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YouTube Ads Making An Impact, Brands Benefiting From Content Made For Kids

Video-driven creators are making headway when it comes to performance for advertisements and content creators, from adults to kids.

YouTube on Thursday released a list of direct-response ads ranking high on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard. The list features the top TrueView for Action ads that ran to date in 2020 across the U.S.

Most of the video ads answered questions, teased forthcoming streaming content, focused on hygiene, outdoor activities, saving money, free stuff, and ways to improve writing skills for school. One video demonstrates how to charge two devices in the woods on a cloudy day --  no doubt because many people are getting back to nature in the midst of COVID-19.

Counting backwards, United Airlines took the No. 10 spot with FY20 Enterprise Google Video Cole+Family Donate Now EL Long Form from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

  • No. 9 – How to charge 2 devices in the woods on a cloudy day
  • No. 8 – Onewheel: Built to Destroy Boredom
  • No. 7 – Dave – FX on Hulu – S1 Promo
  • No. 6 – Are You Ready to Try Grammarly?
  • No. 5 – The Stranger | Official Teaser | Quibi
  • No. 4 – Outlander Episodic Scene Clip
  • No. 3 – Get the GS10+
  • No. 2 – How much can you save with Honey? Let's find out

The top honors went to Save Your Skin With Dr. Squatch Soap. The list is based on YouTube data from January 1, 2020 through August, 1 2020.

With 70% of people saying they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on YouTube, the online video site is playing a role to help consumers discover and purchase products and services, according to the company.

Honey, a browser extension to help save consumers money, notes seeing 194% year to date growth on Google Video, with the number of users increasing on its platform by 180% from pre-COVID levels. In fact Honey has invested in International Tv4A spend.  

YouTube’s Action campaigns add prominent calls-to-action (CTAs), headline text overlays and an end screen to video ads, and are optimized to drive action such as web traffic, leads or online sales. The company shared numbers for the amount of advertisers that used YouTube’s direct-response video ads last year. Ad use rose more than 260%, the company said.

Kids also remain a focus for YouTube, especially for marketers at Mattel, Spinmaster, MGA Entertainment, Hasbro, and Lego.

Tubular Labs’ latest industry report measures the growth of views and analyzes how creators of YouTube content made for Kids -- an app made just for kids -- can expand the value of intellectual property and create new licensing deals.

COVID-19 lockdowns this year have led to a significant and sustained spike in content consumption, although the Children Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) makes it more difficult to monetize content through social videos directly to kids -- not only for entertainment companies, but for toy manufacturers.

The percentage of growth for views in the first half of 2020, compared with the same time period in 2019, rose 79% for Made for Kids Media, 18% for Made for Kids Influencer, and 64% for Made for Kids Brand, according to the data, which was pulled in August.

Global media players such as Entertainment One and Moonbug, which sit in the new made-for-kids space, have shifted from positioning themselves from winning advertising revenue to gaining licensing deals, according to the report.

Hasbro-owned Entertainment One saw 7.7 billion views based on the total video uploaded for its 76 channels in the first half of 2020. Moonbug saw 7.4 billion for its 134 channels, Warner Media saw 4.4 billion for its 183 channels, Valnet Kids saw 4.4 billion for its seven channels, Baby Bus saw 4.2 billion for its eight channels, and Masha and the Bear saw 3.4 billion views for its 16 channels, for example.

In the U.S., the 10 top Made for Kids creators see huge viewership numbers. Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes has 2.7 billion views on 64 videos, about 42.4 million views per video. Peppa Pig has 1.9 billion views on 360 videos, about 5.4 million per video.

Creating longer-form content that is longer than 20 minutes helps drive the majority of views for some of the top creators of content made for kids including Baby Bus and Cocomelon. Some 61% of Peppa Pig’s video views are from videos more than 20min long, telling a full story about Peppa Pig. About 59% of Cocomelon’s video views are from videos more than 20min long, primarily using a collection of children’s songs. Seventy percent of Baby Bus’ video views are from videos more than 20min long that often uses a compilation of children’s songs and story.

Marketers need to understand where to find untapped audiences and expand the reach by local content per country, not just in the United States. Create content tailored to develop those audiences.

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