IRI to help Google measure offline sales impact of YouTube ads

Earlier this week YouTube rolled out new extensions and measurement capabilities for advertisers. The ad extensions will enable a variety of new actions (e.g., app downloads, booking, movie showtimes). There will also be new brand lift metrics, including offline sales lift.

Brand lift and offline sales data. IRI is one of the Google Measurement Partners that’s supporting the company’s new brand lift metrics. Brand lift studies are typically survey based. In this case they will show marketers the following types of information:

• Positive response rate
• Absolute brand lift
• Headroom lift
• Number of lifted users
• Cost-per-lifted user
• Control positive response rate
• Relative brand lift

Brand lift studies offer valuable information. Arguably more compelling than self-reported attitudinal data is the sales impact data that IRI will provide for YouTube ads. IRI will supply e-commerce and in-store sales data to Google to show if YouTube ads are having an actual impact on sales (avoiding a last click attribution problem is a separate discussion).

The IRI measurement capabilities come from IRI’s loyalty card-based “vast point-of-sale, frequent shopper, causal and media exposure data.”

Why it matters. Last year Google announced that YouTube ads could be tied to store visitation and sales. That was being done chiefly through Google partnerships with credit card companies, which provided anonymous, aggregated sales data to Google. So the IRI lift measurement capabilities are not entirely new.

Regardless, it’s another important source of offline data that will help marketers better understand the real-world impact of their ads and which ones are truly performing.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.