From views to value: what the Sidemen can teach social marketers about YouTube’s real power
2025-04-29T09:00:00Z
From the Sidemen’s undeniable triumph to unlocking social ROI: we hear from YouTube’s Erica Probst to uncover how its thriving creator community and cutting-edge solutions equip social marketers to supercharge their buying strategies.Social has become a non-n…
From the Sidemen’s undeniable triumph to unlocking social ROI: we hear from YouTube’s Erica Probst to uncover how its thriving creator community and cutting-edge solutions equip social marketers to supercharge their buying strategies.
Social has become a non-negotiable part of the modern marketing mix. This shift reflects how audiences are changing and evolving. With the IAB’s 2025 Outlook predicting double digit growth for social (+11.9%), the time to diversify spend is now. So, how can advertisers get the most out of YouTube to leverage its reach and connection, and ultimately see a return on their investment?
Let’s take a look at the Sidemen, a group whose success reveals the platform’s potential for social marketers. Beyond simple views, they’ve fostered deep, lasting connections with their audience, leading to trust and engagement that translates into significant results.
Influence: Trust is earned
The Sidemen have given us a masterclass in capitalizing on YouTube’s reach and cultural influence to drive connection with their viewers. Throughout their years on YouTube, they’ve have cultivated a deeply engaged community that actively turns up, donates, and shares. The 2025 Charity Football Match garnered 18 million views on YouTube, raised over £4.7m for charity, and drew in a crowd of 90,000 to Wembley – selling out the stadium. Even footballers like Jude Bellingham and Rio Ferdinand, who also know a thing or two about selling out Wembley, are making a play in the YouTube space, with content that drives impact with their engaged fan communities.
YouTube is where the creator economy was born and thrives, with creators building deep foundations of trust with viewers for the last two decades. According to a survey conducted by Ipsos, surveyed users are 98% more likely to trust the recommendations of creators on YouTube vs. those on other social platforms (on average). The trust cultivated over time also extends to perceptions of marketing across the platform. According to a survey by MTM, 59% of viewers in the UK agree that they don’t mind adverts on YouTube if they support their favorite content creators.
Creators’ communities and fans comment, share and like, as they would on any social platform but their connection with YouTube creators is truly unique and stands the test of time. Since YouTube’s foundation is built from creators (of all backgrounds) making engaging content, even traditional advertising supports the creator economy and benefits brands by association. However, there are also opportunities to delve deeper into creator partnerships for more impactful campaigns.
Reach: Find the right audience
In a time where consumers have more choices than ever before on where they spend their time, the advertising landscape is also seeing increasing fragmentation. From short form to long form and mobile to connected TV, advertisers have options on where to spend their marketing budgets. To cut through the noise, advertisers need to explore a range of strategies that effectively capture attention and meet audiences where they are.
As Erica Probst, head of YouTube’s ads business in the UK, explains: “The landscape is rapidly evolving. YouTube creators aren’t just thinking about short or long videos; they’re also making content for TV screens. Take the Sidemen, a staggering 45% of their YouTube watch time now comes from connected TVs. This shift encourages a more unified approach. Advertisers can now maximize their social strategies and their impact across all screens and formats with Google AI.
“Our AI-powered YouTube ads are delivering tangible results for marketers; campaigns are seeing a 54% increase in reach, a 42% reduction in costs and a 40% boost in return on ad spend. It’s about meeting audiences where they are, with the right message, at the right time across every screen.”
YouTube is the only platform that seamlessly bridges this gap between short form and long form video. In the UK, on average, over 50% of logged-in YouTube users watched both Shorts and video-on-demand (VOD)/ live stream content within a one-week period. This diversity in content is one of the reasons YouTube is the number one in the UK for both reach and watch time, surpassing Meta and TikTok, according to Ipsos research. Additionally, for social marketers looking to expand reach, YouTube Shorts offers reach not found on other platforms. According to GWI, in the UK, 42% of YouTube Shorts users ages 18-44 don’t use TikTok.
Results: Success is impact (ROI), not just impressions
For all the engagement social video can drive, demonstrated return-on-investment (ROI) is still a key measure of success. There’s a lot of pressure to make sure every pound spent on ads counts and, without a clear link between campaign and conversion, social strategies can struggle to compete with performance-first channels.
YouTube’s mix of trusted creators and engaging content, coupled with diverse advertising options across various formats and screens, provides social marketers with a platform for successful consumer engagement. According to an MMM meta-analysis of all industries in the UK by Ekimetrics, YouTube short term ROI is indexed at 130, outperforming the social platform average of 124. And there is more to the social opportunity than a one-off sales lift. On average, YouTube drives 2.3X higher long-term ROAS than paid social.
Conversion-driven formats that blend content with commerce are becoming a key focus for advertisers, alongside the continued recognition of engagement metrics like likes and shares. YouTube provides social advertisers with the tools and environment to achieve tangible business outcomes.
TAG Heuer’s YouTube shorts campaign is a great example. It boosted ad recall by 52% percent, with short, sharp 15 and 30 second vertical video ads. The campaign provided valuable insights into audience preferences, revealing that longer, more visually engaging Shorts resonated particularly strongly. Beyond this, it firmly established YouTube Shorts as a key component in TAG Heuer’s future marketing strategy, demonstrating its effectiveness in driving not only ad recall but also significant search interest.
Erica’s key takeaways
There is a huge opportunity to extend the success of current social strategy on YouTube, the key takeaways are clear:
Create a deeper sense of connection through partnerships with YouTube creators.
Expand your social campaigns’ reach with YouTube’s audience and formats.
Use YouTube’s AI formats to boost your social strategy and business results.
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