YouTube viewership growing 400% y-o-y : Google for India

With over a billion users, and a dominant presence in over 88 countries worldwide, YouTube is one of the biggest platforms, and a far greater advertising tool. India is one of the largest markets for Google, YouTube’s parent company, and Google for India is an endeavour to strengthen the bond between Indian businesses and YouTube.

At the third edition of Google for India, the company hosted a digital advertising track, bringing together industry experts, top advertisers and ad agencies to share insights on how digital has changed consumer behaviour and offers new opportunities to help businesses grow.

Experts and industry leaders, including executives from Ford, Future Group, Marico and ShopClues, spoke about understanding consumer journeys both online and offline, across multiple devices and the ability to engage them based on their intent, not just demographics.

Key Google products showcased at Google for India

Brands can better connect with customers in the moments that matter most through Google’s powerful intent signals across screens via:

Cross Screen Audiences & Measurement: Information from activity associated with signed-in users’ Google accounts (such as demographic information and past searches) may be used to influence the ads those users see on YouTube.

Custom affinity and intent: A new way for advertisers to use their customer data to reach their highest-value customers on YouTube through Customer Match

Life Events: helps advertisers reach people during major milestones when purchase behaviour changes, including getting married, moving cities, graduating college etc. Google uses machine learning technology that picks up these nuances makes them available in all AdWords languages.

Speaking about the growing ability for brands to leverage digital to drive business results at scale, Debbie Weinstein, Managing Director, YouTube/Video Global Solutions - ‎Google said, “Spurred by growth in India’s internet and smartphone users and low data costs, there is huge demand for online video and today over 225 million* Indians come to YouTube every month on mobile - making it the destination where brands can gain their attention.”

Speaking on engaging intentful audiences to drive results, Anurag M, Managing Director, Ford Motors said, "In 2016, two percent of our sales came through digital spends. Currently, more than 20% of our sales come are driven by digital, and some of our dealers are already getting one third of their sales from it. We reduced cost by seven times and reduced time to purchase by customers to half. Today, for every rupee we spend on digital we get offline sales equivalent of 30 times and our aim is to push that return higher."

With viewership on YouTube shifting to mobile, over 85% of its views are on mobile and mobile watchtime is growing at 400% year-on-year, Google has made it easier for advertisers to deliver more relevant, useful advertisements and scalable solutions that will work across screens. For this, Google offers:

TrueView For Action: Helps brands use their video ads to drive any online action that matters for the brand - it could be booking a trip, a test drive, or more information on the website.

TrueView For Shopping: Allows advertisers to showcase product details and images – along with the ability to click to purchase from a brand or retail site – all within the video ad.

YouTube StoreFronts: With significant number of consumers still purchasing offline, Google also offers location extensions for TrueView ads that offers advertisers more precise store-visits analytics. Since the beginning of 2017, Google has whitelisted 100 advertisers for store visit measurement and they have nearly 42 million store visits attributed to paid YT ads.

Reiterating how brands can drive growth with video, Anuradha Aggarwal, CMO, Marico said, "At Marico, we decided to experiment with digital for Livon. In the process, we broke some standard advertising beliefs by understanding that our young consumers lived in the moment and targeting them more efficiently through customized online videos. The results have been great. We spent 80% of our budget on digital and saw 18% growth in sales offtake and 65% growth in modern trade and e-commerce without spending a dollar on TV. Today, Livon has become Marico's first digital-first brand."

Talking about how YouTube TrueView for Action has helped ShopClues convert consumer’s attention to action, Radhika Aggarwal, Founder - ShopClues said, “At ShopClues, we compete with brands that have 10 to 15 times our spends and so we need to be very focused. This Diwali, we partnered with Google to target customers in smaller cities with our campaign to drive conversions. In terms of results, our cost per reach went up by three times and our cost per acquisition went down by 54%, we wouldn't have managed to achieve these results without digital."

Google also shared details about new Google tools that enable advertisers to measure and attribute audiences better. These include

Store Visits for YouTube: Store Visits allow marketers to measure the impact of online ads on offline performance. This data will provide advertisers with a more comprehensive look into the performance of their video advertising and its ability to drive conversions both online and offline.

Store Sales Direct: Store Sales Direct allows advertisers to better measure the offline returns from their digital investments.

Google has developed these cutting edge measurement solutions with an aim to generate advertiser insights and protect privacy and security of users across Google and YouTube.