Solved: Best Practices for Creative Testing & YouTube Impact?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and a bit of guidance based on your questions about YouTube ads for your grocery/food brand. It's an interesting challenge, and there's quite a bit to unpack. What you're planning is a good start, but there are a few more layers we could add to really make it work for you.

I'll walk you through my thinking on creative testing, measuring brand lift, and then zoom out a bit to look at the bigger picture of your overall strategy. It's often the things just outside the immediate question that make the biggest difference.

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

Your first question about how many creatives to test is a good one, and the honest answer is it depends on your budget. The more you can test, the faster you'll learn what resonates with your audience. For a food brand, you have so many potential angles, which is both a blessing and a curse. You could spend a lot of money testing things that go nowhere if you don't have a solid framework.

My advice is to not think of it as "how many" but "what kinds" of variations to test. I'd structure it methodically.

Video Lengths:

You're right to think about Shorts vs. longer-form. They serve different purposes and you should definately test both.

-> YouTube Shorts (and other short-form like Reels/TikTok): These are for grabbing attention fast. Think 6-15 seconds. They are brilliant for top-of-funnel awareness. You can show quick recipes, a satisfying shot of your product being used, or a fast-paced "behind the scenes" of how its made. The goal here isn't a deep dive, it's to make someone stop scrolling and remember your brand name.

-> Longer-form Videos (30 seconds to 2+ minutes): This is where you can tell a story and build a proper connection. A longer video lets you get a detailed message across. You could do a full recipe tutorial, tell your brand's origin story, or feature customer testimonials. These are better for audiences who are already a bit warm to you and are considering a purchase. They've shown some interest, now you need to convince them.

Creative Angles & Hooks:

This is where the real magic happens. Don't just test different background colours. Test completely different psychological approaches. For a grocery/food brand, your options are massive. I'd start with a few distinct concepts and then create variations within the winning ones.

Here's a few ideas to get you started:

-> The 'Problem/Solution' Angle: What problem does your food solve? Is it a quick dinner for busy parents? A healthy snack for fitness enthusiasts? A gourmet ingredient for aspiring chefs? Your hook would be something like "Tired of boring weeknight dinners?" followed by a quick shot of your product making a delicious meal.

-> The 'Inspiration' Angle: Show what's possible with your product. This is where you can get really visual and aspirational. Think beautifully shot recipe videos that look like they're from a top food blogger. The hook is pure visual appeal.

-> The 'Brand Story' Angle: Why should people buy from *you*? Are you a family-run business? Do you source your ingredients ethically? Do you have a unique story? People connect with stories, not just products. A hook could be "We started this company with one simple idea...".

-> The 'UGC/Testimonial' Angle: This is huge. User-generated content, or content that *looks* like it, feels authentic and builds massive trust. For you, it could be a customer unboxing your product, or a short video of them talking about why they love it. It's more believeable than a polished ad. Ask your existing customers for videos and offer them a discount in return.

So, to start, I'd pick maybe two of these big angles (e.g., Problem/Solution and Inspiration). For each angle, create one longer-form video and two or three Shorts. Within those, you can then test different hooks for the first 3-5 seconds. That gives you a solid starting block of maybe 8-10 creative assets to test without breaking the bank. From there, you see what works and double down on that style.

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

Your idea to run parallel search campaigns is spot on. It's a classic, effective way to measure the impact of top-of-funnel advertising. A lot of people run awareness campaigns on platforms like YouTube or Meta and then complain they don't see direct sales. They're missing the point. The goal is to make people aware of you, so that *later*, when they need something you sell, they search for you by name.

Here's how it works in practice:

1. Baseline Measurement: Before you launch your YouTube ads, you need to know how many people are already searching for your brand name on Google. Set up a simple Google Search campaign that only targets your brand name as a keyword. Let it run for a couple of weeks to get a baseline average of daily/weekly impressions and clicks. This is your 'control'.

2. Launch YouTube Campaign: Turn on your YouTube ads and let them run.

3. Monitor the Search Campaign: As your YouTube ads start reaching people, you should see the number of impressions (searches) for your brand name on your Google Search campaign go up. This is your 'brand lift'. You can directly quantify the impact: "Our YouTube campaign drove a 30% increase in branded search volume." This is a powerful metric to show that your ad spend is working, even if it's not generating immediate purchases.

We see this effect all the time. It's not limited to YouTube. Brand-building on one platform feeds search intent on another. I remember one campaign we worked on for a luxury brand; the goal was pure awareness. We ran a Meta Ads campaign that got over 10 million views. Their direct web traffic and branded search queries shot up as a result. For another client selling outdoor equipment, a big Meta campaign drove 18,000 new website visitors, many of whom came through later via Google after first seeing an ad on Facebook. It's about filling the top of your funnel so that the bottom of the funnel (search, direct traffic) gets busier.

You probably should think about your entire funnel...

This leads me to a broader point. While YouTube is a great platform, you'll see the best results if you think of it as one part of a complete marketing funnel, not the whole thing. A customer journey for a food brand is rarely "see one ad, click, buy immediately". It's more complex.

They might see your YouTube ad, forget about it, then see a photo of a recipe on Instagram, visit your page, get distracted, and then finally remember to buy a week later when they're doing their weekly shop online. You need to be present at multiple touchpoints.

This is where I'd bring in Meta (Facebook & Instagram) ads to work alongside your YouTube and Google Search efforts. For a visual product like food, Instagram is a powerhouse. Here's how I'd structure it, thinking in terms of a classic ToFu/MoFu/BoFu (Top/Middle/Bottom of Funnel) model.

META (Facebook/Instagram) ADS AUDIENCE PRIORITISATION

This is a structure I use for pretty much any eCommerce client, adapted for you:

ToFu (Top of Funnel - Awareness):
This is your cold audience, people who've never heard of you. Your goal is just to get on their radar.
-> Audiences: Use detailed targeting. Go after interests like "Organic Food", "Meal Kits", "30-Minute Meals", specific celebrity chefs, competing grocery brands, etc. You want to find people whose interests suggest they are your ideal customer.
-> Creatives: This is where your short, attention-grabbing videos (like the Shorts) are perfect. Beautiful food photography also works wonders here. The goal is views and engagement, not necessarily clicks.

MoFu (Middle of Funnel - Consideration):
This audience knows who you are but hasn't bought yet. They're interested, but need a nudge.
-> Audiences: This is all about retargeting. You'll target people who have watched a certain percentage (e.g., 50%) of your YouTube or Facebook videos, people who have visited your website, or people who have engaged with your Instagram profile. You're building a pool of warm leads.
-> Creatives: Show them something different. If they watched a recipe video, maybe show them a customer testimonial ad. If they visited your website, show them an ad featuring your best-selling products or a special offer ("Get 10% off your first order"). You're building trust and providing an incentive.

BoFu (Bottom of Funnel - Conversion):
This is your hottest audience. They are on the verge of buying.
-> Audiences: Retarget people who have taken high-intent actions. The most classic one is "Added to Cart" but didn't purchase in the last 7-14 days. You can also retarget people who initiated checkout.
-> Creatives: Be direct. Remind them what they left in their cart. Create a sense of urgency ("Your cart expires soon!"). Maybe a small, exclusive discount can get them over the line. Dynamic Product Ads that show the exact items they looked at are very effective here.

By running campaigns across these three stages, you guide customers through the journey instead of just shouting at them once on YouTube and hoping for the best. It's a much more robust and ultimately more profitable system.

You'll need to optimise for the right thing...

This might sound obvious, but it's a mistake I see all the time. Make sure your campaigns are optimised for the action you actually want. If you want brand awareness, optimising for views or reach is fine. But if your ultimate goal is to sell groceries, your main campaigns need to be optimised for 'Conversions' or 'Sales'.

The ad platforms' algorithms are incredibly powerful. If you tell YouTube or Meta you want video views, they will find you people who love watching videos but might never buy anything. If you tell them you want sales, they will analyse the data from your initial conversions and then actively seek out other people who look and behave just like your actual buyers. This almost always leads to a higher cost per view or click, but a much lower cost per *purchase*, which is what actually matters.

And this means you need to be ruthless with your data analysis. Look at your performance metrics and diagnose the bottlenecks:

-> Low Click-Through Rate (CTR)? This means your ad creative or your hook isn't grabbing attention. The audience sees it but doesn't care enough to click. You need to go back and test new videos or images.
-> Lots of clicks but few 'Add to Carts'? This often points to a disconnect between your ad and your landing page. Does the page deliver on the promise of the ad? Is the pricing clear? Are the product photos appetising? Or, you might be targeting the wrong audience – people who are curious enough to click but not actually in the market for your product.
-> Lots of 'Add to Carts' but few purchases? This is a classic BoFu problem. People are getting stuck at the final hurdle. This could be due to unexpected shipping costs, a complicated checkout process, or a lack of trust signals on your site (like customer reviews or security badges). This is where your BoFu retargeting ads can work wonders to bring them back.

It's a process of constant refinement. You launch, you analyse, you tweak, and you relaunch. You don't just 'set and forget'.

To give you a rough idea of what to expect in terms of costs, I've put together a small table. These are just ballpark figures for an eCommerce brand selling in developed countries, but it helps to have a frame of referance.

As you can see, the range is massive. The difference between a well-optimised campaign and a poorly run one is huge. Your job is to systematically improve your CTR, your website conversion rate, and your audience targeting to move from the high end of that cost range towards the low end.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

I know this is a lot to take in. Moving from a simple campaign idea to a full-funnel, multi-platform strategy is a big leap. It involves a lot of moving parts: strategic planning, creative production, audience management, daily monitoring, and constant optimisation. It can quickly become a full-time job to manage it effectively.

This is, frankly, where getting expert help can make a huge difference. An experienced eye can spot opportunities you might miss, diagnose problems faster, and implement proven structures that save you time and money in the long run. Instead of spending months and a significant budget on trial and error, you can leverage experience to get on the right track from day one.

If you'd like to go over your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation. We could take a look at your brand, your goals, and map out what a successful strategy could look like for you. There's no obligation at all, of course, but it could be a very productive conversation.

Hope this has been helpful either way!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh