Google’s Partnership ads powered by BrandConnect enable advertisers to integrate YouTube creator videos into their ad campaigns. This innovative solution helps brands use the influence of popular creators to enhance their marketing efforts, reach targeted audiences, and achieve specific business objectives.
By featuring creator content within ads, advertisers can create more engaging, relevant, and impactful campaigns that resonate with viewers, driving higher brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.
If that was not all, BrandConnect makes it easy to connect with the right creators, so that each campaign is tailored to meet your brand’s unique goals.
What are Partnership Ads?
Partnership ads help brands incorporate YouTube creator videos into their advertising campaigns so they can use the power, authenticity, and reach of creator content across the entire marketing funnel on the Google Ads platform.
These ads provide brands with a unique opportunity to connect with audiences in a more engaging and relatable way.
Top Features Of Partnership Ads
Key features of partnership ads include:
- Incorporating Organic Creator Videos: Brands can seamlessly integrate organic YouTube creator videos into their ad campaigns so that the content feels authentic and resonates with the target audience.
- Audience Optimisation through Data Segments: Brands can create custom data segments for better audience targeting and optimise campaigns to reach the right viewers.
- Access to Organic View Metrics: Advertisers gain valuable insights by accessing organic view metrics for linked creator videos which allows them to measure performance and fine-tune campaigns for maximum impact.
Partnership ads enable brands to create more personalised and impactful campaigns that enhance their overall advertising strategy.
Key Benefits of Creator Videos in Ad Campaigns
Incorporating creator-made videos into your ad campaigns can significantly enhance performance in several key ways:
- Authenticity: Creator videos bring an authentic voice that resonates with audiences. Viewers often feel a genuine connection with creators and it makes their endorsements more impactful. This authenticity helps build trust with your audience, leading to stronger engagement and improved ad results.
- Reaching New Audiences: Creators have established, loyal communities that trust their recommendations. Partnering with creators allows brands to tap into these communities, expanding their reach to new and receptive audiences who may not have been exposed to your brand otherwise. This creates opportunities for deeper connections and increased brand awareness.
- Diverse and Trendy Content: Creator videos are often aligned with the latest trends, making them highly relevant and engaging. By using this up-to-date content, you can offer your audience fresh, exciting experiences that stand out in a crowded market. This diversity not only keeps your campaigns dynamic but also helps your brand stay relevant.
Which Campaign Types Support Partnership Ads?
Partnership ads can be integrated across a variety of Google Ads campaigns. However, the specific features available may differ depending on the campaign type.
Here are the campaigns these ads may be available across:
- Run ads with organic creator videos: Supported across all campaign types (Video action, Demand Gen, Video reach, Video view, App, Performance Max).
- Co-branded partnership ad format: Primarily available for Demand Generation campaigns (In-feed and Shorts), enabling a more collaborative brand experience.
- Data segments: Supported across most campaign types, providing valuable insights for audience targeting and performance optimisation.
- Organic view metrics: Available across all campaign types, offering valuable data on viewer engagement with organic creator content.
How to Run Partnership Ads
Running partnership ads with creator content in your Google Ads campaigns is a great way to boost engagement and authenticity. To successfully integrate creator videos and maximise their potential, follow these steps:
1. Link Creator Videos to Your Google Ads Account
Before you launch your ad campaign, the first step is to link the creator’s videos to your Google Ads account. This linking process allows you to use the creator videos in your ads, access important audience data, and gain valuable insights into organic view metrics.
It’s essential to ensure that you have the proper rights to use the video for advertising purposes, which may involve separate agreements with the creator or other rights holders.
Tip: To enhance campaign targeting, you can use the organic viewership of the creator's content to create custom data segments. This will help you build and refine your campaign audience. Use these segments as a foundation for creating lookalike audiences in Demand Gen campaigns, increasing your reach to potential customers.
2. Integrate Creator Videos into Ad Campaigns
Once your creator videos are linked to your Google Ads account, the next step is to integrate them into your ad campaigns. Partnership ads can be used across the entire marketing funnel, including:
- Demand Gen campaigns
- Video action campaigns
- Video view campaigns
- Video reach campaigns
- App campaigns
- Performance Max campaigns
Incorporating creator content into these campaign types allows you to capitalise on the creator’s audience and boost the authenticity of your ads. As the ads are shown from the creator’s YouTube channel, it adds a personal touch and helps the content feel more genuine and engaging.
Additionally, the co-branded partnership ad format is available in Demand Gen campaigns for In-feed and Shorts ads. This ad format provides a visually appealing and interactive way to showcase your collaboration with the creator, increasing the visibility and impact of your brand message.
Example: Demand Gen campaigns with Shopping Feeds on Shorts enables you to showcase creator videos alongside shopping feeds, offering a seamless experience for potential customers.
3. Run Partnership Ads and Measure Performance
Once your partnership ads are live, it’s crucial to monitor their performance closely. Track key metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, conversions, and engagement levels to evaluate the success of your campaigns. This data will help you make informed, data-driven decisions to optimise your strategy for better results.
Keep the creator informed about how their content is performing in your campaigns. Share results with the creator to strengthen the partnership. Not only will this build a positive relationship, but also open doors for potential future collaborations.
How To Measure Performance with Partnership Ads
When running campaigns featuring partnership ads, you can take full advantage of all standard Google Ads reporting and lift measurement tools. These features allow you to track key performance metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, conversions, and engagement, ensuring you can gauge the success of your campaigns.
To gain deeper insights into the impact of creator content on your campaign performance, run A/B tests or controlled experiments within Google Ads.
Here’s how to set up a head-to-head experiment:
To test the effectiveness of creator videos in your ads, follow these steps to set up a head-to-head experiment:
- Control Campaign: This campaign will use a regular video ad creative—an ad that doesn’t feature any creator content. This serves as your baseline to compare performance.
- Test Campaign: In this campaign, include both a regular video ad creative and a creator video (partnership ad). This allows you to directly compare the performance of creator content alongside traditional video ads.
Important: While testing, focus specifically on comparing the creative elements of the video ads. Keep other aspects of the campaigns consistent—such as budget, targeting settings, bidding strategies, and scheduling—so you can isolate the impact of the video content on your campaign’s performance.
By conducting this experiment, you can determine whether integrating a creator video into your ad campaign leads to a measurable improvement in performance. Validate whether creator content delivers a higher ROI, increased engagement, or better conversion rates to fine-tune your future advertising strategies.
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