Running a Successful Connected TV (CTV) Campaign
If you have not integrated connected TV (or CTV) into your marketing mix, you are behind the power curve. Connected TV is taken over the digital advertising world and shows no signs of slowing up. It is expected that by 2022 over 204.1 million viewers will be watching connected TV programming.
CTV is any TV that can be connected to the internet and can stream digital content at the viewer’s convenience. CTV can be viewed as a subset of over-the-top (OTT), which includes applications and services that don’t require subscriptions to traditional pay-TV or cable services.
TV advertising is great for telling a longer story more visually. Think of CTV as an extension of that, in that you are showing the ad to a highly targeted audience group. And, format matters. They see your message on a full-size screen in a comfortable and familiar environment. Why would you not use CTV?
- Why you need CTV in your marketing mix nowHere are our top reasons that you should!
Affordability
Connected TV is the screen where the most digital impressions are shown- even surpassing mobile. A CTV ad can be purchased at a much more reasonable price per CPM, and as you take advantage of targeting insight, it becomes more and more efficient.
Exceptional Targeting Capabilities
Extraordinary targeting abilities provide better audience efficiency and reduce media waster and the worry of reaching irrelevant viewers and households. Some examples of targeting capabilities:
- 1-st party audiences such as visitors to your home page or past purchasers.
- Lookalike audiences to target households that look just like your most valuable customers.
- Segments to target households on traits like age, gender income, kids, vacationers, or shopping intent.
Retargeting
In addition to great targeting for your prospecting campaigns, you can step it up a notch. CTV allows for high;y relevant retargeting campaigns. A viewer sees your CTV ad on TV at home. You can then retarget them across their other devices, such as laptops, to present a tremendous cross-device approach that follows and facilitates the buyer journey.
Real-time measurement
How many times have you seen the analysis of a campaign only after it is completed? You may wait weeks or months- when there is nothing to be done about the results. CTV allows you to track and measure digital metrics, video completion rates, and offline impact like store traffic. This will enable you to adjust and optimize as you go.
Holistic Campaigns
CTV can be very effective on outs own, but you can take it to a new level when you integrate it into a full media mix. To capture your audience wherever they are online, leverage your native display and video with your CTV for a homerun. IT is reported that over 70% of adults browse their phone or tablet while watching TV.
Catching them in this second screen behavior is meeting them where they are. Remember, the TV screen is non-click. Let’s move them over to an actionable device.
Brand Building
You may not be at Super Bowl level of ad spend, but you can get that brand enhancement by making yourself present in the viewing experience. Get your highly viewable, non-skippable ads in from of your engaged audience, and you’ll see the best ad performance of your life.
Best practices to take your CTV advertising up a notch.
CTV continues to evolve and grow, and many agencies and pros are struggling to create the next best strategy. Here are three strategies that we are seeing on the net and seem to be irrefutable.
- We live in sensory overload. There is no doubt. The minute a show ends, the viewer is scanning his phone or laptop. Our goal as advertisers to get our message heard. This calls for a blended CTV/ Connected TV approach with other supporting ad channels in a carefully thought out way. We best do this by leveraging multiple platforms and devices but avoiding the heavy-handedness of being too intrusive. The timing must be perfect, and the messaging must be nuanced and remain relevant to the buyer’s journey. We want to be subtle and seem fluid, like a sequential story being told. Being spammy or too repetitive will not yield the success we want.
- Be studied about the timing and pacing of your campaign. Again, start at the beginning. What metric are we chasing, and what do we want to spend to get there? For this, we test, test, and test some more. We use intuition and common sense to think about dinner time, drive time, etc. Use what you know about your customers and their behaviors. Equally important as the time of day is pacing. Make it smooth, and space it out to avoid breaking the back only a few days into the campaign. Start slowly and only increase your spending when you have the data to convince you to do so. Set some intermediary points to evaluate the campaign, the spend, and the timing.
- Don’t overlook the value of a lookalike audience. We all know what declining attention spans mean. Even the hottest and stickiest ad will fatigue when running against the same audience. Use the data you’ve gleaned from your campaign’s success and construct a lookalike campaign to replicate your success with the first group and expand your reach.
Turning viewers into customers
IF you are ready to get real measurable ROI from your TV ads, you need CTV. Marketers can focus their ads on audiences they know will connect with their messaging. They can track site visits, conversions, and other critical metrics directly back to CTV the campaign.
CTV campaigns are perfect for driving site visits and conversions. The combination of ads across various channels makes the message stick and feel authentic. Your message is kept top of mind across and multiple devices, platforms. A winning combination of CTV and display ads will drive the brand familiarity and trust that translates into conversions.
Measurement of CTV
Proper measurement of your CTV campaign will quickly show its value over linear TV when done correctly.
Here are some do’s and don’t for beginners.
- Start by remembering that you can not measure CTV in the same way linear TV is measured. Linear TV measurement is abstract and does not provide statistical modeling. We are working with best guesses.
- CTV functions as a simple digital programmatic ad but with a commercial vs. a banner ad. It uses a digital measure that offers precise details.
- Finally, the expectations must be to view the whole customer journey, track conversions and activity in 3rd part analytics solutions.
Correct CTV measurement releases a leave of insight that is not available with linear TV. You’ll know how many people saw the ads, how many watched the complete ad, and how many dropped out before the ad finished.
More tracking kicks in after the ad runs. We then can drill into other channels, paid search, social performance other devices visited. Ongoing monitoring of the site reveals visitors originating from the campaign and follows through with actual performance and sales activity. Attribution is key and a big part of the puzzle when understanding the powerhouse that CTV is part of your total marketing mix.
3 Keys to Successful CTV Advertising
Executing a successful CTV campaign has many more moving parts than a traditional TV, but the rewards are many! Day parts sell traditional or linear TV. In contrast, OTT or CTV is usually sold on an addressable basis, meaning you’re buying specific factors like demos, interest, or previous purchase behavior.
- That decision of what you want your audience to look like is critical. Before making any decisions, you’ll need to drill down on the goals for this specific campaign. Are you building the brand, introducing a new product, or targeting an increase in sales or site visits. You must define this very clearly.
- The next step is to evaluate the digital platforms available to you. You will probably build your audience platform by platform as each has strengths in various places of the customer journey. Give though also to incremental reach or viewers that your current ad spend is not getting to.
- Finally, context matters. Make sure your ads are running around programming that is high quality and relevant to your audience.