YouTube TrueView for Action: How We Used the New Google Ad Format to Drive Livestream Ticket Sales

Wavo Labs: This series shares the results of our music marketing experiments and how they inform artist media strategy.


What We Tested

At Wavo, we’re always looking for new ways to reach sales-ready fans for live events. After all, these are the customers most likely to convert to a ticket buyer and generate a return on investment for artists and their teams. 

In this case study, we worked with Google to try their new TrueView for Action (TVFA) campaign format on a live-streamed event campaign. Instead of seeking video views, this ad format asks Google’s machine learning models to prioritize conversions, which helps to identify users that are most likely to make a purchase. To do this effectively, TrueView for Action campaigns feature prominent calls-to-action (CTAs), headline text overlays, and an end screen to video ads.

The strategy: Target high intent audiences through keywords and affinity audience targeting. A/B test video lengths to drive Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Use a combination of TrueView In-Stream and Discovery Ads to find the right audiences, keywords, and affinity audiences.


The Results

Here are the key takeaways from the study: 

  • The TVFA campaign with responsive ads running on both In-Stream and Discovery Ads provided an incredible ROAS of 1,465%. 

  • Targeting successfully identified fans who were more likely to purchase a ticket at a lower cost. Artist keywords generated conversions at a lower cost than Affinity audiences. 

  • One-minute-long video creative generated conversions at a lower cost than 30-second creative.


The Takeaway

TVFA campaigns can be a great way to reach unique YouTube audiences and drive ticket sales for livestream events.

Reach out to your Wavo representative if you’re interested in testing out this new YouTube format on your next event campaign.


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