Solved: Need Advice on YouTube Creative Testing & Search Lift

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I saw your questions about putting together a YouTube ads strategy for your grocery brand and thought I could give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience. It’s a really good line of questioning, because getting the creative and the measurement right from the start is what separates the campaigns that work from the ones that just burn through cash. This can get quite complex, but lets break it down a bit.

You've basically hit on the two most important pillars for a succesful YouTube campaign: compelling creative that people actually want to watch, and a solid framework to measuer its impact beyond just the last click. A lot of folks miss that second part and then wonder why their brand isn't growing even if they're spending on ads. So, fair play for thinking about it from the get-go.

We'll need to look at your creative testing strategy...

Your first question about how many creative variations to test is a great one. The honest answer is, there's no magic number. I've seen people get paralysed by trying to test 50 different variations at once, and they end up learning nothing because their budget is spread too thin and the data is a mess. The goal isn't to test for the sake of testing; it's to get clear, actionable insights. I’d always favour a structured, methodical approach over just throwing everything at the wall.

The real power comes from being systematic. For a grocery or food brand, your creative is everything. You're not just selling ingredients; you're selling convenience, flavour, health, family time, and the joy of a good meal. Your videos need to capture that. Here’s how I’d suggest breaking down your testing:

1. The Hook is Everything (The First 3-5 Seconds)

On YouTube, you live or die by the first few seconds. If you don't grab someones attention before they can hit that 'Skip Ad' button, you've lost. This is where I'd focus the bulk of your initial testing. Don't worry about creating ten completely different videos. Instead, take one core video concept and create 3-4 different opening hooks for it. This is far more efficient.

For a grocery brand, your hooks could be things like:

• -> Problem/Solution Hook: Start with a shot of a depressingly empty fridge or someone looking stressed about what to cook for dinner. Then immediately cut to a vibrant, fresh box of your groceries. The classic "Tired of boring weeknight dinners?" approach. It works because it's relatable.
• -> Aspirational/Visual Hook: This is your 'food porn' shot. A super close-up, slow-motion shot of sizzling garlic in a pan, a beautiful pizza coming out of the oven, or a colourful salad being tossed. This creates an instant sensory reaction and desire.
• -> Question-Based Hook: A direct question to the viewer. "What if you could get farm-fresh ingredients delivered to your door in under 24 hours?" This gets them thinking and engages their curiosity.
• -> Benefit-Driven Hook: Lead with your strongest value proposition. "Spend less time in the supermarket queue, and more time around the dinner table." This speaks directly to a pain point.

By testing just these hooks against the same 30- or 60-second ad, you'll quickly learn what kind of messaging actually stops people from skipping. This insight is gold.

2. Testing Video Lengths

You mentioned this as well, and it's another key variable. Different lengths serve different purposes in your funnel. You should definitly be testing them in seperate ad groups to see what works.

• -> YouTube Shorts / Bumper Ads (6-15 seconds): These are your digital billboards. They are unskippable or designed for rapid consumption in the Shorts feed. The goal here is quick brand recall and awareness. Think a single, powerful message. A flash of your logo, your main tagline, and a mouth-watering visual. Great for top-of-funnel reach.
• -> Skippable In-Stream Ads (30-90 seconds): This is your main workhorse. You have enough time here to tell a mini-story, showcase a recipe being made with your ingredients, or have a customer give a short testimonial. The goal is to drive consideration and educate the viewer on why you're different from the big supermarkets. Because they're skippable, the content has to be engaging enough to hold their attention after the initial hook.
• -> Longer-Form Content (2-5 minutes): This is less of an 'ad' and more of a piece of content. Think a full recipe tutorial, a "meet the farmer" story about your sourcing, or a detailed walkthrough of how your service works. You wouldn't typically run this to a cold audience, but it can be incredibly powerful for retargeting people who have already shown interest. It builds trust and authority.

To start, I’d test one core concept as both a snappy <60s Short and a more detailed 60-90s skippable ad. This will give you a clear idea of which format is more effective for your initial goals.

I remember one campaign for a cleaning products company where the initial ads only showed the clean, finished result. We tested a new hook that showed the 'before' – the messy, dirty reality – for just two seconds before showing the solution. That simple change dramatically increased view-through rates.

Here’s a very basic table showing how you might structure an initial test campaign:

This is a simplified version, but you can see how it allows you to isolate variables. You're comparing hooks within the same format, and formats against each other. Once you find a winning hook and format, you can then start testing other elements like the call-to-action (CTA) button or the landing page you send them to.

I'd say you need a solid way to measure brand lift...

Your idea to run paralell search campaigns to measure the impact on brand search is a brilliant one. It's a savvy, cost-effective way to create your own brand lift study, especially when you don't have the massive budgets required for Google's official Brand Lift tools. This shows you're thinking like a proper marketer – connecting the dots between different channels. A lot of agencies don't even bother with this and just report on vanity metrics like views.

The core idea here is to treat your branded search terms as a barometer for brand awareness. If your YouTube ads are working, more people should become aware of your brand and, consequently, more people should start actively searching for you by name on Google. It's a fantastic way to prove the value of top-of-funnel activity.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of how you should set this up and what to look for:

1. Establish Your Baseline (The "Before" Picture)

This is the most critical step, and one people often rush. Before you spend a single pound on YouTube, you need to know what 'normal' looks like. You need to set up a Google Search campaign that targets only your brand name and very close misspellings or variations. For example, if you're called "Fresh Fare Grocers", you'd target keywords like "fresh fare grocers", "freshfare grocers", "fresh fare delivery", etc.

Set a sufficient budget to ensure you have a near 100% impression share on these terms. You want to capture every single person who is already searching for you. Let this campaign run for at least 2-4 weeks before your YouTube ads go live. This gives you a stable baseline for:

• -> Average Daily/Weekly Search Impressions: How many people are searching for your brand name?
• -> Average Click-Through Rate (CTR): Of those who see your ad when they search your name, what percentage clicks on it?
• -> Average Cost Per Click (CPC): What does it cost you to get that click?

This data is your control. It's the benchmark against which you'll measure success.

2. Launch the YouTube Campaign & Measure the "During"

Once you have your baseline, launch your YouTube campaign. As you run your video ads, keep that branded search campaign running with the same settings. Now, you start monitoring for changes. Are your daily search impressions starting to climb? That’s your lift. An increase in search volume for your brand name is a direct indicator that your video ads are making new people aware of you.

An even more subtle metric to watch is your branded CTR. If you see the CTR on your branded search ads go up, it suggests that people aren't just hearing your name; they're remembering it and have a higher intent to click when they see it. They recognise you. This shows a deeper level of brand resonance.

3. Important Caveats (The Brutally Honest Bit)

This method is powerful, but it's not perfect. You have to be realistic about what it tells you.

• -> It's Correlation, Not Causation: This approach shows a strong correlation, but it can't definitively prove that the YouTube campaign was the only reason for an uplift. Maybe you got some good PR, or a food blogger mentioned you, or there's a seasonal trend. To mitigate this, try to keep your other marketing activities as consistent as possible during the test period. The cleaner your test, the more reliable you're results will be.
• -> It Takes Time and Spend: You won't see a 50% jump in brand searches after spending £100 on YouTube for a day. Brand building is a slow burn. You need to commit a meaningful budget over a sustained period (e.g., at least a month) to generate enough impressions to actually move the needle on search behaviour. Don't get discouraged if the impact isn't immediate.
• -> Geographical Testing: If you have the budget and your delivery area allows for it, a more advanced version of this test is to run your YouTube ads targeting one specific city (e.g., Manchester) while leaving another similar city as a control (e.g., Birmingham). You can then compare the brand search lift in Manchester to the baseline in Birmingham. This gives you a much stronger causal link, but it requires more complex setup and spend.

You probably should also think about direct response...

Measuring brand lift is great for proving long-term value, but as a grocery brand, you also need to drive sales. People need to eat this week, not just become aware of your brand for some point in the future. So, alongside your brand-building efforts, you absolutely must run campaigns that are optimised for direct response – getting people to visit your site and place an order.

This is where so many advertisers go wrong. They run a campaign with a brand awareness objective (like 'Reach' or 'Views') and then get frustrated when it doesn't generate any sales. You have to tell Google's algorithm what you want it to do. If you want sales, you need to set your campaign objective to 'Sales' and optimise for 'Purchase' conversions. The system is incredibly good at finding people who are likely to perform the specific action you tell it to look for.

A full-funnel approach on YouTube is the best way to do this. You use different ad types and targeting to move a customer from being completely unaware of you to becoming a loyal shopper.

-> Top of Funnel (ToFu - Awareness): This is where your brand lift activity sits. You use your engaging Shorts and skippable ads targeted to broad audiences (e.g., people interested in 'food & dining', 'recipes', 'healthy eating', or audiences of competitor channels). The goal is cheap views and building an audience pool.

-> Middle of Funnel (MoFu - Consideration): Now you start getting specific. You create retargeting audiences of people who watched at least 50% of one of your longer videos, or who visited your YouTube channel. You know they have some level of interest. To this audience, you can show a more direct ad – maybe a short video showcasing your "Weekly Favourites" box, or a testimonial from a happy customer. The goal here is to get them to click through to your website for the first time.

-> Bottom of Funnel (BoFu - Conversion): This is where you make your money. This audience is made up of people who have visited your website, looked at specific products, or even added something to their cart but didn't check out. Their intent is very high. You hit this group with highly direct ads. "Forgot something? Complete your order and get 20% off!" or "Free delivery on your first box. Shop Now." These ads should have a clear, unmissable call-to-action and drive them directly to the checkout.

This exact funnel structure is what drives huge returns for our eCommerce clients. I remember one campaign we ran for a subscription box company, where we achieved a 1000% Return On Ad Spend by implementing a full-funnel strategy. It wasn't one 'magic' ad. It was a system: broad ads to build the audience pool, and sharp, direct-response retargeting ads to convert that interest into revenue. The same framework is perfectly suited for a grocery business.

You'll need a clear action plan

To pull all these thoughts together, this isn't just a collection of random tactics but a phased, strategic process. Getting it right involves setting clear goals for each stage and measuring the right things. I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table that outlines what this process could look like in practice.