV ad in the "Mad Men" era was 60 seconds long. But to bring more
advertisers to the platform, networks first offered 30-second ads, and then
15-second ones to serve advertisers with smaller budgets. As a result, ad length
became a function of price, not attention or effectiveness.
In fact, television ad research has established that 15-second TV ads are roughly
75% as effective as 30-second spots.1 And they're half the cost. So it's
no surprise that 15-second ads are so common on TV, and that 60-second spots are
few and far between.
But what about length and effectiveness on YouTube? Previous research has shown
that there is a consistent
relationship between how long an ad is viewable and increases in brand
awareness and consideration. And we've found that viewers are certainly willing to
watch longer ads: The average length of ads on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard in 2014
averaged three minutes—an increase of 47% vs. 2013.2 And none of the top
ads in 2014 and 2015 were under a minute.3
Does that mean that on YouTube, longer is stronger?
In this Unskippable Labs experiment, we bring a little data to the art of
storytelling and explore how the length of an ad can affect brand lift metrics. We
partnered with Mondelez International and Droga5 to test real ads for Honey Maid.
A study in video advertising: "Go short or go long"
We tested three cuts of varying length using TrueView, YouTube's skippable ad format. Then we measured how
people responded to the ads in two critical ways: what people chose to
watch (whether they watched 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or more; how long they
watched the longer cuts) and how that impacted the brand (ad
recall and brand favorability) via a Brand Lift study.
All three ads celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month and feature members of the
Gomez family, focusing on their experience as immigrants in America and their love
of family. Each ad has a different balance of story, product, and brand.
Here are the three ads we tested:
The Gomez Family (:15)
The 15-Second Cut
The shortest version of the ad, with a voice-over from the father, includes scenes
of the family together and ends with the brand's logo and tagline. The product
appears at the six-second mark, and either the product or logo is present for a
total of five seconds, or 33% of the total runtime.
The Theory:
The short length of this YouTube ad will make it less skippable, without
sacrificing the narrative or brand lift effectiveness. The balance of story and
brand in a concise format will hold the viewer's attention and create a connection
to Honey Maid.
The Gomez Family (:30)
The 30-Second Cut
The longer cut gives more detail and dimension to the story, with scenes of the
father heading to work and the family playing together. While the longer format
adds more Honey Maid product shots, the relative amount of explicit branding is
roughly the same as the 15-second version. The product first appears at the
11-second mark, and either the product or logo is present for 10 seconds, or 30% of
the total runtime.
The Theory:
This video will draw viewers in with a more in-depth story, and is still relatively
short. It is the best of both worlds—short enough to keep viewers entertained and
long enough to create a meaningful impression.
The Gomez Family (2:17)
The Long Cut (2:17 runtime)
The longest version adds further depth to the family's story. In addition to the
father, the viewer hears from the mother, daughter, and grandmother (who speaks in
Spanish). Like the other ads, the themes of family and celebration are highlighted.
The product does not appear until 1:17, and either the product or logo is present
for only 12 seconds, or just under 9% of the overall runtime.
The Theory:
The long-form version builds tension by illuminating some of the Gomez family's
struggles, which adds a richness to the final scenes of celebration. The layered
story that reveals more facets to the family will pull viewers in and keep them
engaged.
Findings from "Go short or go long"
Here's what we found when we looked at which of the three ads people chose to watch
(and for how long), and how that impacted the brand:
1. Longer may be stronger.
The longer cuts were both watched more than the 15-second ad, with the 30-second ad
the least skipped, and the 15-second ad the most skipped.
While all three versions performed well above Mondelez International benchmarks,
the 30-second ad had the highest view-through rate (VTR). In fact, its VTR was 30%
higher than that of the 15-second spot.
Source: Google, Custom Brand Lift Survey, U.S., September 2015.
The longer-form ads were also both more effective in lifting brand favorability
than the 15-second ad. The extra depth and dimension of more complex stories
created a more meaningful connection to the brand. For brands moving beyond simple
awareness, a longer story may be necessary to persuade people to change how they
think.
2. Connect length to goals, not just economics.
The 15-second ad was the only one to drive significant ad recall across all three
cuts. For brands with a focus on awareness, the short format can be both effective
and efficient. Shorter formats can raise awareness, keep the brand top of mind, and
create signals that drive important behaviors such as search. But it's worth
pondering the gap in performance between ad recall and favorability. Is a knockout
performance in ad recall important for brands if it doesn't also impact brand
favorability? Make
sure what you're measuring is connected to your business goal, and don't assume
that good performance in one area—like recall—is helping you in others. Ground
decisions about length in your strategy; people will watch (and be persuaded by)
longer stories.
Source: Google, Custom Brand Lift Survey, U.S., September 2015.
3. Don't leave your brand for last.
If you are telling longer stories, don't leave your brand to the very end. Even for
the most compelling ads, you will lose some of your audience as the story unfolds.
For example, only about 15% of viewers watched the longest video ad all the way
through4—which is more than 2X typical benchmarks for
consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) videos of this length5—but still a limited
subset of everyone exposed to the ad.
The brand did not appear in any form until the 1:17 mark—meaning that viewers who
skipped before that point had no chance to connect what they were watching to Honey
Maid. To maximize the connection to the brand, find ways to create that connection
as the story unfolds. But don't just pop your logo up. Our
research about creative choices shows that this reduces the view-through rate.
Instead, create the story in a way that weaves the brand throughout.
The good news for all of us is that attention spans aren't simply shrinking down to
nothing. A great story can still grab and hold an audience, even with the skip
button ever-present. The challenge is the same now as it was in the beginning of
advertising: to figure out how to blend story and brand successfully. This has
never been tougher, as we're now competing to reach people who are hit with
thousands of messages a day from every direction. This media pressure can lead
brands to feel like everything needs to be faster, faster, faster. But, as this
experiment showed, making ads shorter doesn't get them more attention—it may get
them even less. With a great story, brands can take the time to create a connection
and change a mind.
Sources
YouTube data, U.S., August 2015.
Google, Custom Brand Lift Survey, U.S., September 2015. 1 Communicus Inc., "15 Second vs. 30 Second Commercials," October 6,
2014. 2 Think with Google, "YouTube Ads Rewind: A
Look Back at the Year's Best," December 2014. 3 Think with Google, "YouTube Ads
Leaderboard: Year-End 2015," December 2015. 4 Google data, brand reference point calculator, U.S., 2016. 5 Google data, CPG benchmarks for TrueView by length, U.S.,
2015.
Their Story: Family-owned Søstrene Grene has been selling Danish home goods at fair prices since 1973.
Their Goal: To share their story and grow their business.
25%of fans watched video posts
6xincrease in sales following campaigns
Our
most important tactic is to produce the right content in the right
format so we can start a dialogue with our customers. Video has been
really effective for this.
Mads Jensen, International Marketing Manager, Søstrene Grene
Best practices for Facebook video ads:
Tip 1: Target your ads
Show your video to people who matter to you. Target people by interest, behavior, age, gender and location.
Tip 2: Create your video thoughtfully
Make
your video engaging. Use video that works well with and without sound.
Include a call to action button to have people take action from your
video.
Tip 3: Track your metrics
Use
the video metrics within Ads Reporting to improve your videos. See how
many views your video had and which parts of your video were most
engaging with the Audience Retention Graph.
The television
industry is in the midst of a massive change. The rise of new content
models and connected devices has led to more choice than ever--both for
content creators and consumers. But with this choice and opportunity
comes new challenges to solve as well.
I spoke to the TV industry at the Closing General Session of the National Association of Broadcasters Show.
In the keynote I discussed the rebirth of TV and how we’re helping
Broadcasters and Distributors with discovery, monetization and content
creation.
Discovery
Announcing new ways to find where and when to watch your favorite shows
There
are now more ways to watch your favorite TV shows than ever before.
This shift has some even saying that we’re in the “golden age” of
television. And what we're seeing is that more and more, viewers are
turning to their phones to find out what to watch, where to watch it and
when it’s available -- in fact, searches for TV shows and films on
mobile have grown more than 55% in the past year alone.
Today,
I'm excited to announce that, coming soon, Google Search will have live
TV listings. So now if you're looking for a movie or TV show like The
Big Bang Theory, we'll not only show you the apps and sites where you
can find the latest episode, but also show which channel you can turn
your tv to later in the evening or week to catch it live.
Last
year we launched video actions in Search to help viewers find direct
options to watch the shows they are looking for on programmer and
distributors mobile apps and sites or stores like Google Play.
Monetization
Announcing personalized TV ads with DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion
Viewers no longer expect content personalized to them, they demand it. And that includes ads.
Today
we are taking big steps to bring new addressable advertising
capabilities to TV Broadcasters and Distributors by announcing
DoubleClick’s Dynamic Ad Insertion. This makes ads hyper relevant for
viewers across any screen that they watch. By creating individual
streams for every viewer using server side ad insertion, we are able to
deliver a better, more personalized viewing experience that looks and
feels as seamless as TV today.
And not only will this work for both live and on-demand TV but it works across directly sold and programmatic.
We
put this technology to the test with two of the highest rated TV events
in the last year: the Rugby World Cup Finals on TF1, the leading
network in France, and the Republican Presidential Debates on Fox News, a
leading news network in the US. Politics and sports are pretty personal
topics, so it’s only appropriate that TF1 and Fox News created a fully
addressable viewing experience for the millions of viewers that tuned in
using Dynamic Ad Insertion.c.
Announcing smarter TV ad breaks
Today
we’re also announcing that DoubleClick for Publisher clients will soon
be able to seamlessly enforce the level of control that has been firmly
established in TV -- across all inventory, whether it was sold directly
or indirectly. That means, we are able to honor competitive separation -
so two automotive ads don’t appear in the same commercial break - and
other rules like making sure an alcohol and children's cereal ad don’t
appear in the same commercial break.
This has been major blocker
to enabling programmatic to work for TV. And now you no longer need to
turn down attractive opportunities from advertisers interested in
transacting programmatically because of compliance concerns.
Announcing new TV partners
DoubleClick
is focused on building advertising solutions that meet the changing
needs of the TV ecosystem. We’re proud of our longstanding partnerships
with industry leaders like AMC Networks in the US and Globo in South
America.
Today we add three more to the list:
we’re happy to welcome MCN, Roku and Cablevision as partners. They’ve
all signed on to use DoubleClick for Publishers to serve ads and
monetize cross-screen TV and video content.
As
the conventional TV and digital video worlds converge, people are
watching more content than ever across a variety of screens. At
Cablevision, we’re focused on developing innovative solutions that
deliver the best experience for our viewers in this new cross-screen
world and unlocking new opportunities for our advertisers. We are
enthusiastic about using Google's DoubleClick for seamless advertising
delivery across our set-top boxes and connected devices. Together, we
are enabling more personalized and relevant ads with addressable and
dynamic ad insertion.
Content Creation
Announcing Autodesk collaboration to enable 10x improvement in rendering efficiency
Autodesk
software has been behind the past 21 Academy Award winners for Best
Visual Effects and we’re bringing this capability to Google Cloud
Platform. Yesterday we announced (link) that Autodesk, maker of
industry-leading 3D animation and modeling software, is collaborating
with Google on a new cloud-based rendering solution called Maya® for
Google Cloud Platform ZYNC Render. This allows artists to focus on
creating incredible TV & movie content using the tools they already
know, while shifting even the largest rendering jobs seamlessly to the
cloud.
TV is the midst of a revival. And just like other media
types which have been reimagined for the digital age like music, the
arrival of this ‘new TV’ was preceded by change and tumult. But TV’s
past was built on a rich history of creativity and innovation, and I’m
incredibly optimistic that TV’s future will be as well. Our job is to
help make that future become the present and we are excited to partner
with the TV ecosystem to build it.
