If you are a PPC marketer, you’ve likely had a handful of clients who have the budget, but don’t see value in YouTube or Display ads. According to the latest announcement this past Monday, October 12th, Google will now be including YouTube (and eventually Display) clicks and engagement into their Attribution Reports in Google Ads.
While it is true that many times Display ads or YouTube ads won’t look like they are driving conversions – it’s because they play a different role (and, usually aren’t driving direct conversions). Outside of remarketing campaigns, most Display and YouTube campaigns have served as awareness or consideration drivers, not conversion drivers. YouTube and Display campaigns of this kind are meant to introduce you product or service, and because it’s a push versus pull tactic, these ads don’t always appear when your target is ready or able to convert.
Oftentimes, when feet were held to the fire, PPC marketers would use “assisted conversions” as a metric to showcase how Display played a helping hand in landing a conversion. For YouTube, if the budget was robust enough, we could have our Google team set up a “Brand Lift” study, which would showcase if people who have seen our video ads became more “aware” of our brand than they were previously. Problem was, Brand Lift studies were expensive, needing a minimum of $1K per day for 10 days to be at the baseline of getting results. Additionally, at the onset of the Brand Lift program, a Google team was necessary to “flip the switch” and turn it on.
Now though, it appears we’ll have a better and more cost-effective way to gauge and showcase YouTube performance – that is, if all goes well with Google’s latest beta.
In Google Ads, you can always view your Attribution Reports, under Tools > Attribution, but historically they’ve been for Search or Shopping campaigns only. But, if you are eligible for this latest beta, you can now opt in to see YouTube clicks and video engagements in the following reports as well:
- Top Paths
- Assisted Conversions
- Path Metrics
Although these are typically based on only a percentage of data, you’ll be able to see if YouTube was an entry channel for people who later converted on search ads – or, a host of other scenarios.
Pretty neat, huh?
In the announcement, Google also alluded to including Display campaigns into attribution reports in the coming months.
So, what’s your take? Do you think the new reporting will be of value? Think it will stay for the long haul? We hope so!