How YouTube Compares to Other Social Platforms

Summary

Americans’ growing consumption of digital video across screens has increased advertisers’ and agencies’ interest in understanding the effects on engagement with video and brand impact. To  address this, YouTube commissioned  Nielsen study that aims to paint a comprehensive picture of how video ads are consumed across digital platforms and what this means for brands. Specifically, the study sought to assess:

• How video ads elicit attention on YouTube compared to other social media platforms
• Whether attention is correlated with brand metrics
• Whether higher attention to ads on YouTube contributes to higher brand lift results compared to other social media platforms

Three different social media platforms were compared to You Tube. Each platform was composed of viewers who were exposed to one of three methods:

• Behavioral Coding -Tracking incidence of exposure to ads and content within experiences
• Eye Tracking - Visual attention to content, including specific areas that attract the most and least attention
• Self Report - Conscious stated feeling, i.e, what consumers say they think, do or plan to do.

The main conclusions:

• When comparing platforms, ads on YouTube received 1.8x more attention than ads on other social media platforms.
• Attention to ads was 2.4X higher on platforms with full sight and sound, compared to platforms with audio off and subtitles.
• The study found that higher attention to ads on YouTube contributed to 45% higher ad recall compared to other social media platforms.