Tag Archives: attribution

Introducing two new solutions powered by Ads Data Hub

Ads Data Hub helps advertisers, agencies and measurement partners do customized analysis of campaigns while protecting user privacy. More than 3,000 brands, agencies, and measurement partners use cloud-based Ads Data Hub to perform analyses for their specific business objectives.

Customers of Ads Data Hub have different needs, so we’ve created more specialized entry points to get started. Marketers require tools to quantify a consumer’s path to purchase and the ability to activate new audiences. At the same time, measurement partners conduct third-party assessment of metrics such as video viewability and audience reach.

To offer a more tailored experience, we are introducing an evolution to the Ads Data Hub core platform by introducing two dedicated solutions: Ads Data Hub for Marketers and Ads Data Hub for Measurement Partners.

New solutions for more catered needs

Ads Data Hub for Marketers offers a new way for advertisers and agencies to analyze their data. With this solution, they can seamlessly access insights to better inform the way they purchase media. This means a simplified experience for marketers running queries and activating their first-party data.

Riot Games, for example, used Ads Data Hub for richer marketing analyses. The company centralized their insights and combined them with Display & Video 360 and Campaign Manager 360 data. This let Riot Games attribute credit to various ad touch points, accurately measure return on ad spend (ROAS), and establish a new benchmark showing that for every $1 Riot Games spent on Google media, it received $2 in revenue. Marketers, like Riot Games, perform these analyses regularly, with hundreds of thousands of queries run in 2022 alone.

Over time, new query templates, automated workflows, and updates to reporting will reduce the need for additional technical resources and decrease time to generate insights - with plans to implement Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation, also known as PAIR. In addition to these improvements, marketers will soon be able to activate their audience segments on new inventory, including YouTube. As privacy expectations evolve, we will continue to build more solutions that enable advertisers and agencies to measure and activate their first-party data with Ads Data Hub for Marketers.

Ads Data Hub for Measurement Partners gives partners a new access point to provide YouTube measurement services on behalf of marketers, advertisers, agencies, or publishers. With this launch, it’ll be easier for partners to offer accurate measurement and deliver near real-time insights. For marketers, this means they can work with independent third-party partners to calculate and report on YouTube ad performance across devices, formats, and metrics.

These third-party independent measurement services are available to marketers via our growing partner ecosystem. With Dynata, and other vendors, we have expanded measurement services on Ads Data Hub to enable cross-media solutions for YouTube. Customers will be able to analyze the performance of YouTube campaigns relative to other media channels (including linear TV, streaming TV, or online video sources). Another partner, DoubleVerify, has earned YouTube Video Viewability accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC), in addition to Ads Data Hub’s own accreditation announced last year.

In 2023 we plan to integrate with new partners such as iSpot and VideoAmp, joining the list of measurement partners already available with Ads Data Hub.

Commitment to a privacy-centric future

Marketers and measurement partners will benefit from rigorous privacy checks that protect the personal data of users online while still being able to perform comprehensive analytics. These analyses, in addition to insight generation and audience activation, can all be performed with Ads Data Hub users only having access to aggregated data. By investing in privacy-centric solutions that address the specific needs of marketers and measurement partners, we've simplified the path to accurate measurement across YouTube and Google campaigns.

Marketer questions answered: Econsultancy and Google on how to better use data


Q&A with Econsultancy’s Stefan Tornquist and Google’s Casey Carey


“How can I put data at the center of my organization’s marketing strategy? Which teams need access to that data? And how should I train them to use it successfully?”

On Nov. 15, we hosted a webinar with Econsultancy to answer questions like these and discuss our recent joint survey of over 700 marketing leaders about how they’re using data to stay ahead in their fields. Casey Carey, Director of Platforms Marketing at Google, and Stefan Tornquist, Vice President of Research at Econsultancy, walked through the results, revealing some fascinating takeaways.

Topics included everything from key skills and training to best practices in data-driven decision-making. One standout lesson? Teams across companies are focused on tying their data and analytics to business outcomes.

After the talk, listeners shared a number of follow-up questions for Casey and Stefan. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most intriguing answers. Interested in the bigger picture? Check out the full webinar here: 7 ways marketing leaders use data to deliver better customer experiences.

1. What are the first steps marketing teams should take when they begin using multi-touch or data-driven attribution?

Casey: First and foremost, attribution is a big data problem. Going into an attribution project, job one is to get your data house in order. Connect all your campaigns, prospective customer touchpoints, and conversion events; start establishing a taxonomy for naming channels, placements, sites, and so on.

Second, you have to reckon with the real organizational and cultural impacts of moving to an attribution model. Companies tend to be organized in channel silos. So when you begin looking at performance across channels to find the optimal mix, you have to break down those barriers. Your executive leadership has to sponsor that, and your teams have to be willing to make the necessary changes.

2. What types of training typically help people in marketing get over the “I’m not an analyst, that’s not my job” attitude and use more data?

Stefan: Many companies see training as either a technical discipline or an employee benefit, and one that comes at a cost. But with marketing becoming more sophisticated and technical, you need an ongoing training program for marketers that includes a foundation in statistics and in analytical practices and thinking, as well as core finance and business knowledge. You also need to provide training on the technologies themselves.

In our own research, we’ve seen that when they’re given the right training, marketers become more effective, stay in the organization longer, and are more likely to be promoted.

(For more on training to use data, check out How to make everyone on your team a data-savvy marketer.)

3. What are some of the critical skill sets needed to lead this type of transformation and generate buy-in?

Stefan: There’s a close association between marketing and analytics on the one hand and the business outcomes on the other. Leaders of a targeted transformation to data-driven marketing need to understand – and show that they understand – the business’s larger goals and issues. They need to connect abstract principles of analytics to practical outcomes and business KPIs – to close the gap between data and insights. They need to show how practical insights have actually been data-driven, how data gets you real answers that contribute to the business.

4. How can vendors and consultants help companies get the right resources and institute the organizational changes that are needed for success?

Casey: Sometimes a vendor’s goal when they make a sale is to minimize the impact that their technology will have on resources and organizational structures. Companies buying a technology solution have to see that solution as part of an entire process and strategy, and ask vendors to help with that.

I always love when I’m talking to prospective clients and they ask questions such as: “OK, so, how does this impact my org structure? How many people and what skills do I need to actually be successful doing this? What other services should I be considering?” It really instills confidence that they’re actually going to realize the business value from the investment.

5. How do you cast a wider net from a data and analytics standpoint and ensure KPIs don’t miss critical trends and changes?

Stefan: There’s got to be a balance. The insights we provide need to go beyond things like tweaks to make emails perform better. Instead, we need to think both analytically and creatively and ask higher-level questions. Things like, “What are our customers going to be doing in five years that’s going to make our current business model obsolete?”

Casey: You have to build into your organization the discipline to open your field of view so you’re not getting caught by surprise. Sometimes we get so focused on executing and optimizing towards KPIs and we lose that bigger view.

6. Do businesses get hung up on language when it comes to change? Is the word “marketing” sufficient to describe the scope of modern marketing?

Stefan: Perhaps “marketing” isn’t sufficient to describe what modern marketing is becoming. Similarly, we say “digital marketing” even though digital is almost a vestigial word in this context – is there any aspect of marketing today that doesn’t have a digital component?

But the reality is we’re not going to change what we call things. What organizations can do internally is to change the “language-first” perception. To a certain degree, putting new terminology around it – “marketing-led transformation,” for example – does change how other stakeholders perceive it. But the bottom line is that marketing owns that customer relationship and owns that evolving customer knowledge. As such, it’s still going to be the core of whatever change is happening.

To see the slides and hear Stefan and Casey’s presentation, including the full set of Q&As, download the webinar.

Posted by Matt Earp, Content Marketing Strategist, Google Analytics team

Smarter attribution for everyone

In May, we announced Google Attribution, a new free product to help marketers measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels. Advertisers participating in our early tests are seeing great results. Starting today, we’re expanding the Attribution beta to hundreds of advertisers.

We built Google Attribution to bring smarter performance measurement to all advertisers, and to solve the common problems with other attribution solutions.

Google Attribution is:
  • Easy to setup and use: While some attribution solutions can take months to set up, Google Attribution can access the marketing data you need from tools like AdWords and Google Analytics with just a few clicks.
  • Cross-device: Today’s marketers need measurement tools that don't lose track of the customer journey when people switch between devices. Google Attribution uses Google’s device graph to measure the cross-device customer journey and deliver insights into cross-device behavior, all while protecting individual user privacy.
  • Cross-channel: With your marketing spread out across so many channels (like search, display, and email), it can be difficult to determine how each channel is working and which ones are truly driving sales. Google Attribution brings together data across channels so you can get a more comprehensive view of your performance.
  • Easy to take action: Attribution insights are only valuable if you can use them to improve your marketing. Integrations with tools like AdWords make it easy to update your bids or move budget between channels based on the new, more accurate performance data.


Results from Google Attribution beta customers



Last April, we shared that for AdWords advertisers, data-driven attribution typically delivers more conversions at a similar cost-per-conversion than last-click attribution. This shows that data-driven attribution is a better way to measure and optimize the performance of search and shopping ads.

Today we’re pleased to share that early results from Google Attribution beta customers show that data-driven attribution helps marketers improve their performance across channels.

Hello Fresh, a meal delivery service, grew conversions by 10% after adopting Google Attribution. By using data-driven attribution to measure across channels like search, display, and email, Google Attribution gives Hello Fresh a more accurate measurement of the number of conversions each channel is driving. And because Google Attribution is integrated with AdWords, Hello Fresh can easily use this more accurate conversion data to optimize their bidding.

"With Google Attribution, we have been able to automatically integrate cross-channel bidding throughout our AdWords search campaigns. This has resulted in a seamless change in optimization mindset as we are now able to see keyword and query performance more holistically rather than inadvertently focusing on only last-click events.
- Karl Villanueva Head of Paid Search & Display, HelloFresh

Pixers, an online marketplace, is also seeing positive results including increased conversions. Google Attribution allows Pixers to more confidently evaluate the performance of their AdWords campaigns and adopt new features that improve performance.

"By using Google Attribution data we have finally eliminated guesswork from evaluating the performance of campaigns we're running, including shopping and re-marketing. The integration with AdWords also enabled us to gradually roll-out smart bidding strategies across increasing number of campaigns. The results have significantly exceeded expectations as we managed to cut the CPA while obtaining larger conversion volumes."
- Arkadiusz Kuna, SEM & Remarketing Manager at Pixers

Google Attribution can also help brands get a better understanding of their customer’s path to purchase. eDreams ODIGEO, an online travel company, knows that people don’t usually book flights or hotels after a single interaction with their brand. It often requires multiple interactions with each touchpoint having a different impact.

“Some channels open the customer journey and bring new customers, whereas other channels are finishers and contribute to close the sales. Google Attribution is helping us to understand the added value of each interaction. It enhances of our ability to have a holistic view of how different marketing activities contribute to success.”
- Manuel Bruscas, Director of Marketing Analytics & Insights, eDreams ODIGEO


Next steps



In the coming months we’ll invite more advertisers to use Google Attribution. If you’re interested in receiving a notification when the product is available for you, please sign up here.

Don’t forget, even before adopting Google Attribution, you can get started with smarter measurement for your AdWords campaigns. With attribution in AdWords you can move from last-click to a better attribution model, like data-driven attribution, that allows you to more accurately measure and optimize search and shopping ads.

Posted by Bill Kee, Group Product Manager, Measurement and Attribution

Solving the enterprise attribution challenge


On Tuesday, we announced Google Attribution, a new free product to help marketers measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels. Our goal is to help every business, large or small, solve the attribution challenge and better understand if their marketing is working. To meet the needs of our largest advertisers, we’re also introducing an updated version of our enterprise attribution product, Google Attribution 360.

Google Attribution 360

Just like with the free product, Attribution 360 is easy to set up, works across channels and across devices, and makes taking action easy. Both products also offer data-driven attribution, which uses machine learning to determine how much credit to assign to each step in the consumer journey. In addition, Attribution 360 is designed to be highly customizable and can measure ads from DoubleClick Campaign Manager. This means that you can get a view of your marketing performance that matches up with how you view your business. The new version of Attribution 360 is currently in beta, and will launch more broadly later this year.
Here’s how Attribution 360 is designed to solve the enterprise attribution challenge:
Fast setup
Attribution 360 offers seamless integrations with Google Analytics, DoubleClick Campaign Manager, DoubleClick Bid Manager, and DoubleClick Search. You’ll get all your marketing event data in Attribution 360 with no need for retagging and no data loss between systems. You simply link your accounts and reports will usually be available within 48 hours.
“The setup process for Attribution 360 reduced the time to first data from 3 months to just a matter of weeks. Using Google Analytics data was so much easier, we already had our GA tags onsite and validated. It just made life so much easier.” - Eric Bernhard, Marketing Innovation Manager at Dixons
Flexible data
Attribution 360 has a rich set of features to simplify the challenge of importing and managing your external data sources. You can ensure that your data is complete and correct with enhanced preview capabilities, in-product data quality reporting, and the ability to reprocess your data if you make changes to your setup.
Measures TV
The TV Attribution feature within Attribution 360 helps businesses integrate digital and broadcast data to understand their cross-channel performance. Good news: TV Attribution is now included in Attribution 360 with no extra cost and is available directly in the Attribution 360 UI.
Easy to take action
Of course the insights you get are only valuable if you can put them into action. Here are two ways Attribution 360 makes it easy:
  • The in-product Digital Optimizer lets you explore a variety of optimization scenarios to inform future marketing investments and make your media more effective and efficient.
  • Programmatic connectors send results directly to bidding platforms so your media buys use the most accurate attribution data.
Here’s how one of our customers, Confused.com, uses Attribution 360 to improve their search advertising.

Confused.com increases paid search conversions by 28% with Google Attribution 360

Launched in 2001, Confused.com was the first insurance comparison site in the United Kingdom. This 100% e-commerce company helps people save money on car insurance and related services.
Paid search is a critical part of Confused.com’s acquisition strategy. CEO Martin Coriat challenged his marketing team to improve paid search with data-driven insights.
To more deeply understand how people really interact with Confused.com’s marketing messages, the team implemented Attribution 360. Data-driven attribution insights showed each keyword’s role in the customer journey and the associated value to Confused.com. As suspected, data-driven attribution gave Confused.com proof of over-investment on some lower-funnel keywords.
Attribution 360 also revealed opportunities to invest in untapped upper-funnel keywords. Using these insights, the team was able to take immediate action in re-allocating spending to help drive up quote requests by 28% at a lower cost per acquisition.

“With careful data analysis and insights from Attribution 360, we’ve increased our quote volume and lowered our overall cost per acquisition. We’re now able to re-invest what we’ve saved back into paid search and put real pressure on our competitors.” - Sophia Glennon, PPC Manager at Confused.com You can read the full Confused.com case study here.

We look forward to sharing more updates on Attribution and Attribution 360 as we continue to invest in features and expand availability to more marketers.
Posted by Stefan Schnabl, Product Manager, Google Attribution 360

Powering ads and analytics innovations with machine learning

This post originally appeared on the Inside AdWords blog.

Good morning, San Francisco! As the city starts to wake up, my team and I are gearing up to welcome over a thousand marketers from around the world to Google Marketing Next, our annual event where we unveil the latest innovations for ads, analytics and DoubleClick.

A big theme you’ll hear about today is machine learning. This technology is critical to helping marketers analyze countless signals in real time and reach consumers with more useful ads at the right moments. Machine learning is also key to measuring the consumer journeys that now span multiple devices and channels across both the digital and physical worlds.

It's a growing and important trend for marketers today, and will continue to shape how you build for success in the future.

Below is a sneak preview of a few of the announcements I’ll be making. There are many more that I can’t wait to share with you. Be sure to tune in at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET.


Hello Google Attribution, goodbye last-click

Today, we're announcing Google Attribution, a new product to answer the question that has challenged marketers for ages, “Is my marketing working?” For the first time, Google Attribution makes it possible for every marketer to measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels -- all in one place, and at no additional cost.

With today’s complex customer journey, your business might have a dozen interactions with a single person - across display, video, search, social, and on your site or app. And all these moments take place on multiple devices, making them even harder to measure.

Marketers have been trying to make attribution work for years, but existing solutions just don't cut it. Most attribution tools:

  • Are hard to set up
  • Lose track of the customer journey when people move between devices
  • Aren’t integrated with ad tools, making it difficult to take action
As a result, many marketers are stuck using last-click attribution, which misses the impact of most marketing touchpoints. With Google Attribution, we’ll help you understand how all of your marketing efforts work together and deliver the insights you need to make them work better.

Here’s how it works:
Integrations with AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick Search make it easy to bring together data from all your marketing channels. The end result is a complete view of your performance.
Google Attribution also makes it easy to switch to data-driven attribution. Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to determine how much credit to assign to each step in the consumer journey -- from the first time they engage with your brand for early research down to the final click before purchase. It analyzes your account's unique conversion patterns, comparing the paths of customers who convert to those who don’t, so you get results that accurately represent your business.

Finally, you can take fast action to optimize your ads with Google Attribution because it integrates with ads tools like AdWords and DoubleClick Search. The results are immediately available for reporting, updating bids or moving budget between channels.
“Given today’s multi-device landscape, cross-channel measurement and attribution is indispensable for HelloFresh to have a 360º panorama of our customer journey and gives us the best data to make the best decisions.” - Karl Villanueva, Head of Paid Search & Display 
Google Attribution is now in beta and will roll out to more advertisers over the coming months.

Mobile-local innovations drive more consumers to stores

Mobile has blurred the line between the digital and physical worlds. While most purchases still happen in-store, people are increasingly turning to their smartphones to do research beforehand -- especially on Google.com and Google Maps.
To help consumers decide where to go, marketers are using innovations like Promoted Places and local inventory ads to showcase special offers and what’s in-stock at nearby stores. Now, you can also make it easy for them to find a store from your YouTube video ads using location extensions.

We introduced store visits measurement back in 2014 to help marketers gain more insight about consumer journeys that start online and end in a store. In under three years, advertisers globally have measured over 5 billion store visits using AdWords.

Only Google has the advanced machine learning and mapping technology to help you accurately measure store visits at scale and use these insights to deliver better local ad experiences. Our recent upgrade to deep learning models enables us to train on larger data sets and measure more store visits in challenging scenarios with greater confidence. This includes visits that happen in multi-story malls or dense cities like Tokyo, Japan and São Paulo, Brazil where many business locations are situated close together. Store visits measurement is already available for Search, Shopping and Display campaigns. And soon this technology will be available for YouTube TrueView campaigns to help you measure the impact of video ads on foot traffic to your stores.

Still, measuring store visits is just one part of the equation. You also need insights into how your online ads drive sales for your business. You need to know: are my online ads ringing my cash register? In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out store sales measurement at the device and campaign levels. This will allow you to measure in-store revenue in addition to the store visits delivered by your Search and Shopping ads.

If you collect email information at the point of sale for your loyalty program, you can import store transactions directly into AdWords yourself or through a third-party data partner. And even if your business doesn’t have a large loyalty program, you can still measure store sales by taking advantage of Google’s third-party partnerships, which capture approximately 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the United States. There is no time-consuming setup or costly integrations required on your end. You also don’t need to share any customer information. After you opt in, we can automatically report on your store sales in AdWords.

Both solutions match transactions back to Google ads in a secure and privacy-safe way, and only report on aggregated and anonymized store sales to protect your customer data.

Virgin Holidays discovered that when it factors in store sales, its search campaigns generate double the profit compared to looking at online KPIs alone. A customer purchasing in-store after clicking on a search ad is also three times more profitable than an online conversion. Says James Libor, Performance Marketing and Technology Manager, “Store sales measurement gives us a more accurate view of the impact our digital investment has on in-store results, especially through mobile. This has empowered us to invest more budget in Search to better support this critical part of the consumer journey.”


Machine learning delivers more powerful audience insights to search ads

People are often searching with the intent to buy. That’s why we’re bringing in-market audiences to Search to help you reach users who are ready to purchase the products and services you offer. For example, if you’re a car dealership, you can increase your reach among users who have already searched for “SUVs with best gas mileage” and “spacious SUVs”. In-market audiences uses the power of machine learning to better understand purchase intent. It analyzes trillions of search queries and activity across millions of websites to help figure out when people are close to buying and surface ads that will be more relevant and interesting to them.

This is an important moment for marketers. The convergence of mobile, data and machine learning will unlock new opportunities for marketers -- and I’m excited to be on this journey with all of you.
Please join us at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET to see the entire keynote at Google Marketing Next, and all the other innovations we’re planning to announce for ads, analytics and DoubleClick.

Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce

Introducing Marketing Mix Model Partners: Helping brands better understand the impact of their marketing

The following was originally posted on the Google Agency Blog.

CMOs and marketing executives use marketing mix models to understand how their marketing investments are driving sales and how to optimize their spend across multiple brands, channels, and regions. With rising investment in digital and mobile advertising, marketers want to be sure the models they use correctly value the impact of these channels.

Today we’re excited to announce a program to help marketing mix model providers better incorporate Google media data into their services. The Marketing Mix Model Partners program is designed to ensure advertisers can accurately measure the ROI of their digital investments and confidently understand the digital drivers of ROI to improve returns year-over-year.

The Marketing Mix Model Partners program offers:
  • Data Access: Partners get access to accurate, granular campaign data across all relevant Google video, display, and search media in a standardized format. We’re also making the data easier to access by providing data from multiple properties, like Search and YouTube, in one centralized location. 
  • Expertise: Partners also get dedicated training, resources, and specialists to better understand Google advertising products and practices and incorporate digital data into their model methodologies. 
  • Actionability: We provide Google account and technical teams to help advise on results and strategies designed to understand the drivers of ROI and improve returns over time. 
Our partners

We’re excited to be working with the initial participants in the program, Marketing Management Analytics, Neustar MarketShare, and Nielsen. Google customers can talk with their Google representatives about working with one of these partners on using Google data in their marketing mix model engagements.

Here’s what our partners have to say about the program:

“The ability to collect and analyze digital data at extremely granular levels enables both marketers and their advertising partners to more successfully measure, predict and action the most effective and profitable means of optimizing each digital channel to achieve their business objectives. We are excited that Google has taken such a proactive approach in working with MMA and analytic companies within the marketplace in providing such a high level of objectivity and transparency."
— Patrick Cummings, CEO of Marketing Management Analytics 
“Today’s measurement solutions need to be connected, always on and incorporate the myriad of channels, as well as critical econometric externalities in order for marketers to truly get an accurate view of marketing’s impact. We are thrilled to be a Google launch partner as this signals our commitment to helping brands understand how their marketing investments are driving business results. Through this partnership our advanced analytics models will incorporate more accurate, granular data, giving marketers a more complete understanding of the effectiveness of their marketing and how best to optimize their spend to improve future outcomes.”
— Julie Fleischer, Vice President, Product Marketing, Marketing Solutions, Neustar 
"As the marketing landscape rapidly evolves, it is critical to use the most robust data-streams in our Marketing Mix models to ensure the highest standard of insight quality. Working with Google, we will have better input and better consultative output so that our advertiser clients can best understand what is driving their performance today and make informed decisions for tomorrow.”
 ‒ Jason Tate, VP of Global Analytics at Nielsen 

As part of our commitment to providing the industry with trusted, transparent, and independent third-party metrics, we’ll be expanding the program over the coming months. If your company provides marketing mix model services and you’re interested in learning more about the partner program, please sign up here.

Posted by Mallory Fetters, Product Manager, Marketing Mix Models

Which TV Ads Made the Podium During the 2016 Olympics?

Note: Now that the 2016 Games are over, we've updated the analysis from the original opening ceremonies post to look at TV ad performance for the entire Olympics.


When the 2016 Olympics kicked off almost three weeks ago, many TV advertisers were crossing their fingers that their strategy would pay off.  Reaching as many as an estimated 27.9 million total viewers in the U.S., they were hoping their ads delivered relevant and compelling creative to the right audiences.  To answer the pay-off question, advertisers will predominately look at three specific areas of performance:
  1. Which ads were noticed by the audience?
  2. Which ads drove interest, shifted perception, and increased intent?
  3. And, which ads drove actual consumer response?
To get some insights into these questions, Google evaluated the top 12 brands totaling over 3.5 billion impressions that aired ads during the NBC broadcasts of the event.  The analysis is based on a combination of consumer surveys and second-screen (mobile, desktop, and tablet) response data. Presented in a live Google Data Studio dashboard, the result is a unique view into the full-funnel performance of the ads evaluated.

Awareness

Commercials during large, live sporting events like the Olympics are often uniquely created to leverage both the scale of the audience and the context of the event.  Whether it is telling the personal story of an athlete or playing to our passions like patriotism, they are intended to strike an emotional connection, entertain us, or make us stand up and take notice.

Nike's "Unlimited" ads were the big winner with almost 35% of respondents having remembered seeing the ads when prompted. Including an ad with the first quadruple amputee to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Nike's powerful ads outpaced typical recall rates in the 20%-25% range.  Coca Cola was a close second with their "That's gold" ads which mixed Olympic competition with everyday moments.  Tide, McDonald's, and Samsung rounded out the top five with respectable recall rates. On overage, ad recall rates for the top five improved 3% percentage points from the initial analysis following the opening ceremonies.
Olympics Ad Recall
Almost 35% of respondents remembered seeing the Nike ads.
Additionally, of those respondents recalling the ad, only 37% could recall the specific product or service featured in the ad.  The net is that only about 13% of viewers can recall both the brand and product in a specific advertisement.  Tide's"Small can be powerful" ad with Simone Biles had the highest product recall rate at just over 50%.

Interest

Advertisers also want the ad to shift perceptions and create interest in the product or service featured.  By surveying both viewers who did not see the ad (unexposed) and those who did see the ad (exposed), we are able to get insights into the impact of each ad’s messaging and creative. Overall, the results were impressive.  On average, respondents who saw the ads were 27% more positive about the associated brands than those who did not.  Likewise, respondents who saw the ads were 32% more likely to find out more and/or purchase the product being advertised.

Compared to the lift measured during the opening ceremonies, both favorability and intent increased significantly over the span of the Olympics increasing ten and twelve percentage points respectively.
Ad Lift in Favorability and Intent
Consumers who saw the ads, were on average, 25% more positive about the brand and were 28% more likely to find out more or purchase the product in the ads.
Interestingly, the baseline favorability and purchase intent for both non-sponsors and Olympic sponsors are relatively equal.  However, non-sponsors saw a greater lift than sponsors with three more percentage points for favorability and seven more percentage points for intent.

Desire

These commercials don’t just make us laugh or make us feel better about the brand — they also make us search and visit websites. Second-screen searching—whether it’s to re-engage with the ad or to learn more about the product — is a powerful indication of desire.  By measuring incremental search queries on Google during the broadcast that are specific and modeled to be attributable to ads shown, we are now able to include responses in our analysis.  During the broadcasts, TV ad driven searches were almost exclusively on mobile — 83% compared to an average of 55% for those brands when the ads were not airing.  For brands, that means a presence on the TV screen isn’t complete without a strategy for small screens, as well.
"83% of searches on Google as a result of seeing the ads occurred on phones and another 10% occurred on tablets making a second screen strategy key to TV advertising."
BMW featured multiple products including a "Performance wheelchair" and garnered the top spot on the podium with a response strength index of 3.21.  McDonald’s and Samsung fought it out for the silver and bronze with 2.01 and 1.57 respectively.  The answer to the question “Do emotional ads work as well as product ads?” is, in this instance, “Yes.”  Both emotional and product ad creatives drove 50% more searches on average.  Also interestingly, ads by non-sponsors drove 17% more searches than their sponsor counterparts.
Indexed Ad Driven Response
Compared to the average of the top 12 ads studied, BMW drove 3.2 times more searches.
Finally, Coca Cola was the overall winner with strong full-funnel performance placing in the top three across all three funnel stages.

Whether people are tuning into the Olympics or their favorite TV show, they use their smartphones to search for information triggered by what they’re seeing.  In these micro-moments, advertisers need to be there, be useful, and be accountable.  That means if you advertise on TV, you can now get a new view of performance across each stage of the funnel — using a combination of consumer surveys and digital response, all in a matter of days.  Armed with these new insights, advertisers are now able to better understand and improve the performance of these investments in concert with their digital media.

Sourcing

Using Google Consumer Surveys to provide consumer ad awareness and interest research, an online survey was conducted in the United States during the period 8/19 - 8/21/16 using a validated, representative sample with a minimum of 700 respondents.  Response data is based on incremental TV ad-driven search queries (Google) during the course of the broadcast that are specific to the ad shown and are modeled by Google Attribution 360 to be attributable to the airings of the commercials. Response data is normalized for total ad impressions during the broadcast for each advertiser.

Happy Analyzing,

Posted by Casey Carey, Director of Marketing, Google Analytics