Fospha, a leading full-funnel marketing measurement platform, has released a new Playbook that breaks open one of digital marketing’s most overlooked trends: the underutilized value of YouTube and Google Demand Gen campaigns. Based on fresh data from April 2023 to April 2025, the report details how brands that leaned into these two channels saw significant year-over-year gains—some hitting 145% revenue growth.
Fospha’s findings come with a warning too: most brands still rely on flawed measurement models that fail to capture the real value of upper-funnel media. And that’s costing them.
Key Stats: Growth, Efficiency, and Opportunity
The data in Fospha’s 30-page analysis is clear:
- Brands that increased YouTube and/or Demand Gen spend saw 32% better blended YoY revenue growth than brands that did not.
- Those that scaled spending by over 400% reported 145% better revenue performance year-over-year.
- Demand Gen campaigns delivered 18% more new customer conversions compared to the paid media average.
- YouTube ROAS rose by 38%, and CPA dropped by 19% compared to the previous year.
- Unified ROAS (including Amazon sales) was 45% higher than direct-to-consumer-only ROAS.
- Demand Gen and YouTube are still underutilized, with 60% and 69% headroom respectively for profitable scaling.
The report identifies a significant performance gap between brands that treat these campaigns as long-term growth tools and those stuck measuring with short-term KPIs like Last Click attribution.
How Attribution Models Are Holding Back Investment
One of the most startling insights in the Playbook centers around attribution. Fospha found that Last Click attribution underreports YouTube’s value by 15.9x and Demand Gen by 12.8x. Since Last Click only credits the final interaction before conversion, it ignores how these campaigns create demand earlier in the funnel.
This misattribution leads to budget cuts that don’t match actual influence. Brands that rely solely on in-platform metrics or outdated models risk underfunding the very channels that spark discovery and new customer growth.
As Fospha CEO Sam Carter explains:
“With full-funnel measurement, we’re finally able to quantify what brand leaders have long suspected: YouTube and Demand Gen aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re essential engines of profitable scale.”
Creative Strategy + Smart Bidding = Performance Gains
Fospha outlines tactical best practices to make these channels work. Among them:
- Consolidate Demand Gen campaigns to drive better machine learning outcomes.
- Use diverse creative formats (3+ static and 3+ video) across aspect ratios to unlock more reach.
- Align bidding strategies with campaign goals—Target CPA for conversions, Max Conversion Value for revenue.
- Start YouTube with formats tied to objective: in-feed for engagement, in-stream for reach, and ad sequences for education.
- Don’t shift budgets too fast—give AI the runway to learn and optimize.
Google’s ABCD framework for creative—Attention, Branding, Connection, Direction—is also cited as a proven way to lift short-term sales by 30% and brand impact by 17%.
The Amazon Halo Effect: What Marketers Often Miss
The Playbook introduces Fospha’s “Unified ROAS” (uROAS), which measures how Demand Gen and YouTube influence both direct site purchases and downstream activity on marketplaces like Amazon.
For instance:
- YouTube campaigns showed a 48% ROAS improvement when Amazon revenue was included.
- Demand Gen showed a 41% ROAS lift with Amazon impact factored in.
These channels generate early brand interest that often leads to purchases elsewhere. Traditional tracking misses this entirely.
Long-Term Gains: Growth in AOV and Brand Demand
Fospha’s data also supports the link between sustained upper-funnel investment and higher order values. Brands that ran Demand Gen consistently for 12 of the past 24 months saw:
- 72% growth in engaged sessions
- 28% increase in brand search volume
- 3% lift in average order value (AOV)
The signal here is that brand spend doesn’t just build awareness—it builds higher-value customers.
Real-World Wins: River Island, Corston, and Underoutfit
The report highlights several success stories:
River Island used Fospha to measure YouTube’s real impact and increased spend by 500% in Q4 2024. They saw:
- 950% increase in YouTube-attributed revenue
- $1.8 million in incremental sales
- 72% boost in ROAS
- Demand Gen launched later, outperforming CAC targets by 33%
Corston Architectural Detail launched Demand Gen in late 2024. With full-funnel measurement, they tracked:
- 23% increase in total Google revenue
- 25% boost in Performance Max ROAS
- 15% total ROAS increase—even while raising spend
Underoutfit, a fast-growing DTC apparel brand, discovered that YouTube was performing 5x better than Last Click models suggested. They increased YouTube spend by 315% and earned:
- $3.3 million in revenue in one month
- 15% drop in blended customer acquisition cost
- 70% increase in weekly revenue over two months
What Brands Should Do Next
The message is straightforward: get your measurement right, or you’ll keep underfunding your highest-leverage channels. Fospha recommends the following:
- Use full-funnel measurement to link early engagement to actual outcomes
- Stop relying on Last Click as your primary performance model
- Push for creative diversity and campaign consistency
- Use unified metrics like blended ROAS and uROAS to capture cross-platform results
And don’t wait for attribution to be perfect—look at engagement signals like brand search growth, new customer ratios, and AOV over time.
It’s Not an Awareness Play Anymore
Fospha’s latest research shifts the narrative. YouTube and Demand Gen aren’t just soft branding tools. They’re revenue-driving systems with measurable, repeatable outcomes. The catch? You need better measurement to see it.
Brands waiting for perfect clarity before investing are missing the bigger picture—and missing the biggest growth lever of 2025.
