Grayvault Consulting Inc.

We provide strategic Google Ads audits and consultations that empower DTC eCommerce companies, marketing agencies, and businesses of all sizes to optimize their advertising initiatives and drive profit.

Founder/CEO

OMG Commerce

Google Strategist

ShearComfort

Digital Marketing Manager

Big Blanket Co

Digital Products Manager

Freelance Journalist and Writer

As the Owner of Grayvault Consulting Inc., my mission is to drive growth and profitability for businesses through strategic and data-driven Google Ads solutions. Drawing from a wealth of experience managing over $100 million dollars in Google Ads spend, we offer specialized consulting services and strategic audits to help your business unlock profitable growth via Google Ads. At Grayvault, our focus isn't merely on optimizing your campaigns, but on transforming your Google Ads spend into a powerful engine for profit. We don't just consult, we partner with you to ensure your Google Ads investments are driving tangible value for your business. Let's work together to maximize your profits with Google Ads.

What to expect when you run awareness-level YouTube Ads for the first time 👇 

You start with a small budget for awareness-level YouTube ads and hope for the best🤞 

One week later, you're generating thousands of views for less than one penny per view

Even with no obvious ROI, you decide to push more budget simply because you're generating so many views for so cheap 

That must be a good thing, right? I mean, CPCs on Search and Shopping are nuts! And the brand is getting so much exposure 😓 

One month after starting YouTube advertising, strange things start to happen in your data

Branded searches in both organic and paid channels seem to be up, but the reasons aren't completely clear

YouTube is a possible cause, but you can't rule out other variables

Hypothesizing that YouTube is the reason for the branded search term increases, you push spend higher on YouTube  🤔 

Checking Google Trends, you notice that searches for your brand's keywords are "breaking out" and for the first time your brand is measurable in Google Trends 📈 

You increase the proportional spend of YouTube to other channels, thinking the inexpensive views are likely causing an increase in branded search activity, but you still aren't certain yet 🤷‍♂️ 

Two months into the YouTube experiment, media efficiency ratio (MER) seems to be ticking upwards, but it's slow

If it's YouTube, it isn't helping as much as you would have liked

But there continue to be signs everywhere that your brand is getting embedded into people's minds 🧠 

Branded search volume explodes and you may even measure incremental revenue lifts

But is YouTube the reason? Certainty is difficult

Regardless, your instincts tell you to increase YouTube budgets because SOMETHING is happening 😲 

Two and a half to three months into the YouTube experiment, and you're seeing something incredible:

MER is measurably increasing 💥 

Month over month, and possibly even week over week

You're starting to notice much higher revenue days than in the past couple of months

And all of your media channels are generating better ROAS 💰 

Looking at YouTube reporting in Google Ads shows maybe 1 or 2 conversions and tens of thousands of dollars in spend

If you only looked at Google Ads in-platform reporting and hadn't been hypothesizing and measuring in different ways since you started advertising on YouTube, you might instinctively pause YouTube efforts

But by now you've realized something amazing

YouTube is generating revenue for your brand, and it's doing it in a way that might be both exponential and sustainable 🧐 

So you double down on YouTube, and continue to tweak your media mix ratios, and continue to optimize all of your other channels, including your website

And now you're scaling profitably 🤑 

#googleads #ppc #sem #sea #youtube #youtubeads

Craig Graham

Stephanie Balaconis

YouTube Ads for Awareness Cheat Sheet Part 2 👇 

➡ Step 4: YouTube Remarketing Campaign Setup

 Create three new audiences:

1. Cart Abandoners (Last 14 Days)

2. Product Detail Page (PDP) Viewers (Last 30 Days)

3. YouTube Video Viewers (Last 30 Days)

▪ Create a Sales > Video > campaign and target each of the three new audiences in the campaign. Use only one audience for each ad group, and name the ad groups after each audience for easier measurement

▪ Test only 3 to 5 videos per ad group. But lean towards showing more social proof and offer video iterations in this remarketing campaign

▪ For bidding strategy, either select Target CPA and use the last 30 days of account CPA as a guide. Or use Maximize conversions and adjust volume with budget

▪ Set a daily budget

▪ Test adding hyper-relevant Sitelinks and/or Product feeds

▪ Enable Video Enhancements but check reporting frequently to ensure the videos are high quality

▪ Disable Optimized Targeting

▪ Exclude Purchasers by using Customer Match List exclusions

➡ Step 5: Measurement

▪ Google Ads will miss most conversions that involve YouTube because people don't usually click through YouTube Ads (which is how most conversions are measured). However, you still should see the occasional conversion come through. Besides conversions, pay attention to these metrics in Google Ads: Views, View Rate, CPV, Video Played to (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%)

▪ Besides Google Ads, you can also use these tools to help measure YouTube campaign success:

◾GA4: Behavioral reporting, light attribution

◾Post-Purchase Surveys: "How did you first hear about us?" Fairing

◾Third-Party Attribution Tool: Northbeam

◾Lift Measurement: Google surveys users on YouTube

◾Google Search Console: Branded search term data changes

◾Google Trends: Branded search term and category data changes

◾Geo Study: One control location, one test location

◾MER/CAC: These should improve over time

◾Email/SMS Platform: Monitor opt ins Klaviyo, Attentive

◾Google Ads Assisted Conversions Report

In Part 3 of this series, I will guide you through:

➡ Step 6: Optimization and Iteration

➡ Step 7: Scaling

Questions? Comments? 👇 

Image credit: Google

#googleads #youtube #youtubeads #ppc #sem #sea #digitalmarketing

Helping You Get Better at Google Ads | Google Ads Audits, Playbooks, and Consultation | 13+ Years Experience

Why is remarketing important in digital marketing?

How can YouTube remarketing campaigns increase brand awareness?

How does Google Ads measure YouTube campaign success?

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