You may recall some months ago that Google introduced plus post ads. I covered them in the Visual Content Marketing Show Episode 7 which you can find here.
One of the first organisations to use them was Toyota and Google has published a case study including the results that Toyota achieved to support their promoton of the Toyota Collaborator Google Hangout campaign.
To appeal to young and connected first-time buyers, Toyota invited users to customise their dream 2014 Corolla while chatting with their friends in a Google Hangout. They can even go on a virtual test drive together using Street View in Google Maps. After they’ve created their Toyota Corolla, participants can be connected to their local dealer to find answers to product questions, check inventory or even schedule a test drive.
The campaign, which let users take virtual test drives together and schedule real ones, drew almost 100K users to its launch video (see below).
Toyota used +Post ads to turn a Google+ post into an interactive display ad and marketed that ad with Google AdWords. It saw a 50% higher engagement rate than industry averages and doubled the time users spent with the new car customization tool.
The Google case study stated that:
Toyota is excited that the average time spent designing a car has doubled. And people are engaging heavily with the tool, taking virtual tours of their cars and going on virtual test drives.
The goals for the campaign were to drive consideration from young consumers who are buying their first cars and use innovative technology developing relevant content.
Toyota promoted social content across the web as one of the first global brands to use +Post ads which is Google’s first social ads offering.
The case study states that twice as much time was spent with the Collaborator as with Toyota’s traditional car configuration tool and they gained an almost 50% higher engagement rate than industry averages with the pilot +Post ads campaign.
You can download the case study here (pdf).
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Monica Peterson, director of social media, Toyota USA, stated in the Google case study that +Post ads increased the level of conversations online and reached those consumers wherever they were. Toyota could match its social content to the right people, in the right place. they also go on to comment that Toyota focused on developing content that was relevant to Toyota’s audience to drive engagement, and +Post ads made sure that content got noticed.
Plus post ads are interactive and become more relevant with social signals, such as +1’s or comments from people you may know. With +Post ads, Google enabled Toyota to distribute its social content and conversations across the web.
Have you considered using Plus post ads yet as part of your Google Plus marketing camapign?
Additional Resources
Watch my interview with a business who has experimented with Google Plus Post Ads (episode 7)
See another example of the use of Plus Post Ads by Cadbury UK
Book a Google Helpout with me to discuss how you could use Goolge Hangouts in your organisation
