The marketing world is filled with various marketing strategies and tools that can help you advertise your products and services on digital media. However, video marketing has always been the most effective channel in driving higher brand awareness and retargeting audience engagement.
The video marketing approach is especially prominent on social media platforms like Youtube, where billions of people surf videos every day. As Youtube’s action-oriented ads continue to evolve, Google recently announced that the Trueview for Action (TvA) format, which is its primary ad type, will be transitioned to Video Action campaigns from early 2022.
Although there will not be a huge change, there are a few implications that advertisers should be aware of to utilize the transition successfully.
The difference between Video Action Ads and Trueview
Video Action is quite similar to Trueview for Action in that it focuses on driving conversions and uses either target CPA or maximizes conversion bidding.
However, the biggest difference between these two formats is the ad group type they use. Video Action campaigns use Responsive video Ads that allow ads to show as either a video discovery ad or a skippable in-stream ad.
This feature allows advertisers to manage ads on various inventory placements from one campaign. On the other hand, Trueview for Action utilizes the Standard ad group, which includes only skippable in-stream ads.
These ad groups also differ in terms of inventory. You can exhibit Video Action campaign ads in several places on and off YouTube, such as YouTube mobile home feed, YouTube watch pages, and Google video partners, which can help you gain more conversions quickly. Meanwhile, TvA campaign ads can only be shown on Google video partners and YouTube watch pages.
Another major difference between TvA and Video Action is that, apart from the ad assets that come along with the skippable in-stream ads, you can include a longer headline and a description of your ad with Video Action, which will appear when your ad runs on the Youtube homepage.
The new change and how it works
With the transition of Trueview for Action to Video Action, you will no longer be able to create new TvA ads. This essentially means that the video campaigns will show ads in both the In-Stream and Video Discovery formats instead of just in-stream format. In addition, you will no longer be able to opt out of showing ads on the Google Video Partners (GVP) network for Video Action campaigns.
Another change is the input format for the ad. Typically, in a YouTube Trueview for Action campaign, you enter your YouTube video link, then your final URL, display URL, ten characters call-to-action, and a short 15 character headline. However, a Video Action campaign requires more.
The final URL, call-to-action, and 15-character headline will be the same. But, the display URL will no longer be there and will instead require a 90-character long headline and a 70-character description.
Starting in 2022, your existing Trueview for Action campaigns will automatically upgrade to Video action campaigns. Google Ads will also be launching a “copy and paste” feature that will allow you to easily copy and paste existing Trueview for Action Ads as Video Action Ads.
Why you should care?
With the rapidly changing dynamics of digital marketing, creating new video action campaigns are your best option for marketing success. Google shared that Video Action campaigns have so far driven 20% more conversions (per dollar) compared to TvA campaigns, which can help you improve advertising efficiency.
Video Action can enhance the conversion rate, drive more traffic to your website and optimize your ads for the lowest CPA. In addition, you will be able to run your ads on more platforms (YouTube home feed, Google video partner, Youtube watch pages, etc. You will also be able to scale your campaigns and will no longer have to set budgets or bids for each inventory resource.
An example of how Video Action works
Let’s say you want to advertise your automotive company through a video ad on YouTube. All you have to do is log in to your Google ads account, go to the video campaigns sections and add a new campaign. Then choose the video campaign type, your goals, and settings before saving the campaign.
Once your ad is live, Google’s AI chooses to serve the ad variation that it believes will perform best for each searcher based on the meaning of the keyword.
For example, the phrase “sports cars” will also give results for phrases like “best sports cars in the world” or “affordable sports cars”.
Example of a TrueView for Action ad with a call to action of ‘Shop Now’ on mobile & desktop
Conclusion
Video marketing on an enormous platform like Youtube is a great way to reach out to your customers around the globe. And although Google’s Trueview for Action format is a great format for gaining more conversions at an efficient cost, the transition to Video Action is going to be more impressive. With the small but significant changes in the video campaign ad format, you can now enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your brand and website.