OTT Ads: Your Alternative to Television Advertising

Think TV advertising is too expensive? Be the first to market with this new alternative!

As technology continues to evolve and as more consumers decide to “cut the cord” from traditional television, brands must find new ways to reach the once-captive consumers on the other side of the screen. As content evolves to reflect the on-demand preferences of today’s viewing audience, so must advertising. As such, asdvertising within OTT, or over-the-top content presents a huge opportunity to be first to market in the new frontier of brand advertising, at a much lower cost than traditional TV.

What Is OTT?

OTT content is simply the name given to the programming that is available on-demand on a streaming device such as a connected TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, FireTV or AppleTV. Besides being more affordable than traditional cable, streaming OTT content allows viewers to pick and choose the channels and shows that are most appealing to them and watch with fewer interruptions.

Who Is Watching OTT Content?

While you may assume those who opt for streaming content rather than traditional broadcast are younger than your target audience, think again: according to Statistas's 2019 report, the highest percentage of cord-cutters are between the ages of 35-44. For many small businesses, this age demographic is inclusive of their ideal customer.

Statista also sites that there were roughly 199 million OTT users in the United States in 2018. reports that 78% of households have an OTT subscription. And multiple studies have shown that most Americans now prefer to consume their daily news from trusted websites and apps on their own time, rather than tuning into live broadcasts.

All of this data combined paints the picture of a growing market, and one that has largely been untapped in terms of advertising potential.

How Is OTT Advertising Different from Traditional Broadcast Commercials?

OTT advertising offers the visual appeal, storytelling capability and professional production quality of a traditional television commercial with the specific targeting capabilities of digital advertising. Targeting your ideal prospect based on demographics, behavior, geography, income and more used to be reserved for social media advertising – not anymore. Yet, whereas social media users can easily scroll past your ads with a quick flick of the finger, OTT advertising offers a captive audience, making it the best of both worlds.

OTT video ads typically fall into one of two categories: 1) pre-roll, or 2) mid-roll. They cannot be skipped or fast-forwarded as they would be with DVR viewers. And, because OTT ads are short, at 15 or 30 seconds in length, the average video completion rate is often within 90-100%.

How Do We Track the Success of Our OTT Ad Campaign?

Like on other digital advertising platforms, when you engage in an OTT ad campaign, you will have access to a reporting platform that allows you to see who viewed your ads and on which apps. However, because there is no click-through available on a connected TV, measuring the subsequent traffic to your website or leads generated over the phone is a little trickier.

The best strategy for tracking attribution is to 1) monitor organic traffic and call volume for spikes in activity, and compare the data against when your ad ran, 2) offer a unique promotion in your OTT ads only, so that website visitors or callers must ask for it by name, and record the data.

Who Should Consider OTT Advertising?

Small businesses with a specific niche consumer (such as plastic surgery practices marketing mommy makeovers or dental practices marketing implants) are great candidates for OTT advertising because of the targeting capabilities offered. Likewise, law firms whose competition are dominating the television broadcasting space will find a bigger opportunity in OTT content for a significantly smaller investment.

It’s not often that an entirely new advertising opportunity opens up, in which early adopters have tremendous advantage. But, in the case of OTT advertising, that’s precisely what is happening. Consider the new frontier of OTT advertising for your business.

For more info please feel free to reach out 708-586-2229 or [email protected]