YouTube is starting to measure the offline sales lift for consumers exposed to its viewable video ad format TrueView.
Through a tool called DLX ROI Sales Lift for YouTube, developed in partnership with the Oracle Data Cloud, Google is telling CPG advertisers that its video ads not only have brand impact, but that they drive incremental sales too.
Using Oracle’s Datalogix measurement technology, the tool purpose-built for YouTube is not dissimilar from Datalogix’s earlier deal with Facebook – created four years ago – which sought to gauge the effect of digital ad exposures on in-store sales.
For Google, the deal fits into a long-term effort to position its video platform as a place for premium brand buys. Google claims TrueView campaigns drove a 61% statistically significant lift in sales for brands that advertised.
Although Google launched a measurement solution called Brand Lift in 2013, it was survey-based and largely built to gauge metrics like purchase intent, brand awareness and ad recall. This deal with Datalogix takes the process a step further to track real impact on sales and ROI.
Google has been seeking ways to prove the brand impact of its own ad formats for years. For instance, Google’s viewability measure, Active View, was designed to track viewability of ads yielding Google Publisher Tags.
But Google saying YouTube ads are 91% viewable is one thing. Having a third-party validate that claim is another, which is why Google finally started opening up to third-party verification vendors like Moat, Integral Ad Science, comScore and DoubleVerify earlier this year.
The new deal with Oracle is an extension of that more open approach to third-party measurement firms.
YouTube is the first pure-play video site Oracle Data Cloud (ODC) has worked with.
“Both Google and Datalogix (now part of ODC) have been hearing from mutual clients for several years that a joint solution would be quite valuable,” said Eric Roza, SVP of the Oracle Data Cloud.
The unique nature of video measurement required a heftier development cycle on Oracle’s part.
“A pure video solution presents different measurement challenges and opportunities due to concepts surrounding duration of view, presence of audio, etc.,” Roza said. “Google has such a great business with both YouTube and more broadly that they certainly had a very strong point of view on how to approach this project.”
Google says the measurement product has been in the test phase for a while with a handful of CPG companies, including PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Doritos brands and Mars-owned Pedigree pet chow.
In Gatorade’s case, Google and Oracle determined the return on ad spend for each dollar spent on TrueView ads for a “We Love Sweat” campaign was $13.50. There was also a 16% sales lift among new buyers who had seen the video ad vs. new buyers who had not.
