What we set out to test
Can brands increase sales by complementing their TV campaigns with online video ads?
The background
iSelect is Australia’s go-to destination for consumers to compare insurance and utilities products from a range of providers. The brand was primarily using TV advertising as a key channel to drive sales, but it wanted to understand whether adding online video to its media mix could help deliver incremental sales while improving key brand metrics. When iSelect discovered that its core audience, Aussies aged 25 to 54, were spending a significant amount of time watching video content online, the brand partnered with YouTube to conduct an experiment to see if it could extend its reach to light or non-TV-watching consumers.
How we set the experiment up
While developing its TV campaign to reach Aussies in the market for private health insurance, iSelect also created video ads to catch people’s attention as they researched their options online. The brand decided to make its online video spots 15-seconds long and non-skippable to create a similar — and comparable — viewing experience on both channels.
iSelect conducted a matched-market analysis to find two comparable test markets, Victoria and New South Wales. Then, the brand set up a test to find out how complementing its TV ads with online video influenced sales.
- Control group (Victoria): TV ads only for four weeks
- Test group (New South Wales): TV ads and non-skippable YouTube ads for four weeks
Solutions we used
What we learned
Keeping up with people’s changing viewing habits by showing up across different platforms helps brands boost key metrics. iSelect saw that complementing its TV campaigns with online video ads drove 13% more sales from its key audience as well as a 7.5% higher sales lift overall. The brand was also pleasantly surprised to find that running TV ads and video spots simultaneously increased both ad recall and brand favorability by 27% and 11%, respectively. Moving forward, iSelect plans to continue pushing the envelope by experimenting with different kinds of video formats.
"By adding online video to our media mix, we were able to reach our main goal of driving incremental sales while uncovering channel synergies to support further growth in the future." – Paul Coco, Head of Digital Marketing, iSelect
This case study is part of the Experiment with Google Ads program.
