As Ramadan campaigns take over all legacy and new media platforms in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, Google has deep dived into the different metrics that can be used to examine the success of the campaigns. Think with Google breaks down the process into three distinct levels to gauge performance.
#1. Viewability
In the online world, it is important to track how many people are viewing the ad and be able to measure its impact on brand and sales. Eyeballs alone are not enough; did the ad capture consumer attention. This journey begins with an assessment of viewability.
As per the Media Rating Council (MRC), a viewable impression requires a minimum of 50 percent of pixels in view for one consecutive second for display and two consecutive seconds for video. Debbie Weinstein, Google’s Managing Director for YouTube/Video Global Solutions, informed that according to February 2017, YouTube’s viewability was at 93 percent, YouTube audibility was at 95 percent and 100% of Google Display Network (GDN) ads are “able to be seen”.
Targeting viewers and ensuring that they enjoy content is key. An example would be how Arla Foods Lurpak targeted people effectively last Ramadan using programmatic.
#2. Reach
Unique reach assesses the number of viewers reached from the target audience. Unique reach reporting is available when a brand runs a campaign on YouTube and/or the GDN and are de-duplicated across devices.
Getting eyeballs and reach is not enough to convert a consumer. Once someone has been exposed to the video or display ad, it is important to understand how much the consumer was engaged.
A few metrics worth checking:
– If the ad is a video, assess the view through rate.
– Brands can also measure the completed view rate that is how many people found the video so interesting that they decided to watch it until the end.
– Check the audience retention rate, which is available in the likes of YouTube Analytics to help understand which part of the video caught audience attention.
Etisalat Egypt is case in point here. Last Ramadan Etisalat took advantage of the knowledge that people view content on several different platforms. Google Preferred and multiple masthead ads were utilized during Etisalat’s Ramadan campaign. As per Google, when Etisalat measured campaign reach, number of views, number of impressions and brand lift, the results exceeded expectations. Organic views went up by 204 percent and watch time grew by 50 percent. Engagement, including video shares, saw a 150 percent boost.
#3. Impact
Impact on Brand: In the final step, the brand should assess the impact on the audience that has been exposed to the ad. A brand lift survey is particularly useful to measure the impact on brand equity. Did the paid media campaign translate to uplift? Important areas to assess include:
Brand awareness: how many people know about the brand thanks to the ad?
Ad recall: how many viewers remember seeing the ad?
Favorability: how well liked is the brand?
Consideration: which brand would a viewer of an ad aspire to purchase?
Purchase intent: which brand would a viewer purchase?
OLX Egypt completed this exercise after running a 40-day Ramadan campaign last year and measured the impact of the YouTube campaign on ad recall, brand awareness and interest using a Brand Lift Study.
Impact on Sales: The Holy Month of Ramadan is a good time to assess differences in consumer behaviour. Google search trends show that:
Fashion & Beauty Peak: 18 percent and 9 percent increases, respectively, and have the highest YouTube watch time of the year. Food delivery and recipes search queries spike 50 percent higher than the annual average. Interest in cars, jewelry and big ticket items increases. Auto searches rise 15 percent.
Cairo-based Edfa3ly’s Black Friday campaign on the GDN boosted revenue by 85 percent month-on-month, due to a remarketing campaign across search and display.
Cost of media: The last stage of the process is to measure the cost of media. In this case, it is insightful to deep dive into the metrics and take into account the cost of reaching each person and engagement levels.
It is important to measure impact across different media platforms to ensure that comparisons are being made fairly when it comes to cost. Is the brand buying the same value for each type of medium? This is an increasingly important question at a time when new publishers and platforms are emerging.
