ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Most brands think they've "tried YouTube" — a few bucks a day, no real strategy, and they wrote it off. Brett Curry disagrees, and he's got the data to back it up. In this live talk from a Google NYC event packed with 8- and 9-figure D2C and omnichannel brands, Brett breaks down the seven plays that separate the 10% of brands actually winning on YouTube from everyone else still guessing.
Inside the episode:
- Why a 190-test study across 74 brands found YouTube's real incremental ROAS runs 3.5x to 10x higher than what shows up in-platform — and why that's a competitive advantage if you're willing to measure it
- How Arctic drove a 230% search lift and a 25% retail sales lift at Walmart from ads that converted zero people on Arctic's own website
- The media mix shift (30–70% awareness/view-based spend) that beat pure demand gen in a women's apparel brand's own incrementality tests
- Why Native Deodorant's run from ~$100M to over $1B in sales at 20% EBITDA leaned hard on top-of-funnel YouTube, and how Dr. Squatch's early YouTube ads set up its $1.5B exit
- The "mashup" formula (think Opopop and What the Foundation) for turning your best Meta and TikTok ads into YouTube winners — and the exact checklist (30+ seconds, voiceover, clear CTA) for knowing which social ads can go straight to YouTube as-is
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Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact and request your FREE strategy session today!
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Chapters:
[00:00] Intro: Live from Google NYC, Brett's "7 Ways to Scale with YouTube Ads" talk and why most brands still get YouTube wrong
[02:59] What is YouTube? 98% trust in creators, "TV + search had a baby," the CTV watch-time lead, unique reach, and YouTube's many viewing modes
[08:08] YouTube-built brands: Dr. Squatch's $1.5B exit and Native's run to $1B in sales
[10:06] Play #1, Incrementality: causal measurement, user vs. geo holdouts, branded search, and Haus's ~3.5x in-platform underreporting finding
[15:52] Play #2, Omnichannel support: the extra +1x from retail, Arctic's CDI/BDI analysis, 19 test markets, 230% search lift, and 25% Walmart lift
[22:00] The snack brand that paused YouTube: Amazon sales and branded search drop within days, then recover once ads resume
[22:50] Play #3, YouTube-first creative: the hook, demo, social proof, CTA formula, plus UGC mashups and brand-formance ads
[26:08] Creative breakdowns, Arctic: the Chase Fly ceramic demo mashup and the Walmart-only brand ad that drove zero D2C sales but big retail lift
[33:18] Creative breakdowns, Native, What the Foundation & Opopop: diverse UGC, founder-led mashups, and 9x16 vs. 16x9 edits
[40:48] Play #4, The creative feedback loop: view rate → hook, CTR → convince, CVR → audience, and why average watch time per impression matters
[44:55] Plays #5 & #6, Campaign structure and porting social ads: Demand Gen plus awareness/view-based campaigns, and what a Meta/TikTok ad needs to run as-is
[48:53] Play #7, Operationalize testing: snapshot vs. photo album, the GPA analogy, the lift trifecta, attributed brand search, and test-over-test comparisons
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Connect With Brett:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQmbMwBW8LYDfFAqNqlgTGw
Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/
Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact
Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, JC Hite, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Stephane Colleu, Jeff Oxford, Bryan Porter and more
