The variable looks like this in the yml file:

admin_group: azure_admin_group_dev

This will return the value like this:

'azure_admin_group_dev'

If I add the backticks in as part of the value like this: 

admin_group: '`azure_admin_group_dev`'

The value will be returned like this:

'`azure_admin_group_dev`'

Unfortunatly, none of these values are acceptable in the OWNER TO statement. It needs to be returned like this:

`azure_admin_group_dev`