YouTube Measurement and How It Fits Into Your Online Video Strategy

Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second most popular search engine? For digital brands, YouTube advertising has become the preeminent vehicle for driving traffic and brand awareness in today’s video-centric world. In the past two years, YouTube has become even more popular with changing consumption patterns. But, while diversifying across your marketing portfolio is critical, getting apples-to-apples measurements across video marketing is key to quantifying your success from advertising efforts.

Following our recent webinar, we spoke with our guest speaker, Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst, Performance Marketing at Forrester about YouTube measurement and how it fits into companies’ online video (OLV strategy), plus research data on what the global research and advisory company expects to see in 2023.
 

Why is YouTube measurement important to an online video strategy?

 
Lai: YouTube is a significant (and growing) part of the online video ecosystem. According to Forrester’s latest CMO Pulse Survey, roughly 81% of CMOs plan to either increase or significantly increase their budget for YouTube in 2023. As YouTube grows, its position in the online video ecosystem remains unique because, in addition to being a platform for consuming and sharing videos, YouTube is a popular search engine. According to Forrester’s latest Consumer Energy Index and Retail Pulse Survey, 40% of US consumers use YouTube often when researching products online.
 

What is a common challenge as it relates to YouTube measurement [and how to overcome it]?

 
Lai: A common challenge is marketers’ inability to measure YouTube’s halo effects on channels, like search and social, that are close to the point of purchase. This inability causes some marketers to limit YouTube’s efficacy to the top of the funnel, where YouTube generates incremental reach, lifts awareness, and catalyzes consideration. YouTube does generate demand, but it also lifts the performance of demand harvesting tactics at the bottom of the funnel. For example, YouTube ads are proven to divert consumers who would have searched for generic keywords to, instead, search for more profitable branded keywords after being exposed to YouTube ads. When this occurs, consumers are exposed to less competitive information, which lifts impulse buying intent. 
 

Based on your research, what is one major prediction about video measurement as we head into 2023?

 
Lai: In 2023, marketers will prioritize incrementality testing to prove the value that channels like YouTube add to their mix. Methods like user-based testing, which distinguishes between customers who converted because of exposure to advertising versus customers who converted regardless of exposure to advertising, will become increasingly popular as marketers seek to maximize incrementality, rather than wasting money on ads to customers who would have converted anyways. In addition, marketers, agencies, and technology providers will continue to work together to converge TV and digital mindsets so that impression-based currencies, like CPM, and value-based currencies, like cost-per-acquisition, can work together – rather than compete – to facilitate cross-channel measurement, align CMOs with CFOs, and sensitize marketers to the halo effects that one channel has on another. 

Want to learn more about YouTube Measurement and how it fits into your online video strategy?

Register for our on-demand webinar “YouTube Measurement: Proving Out Performance on the World’s Second Most Visited Site” featuring Nikhil Lai as well as experts from Tinuiti and our Streaming agency, Bliss Point Media.