When it comes to effective online advertising, views are no longer enough. Marketers need to use video effectively to grab attention and create action. With more people consuming video online1 and new technology available to encourage action, more brands are turning to video to reach, engage, and turn viewers into customers.
Magyar Telekom, Hungary’s largest telecommunications company, wanted to test video’s ability to drive conversions on its website so it could continue to grow in a highly competitive market.
“I saw a big opportunity for using videos to drive awareness and sales at the same time,” says Richárd Gál, digital specialist and senior PPC manager at Magyar Telekom. “The idea was to use video in a similar way to banner ads, where users get personalised ads based on their previous journey on our website or search history.”
The telecom provider created 40 unique creatives for smartphones on its site, so if a person showed an interest in a particular product they would be shown a short and snappy video related to that particular product.
The highly segmented campaign also used a search bar at the end of videos to encourage people to search for ‘Cyber Spring’ offers. They improved ad recall by using the same call to action and voiceover for all the videos.
To reach customers, the team used affinity audiences for people who had shown an interest in the campaign products or related products. While remarketing was used to reach people who had previously visited the site and were highly likely to make a purchase. The team used TrueView for Action for remarketing and TrueView for Shopping for affinity audiences.
High reach coupled with highly segmented audiences was ideal for the data-driven decision makers. “On YouTube there are a large number of customers. Data driven communication is a basic principle for us, so we have tried to achieve this kind of operation in the new campaign solution.” András Szegedin, digital chapter lead and head of e-sales and digital campaign management at Magyar Telekom.
TrueView meant that the telecom provider only paid when their videos were watched until the very end, allowing them to lower the cost per acquisition. The cost per acquisition was three times lower than generic search and four times cheaper when it came to video remarketing.
Magyar Telekom increased year-on-year conversions by 31% and the success has inspired future strategies. The brand plans to invest in personalised videos for best selling devices during high season. The team also plans to increase their use of online video shopping campaigns, to reach more customers and generate more sales.
