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When YouTube saw its first video reach a million views in 2005, it became clear that online video could become a favorite way for people to learn, connect, and be entertained. Today, this activity has become ubiquitous among gamers, as 95% of them turn to online video on YouTube for entertainment and information in the moments that matter to them.*

Given the prevalence of YouTube usage among gamers, we wondered what billions of views could tell us about their video consumption patterns. We analyzed anonymized views of gaming content on YouTube in the U.S. from 2011 and 2012 to learn how gamers behave, what they value, and what this means to game marketers moving forward.

We’ve shared our findings in YouTube’s first whitepaper, Gamers on YouTube: Evolving Video Consumption.

Here are the key findings from the study:

• Video is an increasingly important medium to gamers. In 2012, the amount of time people spent watching gaming videos on YouTube more than doubled over the year before. The growth rate of time spent viewing gaming videos was greater than YouTube's overall growth in the U.S.
• Multi-screen consumption. 1 in 3 views of gaming-related videos occurred on a tablet or smartphone in 2012, nearly double that of 2011.
• Viewing peaks during weekends, summer, and prime time. In 2012, game views grew 18% day-over-day on weekends and 17% month-over-month in June. Further, 32% of game views occurred during prime time TV hours.
• Subscribers are engaged. Game views from game channel subscribers increased 9X year-over-year in 2012. Those who were subscribers watched game content on YouTube for twice as long as non-subscribers.
• Videos from brands and the community matter to console gamers. Gamers watched brand-released and community-created videos in 2012, but relied on them at different times and for different reasons. Before a game launched, fans mostly viewed content released by the brand, such as trailers, gameplay demos and launch videos, to help them decide whether to purchase a title. In fact, people typically consult more sources when deciding what game to buy than what car to purchase.** After release, gamers primarily consumed community-created content, such as tutorials, walkthroughs, and parodies (specific to the game).
• Brand-released and third-party videos are more likely to be commented on and shared. Announce, gameplay demo, and review videos for console games are associated with highly anticipated moments in the game community, and earned the most comments and shares per view in 2012.
• Community-created videos are more likely to be “liked” or “disliked.” Voting enables gamers to assess the value of content for the game community. Game powered entertainment, walkthrough, and tutorial videos for console games received the most “likes” and “dislikes” per view in 2012.
• Console game video views are an indicator of gamer interest.  Pre-launch video views and post-launch game sales were strongly correlated in 2012.

Online video is an increasingly valuable medium to gamers throughout the entire game experience, helping them research titles, advance through games, and interact with the gaming community. Savvy brands have developed a clear video strategy on how to engage with gamers during every stage of this journey.

For example, Activision Publishing has used YouTube to connect with gaming fans around the launch of new titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In fact, Activision’s videos have been so popular that they comprised the #1 and #2 spots on our leaderboard of the top trailers on YouTube in 2012.

“It’s incredibly important for us to deeply engage our incredibly large Call of Duty community on YouTube, where we can have a direct relationship with our most passionate fans and reach our target audience where they increasingly go to consume content,” said Jonathan Anastas, Vice President of Digital Marketing for Activision Publishing. “Whether it’s revealing a blockbuster live-action trailer, taking gamers behind the scenes with developers, or empowering our fans to share their brand expertise with the community, digital video is central to our marketing strategy.”

Learn more
To learn more about the video consumption trends of gamers, download the full whitepaper from Think with Google.

Posted by Michael Okimoto, Industry Analyst

*Compete, YouTube Audience Analysis, Q3 2012. U.S.
**Shopper Sciences, Google, 2012, Q2.

Brand Advertisers often know who they want to reach, but connecting online with the audience that matters most to their brand at scale has proven to be a challenge. To help address this, we’re excited to announce the launch of Affinity Segments in AdWords and YouTube, which have been designed with TV-style audiences in mind to help solve the problem of connecting with ideal customers online. To understand someone’s affinity, our system takes into account the types of pages a user visits, along with how often and how long they spend there, associating interest categories with each person’s browser. Optimized for reach and frequency, Affinity Segments helps advertisers reach those most likely to enjoy their brand.

Make life easier
With Affinity Segments, we make it easy by helping brand advertisers reach their ideal audience via 80 unique lifestyle segments based on Interest Categories and Demographics. Brands can now reach their target audience at scale based on their interests – such as green living, fashion, or travel – and watch engagement grow.

And it doesn’t stop there. We know that as an advertiser you’re probably used to buying audiences offline for TV, and we know how challenging buying an online audience can be. To make life even easier for you, we defined our affinity segments the same way you target your TV audiences, so you can achieve massive reach online using the same segments you use on TV.

Mazda Canada drives success using Affinity Segments
Like most advertisers out there, Mazda Canada has been on the lookout for a solution that would enable them to reach precise audiences at scale. Over the past decade, the Mazda6 has undergone a few key redesigns – 2013 marked the launch of an all-new model combining Mazda’s signature design style with SKYACTIV Technology, its cutting-edge performance and fuel-saving technology, as well as some innovative safety features including Smart City Brake Support and Rear Cross Traffic Alert. The launch of this flagship vehicle demanded an innovative marketing approach: to build awareness of these technological advancements, inform consumers of the car’s new features, and drive them to the Mazda6 website to engage directly with the brand.

 

They knew their target audience: male urban professionals who are typically interested in technology and up-to-date on all the latest gadgets and automotive advancements.

Mazda Canada decided to give Affinity Segments a try, selecting the “technophile” segment to connect them with their ideal tech-savvy customers, who have demonstrated an interest in technology through visits to various websites focused on new gadgets.  By targeting the technophiles segment across Google Display, Mazda reinforced the messaging and impact of its television campaign geared to the same type of audience. Mazda saw impressive results and reached 10X more users than they were able to with previous campaigns, greatly exceeding their expectations.

“Affinity Segments delivered perfectly for this campaign in allowing us to reach many users in a short period of time who we knew would have a predisposition to appreciate the Mazda6’s technology upgrades.” said Michael Tsang, Interactive Marketing Manager at Mazda Canada. As a result of their overwhelming success, Mazda Canada decided to integrate Affinity Segments into their online media mix for their other car models and as a vital component for their advertising efforts.

Connect with the people who care
Affinity Segments offer broader reach by encompassing the broad passions that reflect a user’s lifestyle rather than niche curiosities.  Our wide variety of segments let you reach your perfect audience – from hardcore gamers, to foodies, to luxury shoppers, we have a high-reach segment designed to connect you with your ideal customers. If there isn’t a segment that is a perfect fit for your brand’s needs, you can contact your account manager to create a custom segment just for you.
Consumers can also update their own interest categories through Ads Settings – which gives users control over the ads they see online.

Learn More
Just like Mazda, you too can use Affinity Segments to expand your reach across the Google Display Network and focus on engaging with individuals who match what your brand is all about – delighting customers and creating future brand advocates.

To find out how to get started with Affinity Segments today, visit our Help Center for more information.

Posted by Diya Jolly, Senior Product Manager

Along with a user's query, context signals like location, time of day, and device have become increasingly important in showing people the right ads with their search results. With enhanced campaigns, it's now easier to reach people in the moments that matter across all screens, with ads that are more relevant to a user's intent and context. Now we're incorporating another powerful capability to tailor your search campaigns for different audiences – remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA). With this feature, you can modify your search ads, bids, and keywords based on your visitors' past activity on your website. As we transition out of the beta test of RLSA, announced in July 2012, we'll be making the feature available to all advertisers using enhanced campaigns over the next few days.

Combining intent, context, and audience for better search ads 
Search ads work great because they're relevant to the user's intent and context. And users who have recently visited your website often find your ads to be even more relevant. RLSA brings intent, context, and audience together to let you tailor your search campaign when past site visitors are searching on Google for your brand, products, and services. Here are some ways to improve your campaign performance using RLSA.
  1. Increase ad visibility for high value customers by adjusting your bids. For example, you could increase your bids by 20% for visitors who have previously researched high-end cameras while on your site when they subsequently search for ‘cameras’ on Google. And you could increase your bids by 40% for past site visitors who have previously purchased high-end equipment from your site. It's easy to set up RLSA bid adjustments and they combine with other enhanced campaigns bid adjustments for location, device, and time.

  2. Expand your reach and results with broader keywords. For example, bidding on broad keywords such as ‘gifts’ or ‘presents’ during a holiday season might not convert well enough to meet your ROI goals. But if you use RLSA to run those keywords just for repeat customers, they may convert better and allow you to grow your total sales with a profitable ROI. 
Advertiser success with RLSA
Advertisers in the beta have seen strong results with RLSA. Here are some examples:
  • Tirendo, a European online tire retailer, saw a 161% conversion rate increase with RLSA, leading to a 22% overall sales increase. And the incremental conversions were efficient, with a 43% lower average cost per order than previous campaigns. Read more.
  • WorldStores, a leading UK home furnishings and garden store, increased total orders 8% by using RLSA to increase bids for past site visitors. Conversion rates for this segment were 130% higher and average cost per conversion was 43% lower, even with the higher bids.
Tags and list management
RLSA shares the same site-wide Google Remarketing Tag and list management tools as remarketing on the Google Display Network (GDN). So you can start using RLSA immediately if your website is already tagged for remarketing on the GDN.

Transparency and control for users
We believe users should have transparency and be in control their ad experience. That's why we provide adjustable Ads Settings and inform users when an ad has been influenced by a past visit to a particular advertiser's website.

Learn more
For help getting started with RLSA, check out this article in the Help Center. You can also join us at tomorrow's Learn with Google Webinar: Reaching the Right Audience with Remarketing on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 1pm ET .

Posted by Rahul Lahiri, AdWords Product Manager

As we continue to expand our advertising solutions, our goal is to provide a great user experience for both advertisers and consumers. We know that advertisers are always looking for new ways to reach their customers with compelling ads that drive engagement and conversions. Today, we are excited to announce the launch of dynamic remarketing to all clients with a Google Merchant Center account. We are also currently piloting this new feature in the travel and education sectors and plan to expand availability to more sectors later this year.

Beautiful, tailored ads to reconnect with customers
Dynamic remarketing lets you automatically create beautiful, customized ads that connect with shoppers across the web, by reminding them of items they've seen on your site. You can build ads quickly with dozens of templates to choose from that you can customize to reflect the design elements of your brand. We have also made it easy to get started by automatically creating dynamic text and display ads for you.

Sample dynamic ads (see more here):


Advertisers have seen great results compared to their traditional remarketing campaigns:
  • Sierra Trading Post, a U.S. retailer of outdoor gear and clothing, saw a 2x higher clickthrough rate and a 5x higher conversion rate
  • As Europe’s premiere “heavy metal online shop,” EMP Merchandising grew conversion rates by 230% and decreased their cost of sale by 30%.
You can read more about other client successes on Think Insights.

Optimizing dynamic ads to drive performance
Dynamic remarketing delivers tailored ads across the web that combine the layouts, products, messages and offers that your customers are most likely interested in, based on what they viewed on your website. You can benefit from our:
  • Auto-optimized layouts which predicts the best performing layout for each impression
  • Product recommendation engine which optimizes the combination of related and popular products that show in your ads [Learn more]
  • Real-time bidding algorithm which helps boost performance by calculating the optimal bid for each impression
For help on getting started reference this Help Center article.

Making it easy for advertisers
Managing campaigns more efficiently is just one of the many benefits of remarketing with Google. Last year, we introduced a site-wide remarketing tag and remarketing with Google Analytics that both made it easy to get started with your campaigns. You can also use the tag to discover new customers similar to your site visitors with Similar Audiences, which has been recently made available to all clients in AdWords.

Remarketing drives great ROI for advertisers, it can also bring publishers significant revenue lift, as studies have shown, and compelling ads for consumers. We’ve also given consumers options to exercise control over their ad experience with features like the Ads Settings and Mute this Ad.

To learn more about what remarketing with Google can do for your business, register for our upcoming Learn with Google Webinar: Reaching the Right Audience with Remarketing on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 1pm ET.

Posted by Aitan Weinberg, Group Product Manager

Earlier this year, we kicked off the Art, Copy & Code project, a series of partnerships with innovative brand marketers and creatives, to explore how modern tools and storytelling techniques are re-imagining advertising. The first project was a Google+ enabled social app for sharing drives, created with Volkswagen, Deutsch LA and Grow. It explores how brands can build relationships with consumers beyond just traditional ad formats. For our next project, we’ve partnered with Burberry to re-imagine how brands can deliver beautiful, emotional experiences across different devices and screens, while reaching a key audience -- millennial consumers. The goal was to accomplish this through the lens of beauty products, while still delivering a luxury experience in a digital environment.

Today we’re unveiling Burberry Kisses; it lets you send a kiss (a digital imprint of your real kiss) with a personal message to a loved one anywhere in the world, from any device. You can read about how the experience works on our Google blog, or watch this video below.


Built using HTML5, the Kisses experience is delivered across display ads, web and mobile. Modern browser technologies, like WebGL, CSS3, 3D transforms and WebP, allowed us to build a rich experience without compromising performance or requiring custom plugins, or apps. These same open web technologies are allowing brands to deliver magical creative experiences at scale, in a true “build once, run everywhere” fashion.

The Kisses experience will be available via a lightbox ad, meaning Burberry can reach millennials on the web at scale via a standard 300x250 display ad footprint, but engage them with the full screen Kisses experience with the ad’s expanded state (which opens up after a two-second hover). This the first time we’re using HTML5, WebGL, and dynamic creative in a lightbox ad, showing the creative possibilities within a large canvas. The same experience is optimized for smartphones and tablets, and delivered via mobile rich media ads. It will also soon be featured on Burberry’s YouTube channel.


A kiss seemed like a natural focus for this project because it is one of the most iconic symbols of human interaction.  By creating a personal-yet-shareable experience that appeals to millennials, it builds a connection to the Burberry brand, without feeling like a traditional ad. Burberry will also install this digital experience in its flagship stores so consumers have the same interaction with their brand everywhere, further blurring the line between physical and digital worlds.

To add a personal touch to the interaction, we’ve used dynamic image processing, based on location, that adds unique details to everyone’s experience. For example, as you see your message journey to its destination across a 3D landscape, we added more realism by reflecting dynamic StreetView images into puddles on a city street; local landmarks identify important street names to further bring the experience to life. We're excited about the potential of technologies like this to help unlock of an age of beautiful, emotive digital advertising. This campaign is aimed at showing what that might look like. Today, brands have an amazing opportunity to connect with their audience in ways they will love, remember and share, on any device. We will continue to push the creative boundaries with more such partnerships. Until then, pucker up and send a kiss to someone you love, and share it, like this one I sent to my mom. 

Lastly, if you’re visiting the Cannes Lions festival next week, please join us for fireside chat on Friday, June 21 at 4:15pm local time, between Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Officer of Burberry and Lorraine Twohill, Google’s VP of Global Marketing. For more on Art, Copy & Code, please visit our website. 

Aman Govil
Team Lead, Art, Copy & Code project

Last week, we heard leaders from top agencies talk about the need for their search teams to streamline workflows using fast, responsive tools that allow more time for strategy in a constantly evolving search landscape. But as digital marketing increasingly becomes multi-channel, multi-screen, and multi-faceted, marketers today have more opportunities to connect with their audiences across a variety of digital touchpoints, beyond search. 

In addition to fast tools, we heard that marketers also need integrated technologies to help make smarter decisions across the breadth of their digital marketing. Our next video, Search marketing is now smarter, explores how unified platforms can help surface deeper insights through a holistic view of online marketing activity -- within search and beyond -- and how DoubleClick fits in.

 
As Jeremy Hull, Associate Director of Paid Search at iProspect notes: “Paid search doesn’t live in a vacuum. It interacts with every other channel that you work with, online and offline...understanding those interactions is going to allow you to optimize it, and see how it fits in with your overall marketing efforts.” With this in mind, we built DoubleClick Search to natively integrate with our display ad server, demand-side platform, and our rich media and analytics platforms -- all a part of DoubleClick Digital Marketing -- to help marketers drive deeper insights from one, unified view of their customer:

  • Holistic view: DoubleClick’s proprietary conversion tracking pixel, Floodlight, lets marketers measure and report on deduplicated conversions across search and display for more accurate reporting.
  • Powerful attribution: DFA attribution tools allow marketers to create and apply custom      attribution models to better understand how their marketing efforts are working together to drive conversions.
  • Offline conversions: Because online advertising often fuels offline conversions, marketers can also connect the dots with the DoubleClick Search Conversions API, factoring in conversions that occurred offline (through in-store transactions and other offline activities) for transactions that started from interactions with online search ads.
Having a single view of the consumer allows marketers to better understand the interplay between channels, without the mashing up and reconciling of different data sources -- but beyond just having access to data, what seamless opportunities do marketers have to take action on those insights and drive results for their business? Join us next week in the final post of our series, where we’ll discuss how top agencies use platforms to improve performance from untapped cross-channel opportunities in our video: Search marketing is now better.

To learn more about DoubleClick Search, visit our YouTube channel and stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog.