Recent ad-attention research by Ipsos found that people viewing online video ads are 4X more likely to pay attention vs. TV ads; and that YouTube ads get 2X the attention of ads on other social-media platforms.

Accordingly, YouTube marketers then sought a way to deliver more personalized ads, for even greater attention.

First step was to add new targeting options to the Custom Affinity Audiences tool, using intent-based keywords. YouTube claims this change increases mobile ad recall by 20% and brand awareness by 50%.

Then, they enhanced targeting further to include apps users have downloaded, and physical locations they’ve visited.

Next, YouTube added another new tool, Director Mix, which lets advertisers populate and upload creative templates that can be sliced and diced into many different ads of different lengths and content for different audiences. Machine learning provides feedback as to which ads are working best.

Finally, another new tool lets advertisers stitch together various videos in AdWords Lab – so they can, e.g., follow a 6-second "grabber" with a longer ad with longer, personalized content.

Example: To promote the video game Assassin’s Creed, marketers created and ran six-second ads cut from the two-minute trailer. YouTube claims this campaign increased awareness of the game by 25% and searches for the game’s title by 224 %.

Big brands using the new tools include Campbell's Soup and McDonald's.

Given the speed with which ad technologies are advancing, maybe some version of these tools will trickle down to smaller brands/advertisers.

(Hear that, Google?)