YouTube is making it easier for marketers to create more personalised content for audiences with the launch of several new tools, including the Director Mix function, which is capable of creating thousands of versions of a single video so that brands can better target different audience segments.
The new features tap into YouTube’s Custom Affinity Audiences, a tool that uses a person’s search history and mobile app preferences to determine intention signals. These signals can then be used by marketers to target specific viewers with creative. The tech has been in trial since January, and YouTube claims that it has driven better outcomes for advertisers compared to campaigns using only standard demographic audiences.
YouTube has introduced the new Director Mix tool to generate “tens, hundreds or even thousands” of different versions of an ad, which can then be used to reach and engage audience segments across the myriad of social and video-sharing networks now available to brands.
“You give us the building blocks of your video ad, like different voiceovers, background and copy, and our system will create thousands of versions to match your various audience segments,” YouTube’s Director of Product Management Diya Jolly revealed in an official blog post.
American canned goods enterprise Campbell’s Soup has seen a 55 per cent and 24 per cent uplift in sales and ad recall respectively during early tests with Director Mix. The functionality also ties neatly into Video Ad Sequencing for AdWords Labs, a new feature designed to empower advertisers to use a range of messages within the same campaign to target users.
Jolly added: “For instance, you could start with a fifteen-second TrueView ad to build awareness, continue with another, longer spot that communicates product attributes, then follow with a six-second bumper ad to keep top-of-mind and drive to purchase.” YouTube revealed that McDonald’s created 77 custom videos in one campaign during the trial.
Recent research published by Ipsos has found that consumers are much more likely to be engaged with online video ads compared to TV ads, while YouTube specifically generates twice as much attention relative to other platforms.
