7 Plays to Scale with YouTube Ads (And Why Most Brands Still Suck at It)

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 itHow Arctic drove a 230% search lift and a 25% retail sales lift at Walmart from ads that converted zero people on Arctic's own websiteThe media mix shift (30–70% awareness/view-based spend) that beat pure demand gen in a women's apparel brand's own incrementality testsWhy 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 exitThe "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

—

Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact and request your FREE strategy session today!

—

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