Module 6 - When to consider new campaigns and basic scaling techniques

How do you know when a YouTube ads campaign needs to be scaled or replaced?

The answer is patterns: watching how Google is serving your ad over time through the graphs within the account. Setting the date range to the last 30 days and looking at clicks, impressions, conversions and conversion values will start to reveal what's working, what isn't, whether ad fatigue is setting in, and whether the campaign is still able to scale.

In one account, the pattern that stood out was a dip in cost per conversion at weekends compared with a similar number of clicks during the week, which repeated across several weekends in a row. That kind of repetition, rather than a one-off, is what turns an observation into something worth acting on, such as shifting a little budget out of the more expensive weekdays and into the weekends.

Why is it so important to keep notes on every change?

Because without notes on exactly what changed and when, it becomes impossible to properly understand why performance moved. The Google Ads interface has an "add a note" feature for exactly this reason, and it should be used constantly, especially when running lots of campaigns at once. In one account, a note about a bid strategy change made it possible to confirm the change had caused a scale-up in performance from that point onward, because the change was known and dated rather than guessed at.

What does a typical campaign lifecycle look like?

In one example, a new campaign showed a nice, steady uptick over roughly its first two weeks, then began to plateau, still generating sales for a while before crossing into a definite downturn. Around the 45 day mark, the number of lead form fills was still coming in but sales had stopped, and eventually form fills themselves started dropping off too, a clear sign of ad fatigue, either because the audience had been worn out or because Google was signalling that new creative was needed.

What should you actually do once a campaign starts showing ad fatigue?

There are a few choices: spin up new campaigns with new ad collateral, trim out keywords or audiences that clearly aren't working, or test increasing the bid or budget on the existing campaign to see if that reinvigorates it. Knowing that this particular account had roughly a 45 day window before performance dropped off, the practical strategy was to launch a new campaign every 15 days, so that as one campaign matures and starts to plateau, budget can already be shifted to the next one coming through behind it. It's also worth testing other targeting criteria at the same time, such as splitting out performance by device to see whether mobile, tablet, TV or computer conversions differ, and running the strongest options concurrently.

How long does a new or relaunched campaign take to perform?

Longer than most people expect. A campaign spun up today may not mature for two, three or even four weeks, and it's not as simple as turning an old one off, copying it, making a few tweaks and relaunching, because there will still be a lag of two to three weeks before it really starts motoring again. This is one of the biggest challenges for a media buyer: patience is genuinely required.

Why does this matter when running multiple campaigns at once?

Because scaling is all about spotting these patterns across accounts and audiences. In one client account with eight different audiences running across twelve campaigns, some audiences showed zero traction for the first couple of weeks while others took off immediately, simply because there was more relevant collateral available for them, or because Google had queued the ad and was still waiting for the right moment to serve it. Looking for these patterns in the graphs, making small, deliberate changes, and writing everything down is what builds the confidence needed to scale campaigns on YouTube properly.