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topicnews · September 23, 2024

AI-powered full-funnel strategy on YouTube: How Samsung turns a chaotic customer journey into a marketing success

AI-powered full-funnel strategy on YouTube: How Samsung turns a chaotic customer journey into a marketing success

YouTube Festival 2024: Laura Thissen from Samsung during a fireside chat with Katharina Grewing from Google

Ever heard of the “messy middle”? Google coined this term to describe the complex and sometimes chaotic decision-making process that precedes a purchase decision. Consumers collect information about their desired products on different platforms, compare them and weigh up options before making their final choice.

This means that the days of a linear customer journey are over. This presents marketing decision-makers with new challenges and the key question of how they can effectively reach and inspire their target groups in this dynamic media landscape. Samsung has also grappled with this question and found the answer in an AI-supported full-funnel strategy on YouTube.
How exactly this strategy works can best be explained using the launch campaign for the Galaxy S24, which was launched in early 2024. What is special about this premium smartphone is the integrated AI toolset, which is of central importance to the brand. “At Samsung, AI is part of the DNA. “We see it as a key technology to drive innovation,” says Laura Thissen, Head of MX Marketing Communication at Samsung. Of course, this applies not only to the company’s own products, but also to the company’s marketing strategy.

When launching the Galaxy S24 product, it was important to take all phases of the increasingly complex customer journey into account in the spirit of the “messy middle” described above. The teaser phase is about generating interest in the new product among a broad range of potential customers. After the unpacked event – i.e. the unveiling of the product – the focus shifted to engagement and interaction. The final phase is about converting the willingness to buy into concrete conversions.

For each of these phases, YouTube, as a multi-format platform, provides the appropriate advertising solutions that Samsung and its media agency Starcom have exploited as part of their full-funnel strategy. I am Upper funnel Use Samsung Mastheads. These are prominent video ads at the top of the YouTube homepage that are particularly well suited to building reach quickly and cost-effectively.

Video reach campaigns are also about reach. These are particularly cost-efficient because they are presented to the largest possible number of users. In this type of campaign, Google’s AI uses numerous signals to bring advertisements to the right target group at the right time. These extensive signals would simply not be possible to handle manually with classic media planning.

We see AI as a key technology to drive innovation. Our tests have clearly shown that AI-driven optimization of our campaigns has led to a significant increase in efficiency.

Laura Thissen, Head of Marketing Communication – Mobile eXperience at Samsung Electronics GmbH

In the AI-powered video view campaigns that Samsung launched in Middle funnel different video ad formats are also automatically combined in the mix. This campaign type delivers the greatest possible number of views, including video views, for a set cost-per-view target. The advantage here is that costs are only incurred when the viewer interacts with the advertising material or actively decides to watch the video ad.

For even more interaction and an optimized conversion rate in Lower funnel Create demand-gen campaigns that are specifically designed to increase demand for certain products or services. This is the first time that display and video ads are combined in a mix of formats in a unique campaign that is delivered on YouTube, GMail, and the Google Discover feed. Essentially, demand-gen campaigns aim to get interested parties to actively find out about products and offers, visit the provider’s website, sign up for the newsletter, or buy the product or service directly.

The mix of these different measures within the framework of Full-Funnel YouTube Strategy by Samsung has resulted in the KPI targets not only being achieved, but significantly exceeded. In terms of willingness to buy, the company has recorded a relative increase of 5.5 percent, which is above average for this segment. In addition, a search lift of over 60 percent was achieved for the search term “Galaxy Phone”. The most important parameter for every advertiser is also correct: compared to the previous year, sales of the Galaxy smartphone have increased significantly.

It is important to emphasize that this increase involved significantly less effort than in the past. “Our tests have clearly shown that the AI-driven optimization of our campaigns has led to a significant increase in efficiency,” says Thissen. “YouTube’s algorithms continuously analyze the performance of our ads and automatically adjust bids, targeting and ad formats to achieve the best possible results.”

After her experience with the S24 campaign, Thissen is certain that she will continue to rely on AI-supported advertising formats in the future. For us at Samsung, the motto is always: test, learn and iterate! That’s why I can only advise everyone: create a solid database for your company with which you can train the AI, try out different AI tools and AI advertising solutions and find out which solutions are best suited to your specific needs. ”

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