What Is CTV Advertising, Its Benefits, and How to Use It to Your Advantage

According to eMarketer, the time people spend watching linear television is gradually decreasing, opening the way to digital viewership experience enabled by CTV and OTT.? Since the pandemic started, the popularity of CTV grew, even more so analysts expect the US businesses alone to spend $29,5 billion on CTV ads by the end of 2024.?

While users have the opportunity to watch their favorite shows on their favorite Internet-connected devices, advertisers can benefit from this fast-growing advertising channel with a large pool of loyal audiences. As the fastest growing advertising channel among others, CTV offers plenty of opportunities for impactful ad campaigns: memorable ad experience, precise targeting, cost-effectiveness, and the list goes on. Let’s see why CTV advertising is so popular these days and why it’s worth embracing now.?

What is connected TV advertising and what benefits does it provide?

Connected TV or CTV stands for a device that supports multimedia or various content streaming services. Internet-capable TV sets, video game consoles (Xbox and PlayStation) and game stickers (Amazon Fire and Roku) are considered to be CTV devices. Such gadgets have a smartphone-like screens, are connected to the Internet and allow users to access any kind of content:

• Video content from streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu
• Video content from Youtube
• Photos or any other form of digital content from the web?

Taken from: https://www.knorex.com/blog/articles/what-is-ott-vs-ctv?

Programmatic brought targeted advertising on TV thanks to the fact that CTV devices are Internet-connected. It made the campaign management much easier - with the help of a dedicated agency or a DSP advertisers can easily suit the campaigns up to their tastes with targeting options and suitable budget.

Reduced ad spendings

Linear TV advertising can cost thousands of dollars which is quite unrealistic for small and medium businesses. As a result, only big corporations like Pepsi, Mercedes or huge local businesses can afford it. CTV advertising is more welcoming – brands of any size can set up the preferred budget and their ad will be served to the right audience.

More precise targeting

With traditional TV channels, advertisers have to look for the channel that is most frequently watched by their audiences. Still, it is only a likelihood. This is highly ineffective and moreover it’s hard to predict the overall audience activity. CTV advertising with programmatic targeting allows advertisers to reach only the right users - just like on the web. Moreover, CTV ad platforms have even more targeting options than social media ad platforms.?

Increased visibility

CTV ads can not be compared to banner ads due to the so-called banner blindness. CTV? video ads are displayed on full screen, with amazing picture and sound quality. Plus, the viewer has to wait for some time before they can skip it. So advertisers will have at least 5-10 seconds to draw them in.?

People prefer video format

People like watching videos more than they want to read texts and in 2020 the number of people across the US who've been consuming video content has reached 244.4 million. Thus, video advertising can bring great conversions if the advertiser creates high-quality and informative content.

Real-time effectiveness measurement

Unfortunately, predictions do not always come true, so it is better to learn how the creative performs before the campaign is over. CTV advertisement allows advertisers to look at the effectiveness of campaigns and creatives in real time via timely generated stats on a programmatic platform.

Opportunity to utilize of prime times

Unlike social media, streaming services have their prime times. For instance, everyone is tuned in for football matches and sports events like Super Bowls. Advertisers can be sure that all of their audiences will be near the screens at that time. It may be more expensive than usual to serve ads during this time but it can become a huge profit.?

Easier automation

There is no need to seek intermediates and negotiate ad contracts for hours. Ad serving is automated with the CTV Demand-Side-Platforms and streamlined in terms of ad costs.?

Understanding the difference between OTT and CTV

Such terms as OTT and CTV are oftentimes used interchangeably, but there are differences among them which are important to be aware of:

• OTT stands for over-the-top and describes content providers that stream series and films through the Internet, rather than satellite or cable. It includes such services as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, etc. CTV is a way to deliver OTT.?
• CTV is basically a technology supporting addressable TV advertising capabilities on any device that is connected to the TV. It represents the core for PTV support.

Taken from: https://www.demandlocal.com/blog/difference-between-ctv-and-ott/?

How does targeting work on CTV?

The average user in the US owns at least 10 CTV devices, but how is ad serving organized on, let’s say, their Smart TV screen? What kinds of data is utilized for targeting? Today there are 3 types of data sets that CTV advertising applies:

First-party data. There is first-party data of CTV publishers that can come very useful for narrowing the targeting campaigns of advertisers. Apart from this advertisers can utilize their own first-party data (the data collected directly from the company from customers - normally it is stored in CRMs). Such data can include demographics, purchasing history, website activity, emails, and more.

Third-party data.? Third-party data is a ‘purchased-and-sold’ kind of data that’s normally acquired from data providers. Publishers integrate their platforms with ad service and then obtain prebuilt audience segments from all kinds of anonymized data profiles (which then are transmitted to advertisers). Device ID and IP are also used to match TV sets to individual users within the same household.

With targeting based on these data sets advertising on CTV becomes precise. Thus, the ads are delivered to the users and they see them at the right time and on the right screen.?

CTV advertisers use private deals more often than open RTB deals in order to access premium placements. However, in order to access PMPs advertisers need to get an invite to participate (the membership is not difficult to obtain).?

How to measure the performance of CTV advertising?

As mentioned earlier, advertisers can measure the effectiveness of their CTV campaigns in real time. Here are the number of metrics that are used for measurement:

• Completion rate: how many times the ad was watched till the end. If the rate is too low, a better hook is required at the beginning, more engaging content overall, or just a shorter ad.
• Viewability score: how many times the ad was actually shown to others. If the score is low, advertisers may need to optimize the campaign
• Total reach: how many households were reached with the ad campaign. If the number is low, advertisers should revise and better adjust the settings of the campaign.?
• Cost per mille: the general cost of one thousand impressions. It’s one of the most popular metrics for measuring the performance of digital advertising.
• Cost per completed view: this metric is calculated as the ratio of the total cost of a certain campaign divided by the total number of completed views. Advertisers need to strive to reduce this amount as much as possible to pay less for served ads.
• Return of investment: a relation of the total cost of a campaign to the profit that it has generated.
• Post-view visit: how many people visited the website or physical stores after the ad was viewed.

Tips for choosing a reliable CTV supply partner

In 2020, 78% of all American households could have been reached via CTV advertising and this percentage is constantly growing. However, in order to effectively interact with this audience, it's important to choose a CTV advertising supply partner that would be able to put ad spending to good use. So here are some things to consider:

• Work only with partners who have up-to-date fraud filtering capabilities and are members of IAB Tech Lab (as the CTV fraud rates are pretty high and have been at 24% in 2020);
• Check the list of publishers CTV supply partner works with in order to make sure there's no mislabeled inventory;
• Implement anti-fraud IAB standards to verify all the intermediaries through which inventory passes throughout supply path;

Best practices to follow in CTV advertising in 2022

CTV advertising is a great investment – if handled properly. Let’s walk over some best CTV ad practices.

#1 Craft a narrative

Video advertising is the best way to tell meaningful stories, excite people and demonstrate to them products or services. It is better to create a story and a call to action that people will actually remember and recognize. A good practice will be to show employees, let customers speak about the product or service, or tell about the company's mission.

#2 Keep it short

Even though there’s a time to tell a story, keep it short: 15-30 seconds is the perfect time to capture the attention of a user, without being too annoying.?

#3 Create the hook

Make sure that the user has found something in a CTV ad during the first 5 seconds. Something that makes them want to see the end – may it be a relatable personality, a question, an introduction of a problem, or the promise of an interesting storytime.?

#4 Make it relevant to the context

The ad can be disrupting someone's watching experience so it is better to eliminate the negative emotions and lighten up the viewers a bit. In this case the ad can have a message that resonates with streamed content or delivers a little joke about the currently watched show”.?

#5 Focus on helping

Ads have long left the format of selling. It is mostly about helping customers to find their solution to the problem. Customers should know that the brand understands their struggle and thus, offers something that can become a perfect solution.?

#6 Make it personalized

Yes, showing the product from all the angles is good but voice-overs and a pretty picture, no matter how high-quality it is, is not enough. The product or service can actually have a face – showcase the chef if it is about a restaurant, show a dad who got great help after buying a dishwasher, show people’s experience in other countries rather than giving a sequence of pretty pictures.?

Summing Up

CTV advertising is an exciting new channel that can attract a no-cable generation. The video ad format allows advertisers to show and tell more, as well as become more seen and heard. At the same time, there’s no need to blow the entire budget to show a commercial like it was on linear TV. FOr these reasons CTV advertising can significantly complement any advertising strategy. Integral Stream (СTV-specialized ad exchange) provides a seamless cross-device CTV experience with spectacular reach and outstanding performance. Successful ad campaigns start here!