Connected TV (CTV) is the fastest-growing major ad channel in the US. This rise in consumer adoption and its necessary inclusion within any full-coverage media plans brings exciting new capabilities and challenges.
CTV’s surging share of ad budgets is attributed to audience segmentation and enhanced data-driven capabilities, such as applying first-party data to targeting strategies. It also attracts highly engaged and increasingly young and diverse audiences.
But its opportunities come with carefully navigating a crowded and complex environment.
For the consumer, the CTV landscape is highly fragmented due to its ever-growing range of providers, many of which continue to merge, separate, and rename themselves. This overabundance of choices blurs the lines on which service provides which content, building frustration at the need to juggle multiple costly subscriptions to get the latest trending shows.
Clients often just as confused, come to us with the following questions and concerns:
- Where will my consumer see and interact with my ad, –on a TV, computer, or mobile device? What type of inventory will they be served?
- How do I use CTV to complement my other efforts while remaining confident I can identify the levels of unique reach and overlap?
- Which provider has the correct content and audience match for my product?
- What level of targeting will provide the strongest return on investment?
- Will my ad be associated with high-quality programming and vendors that evoke trust and brand reputation?
- How can I ensure optimal R&F without overexposure leading to diminishing returns?
Thoughtful planning and activation address these questions. As a strong publisher-direct strategy managed by a neutral party lessens fraud concerns and better protects brand safety by controlling the type of inventory served and desired R&F levels.
The lure of programmatic CTV stems from its ability to target specific audiences across a wide array of platforms and inventory while leveraging consumer data to deliver personalized ad experiences. Brands are also intrigued by the automated nature of dynamic creative optimization (DCO) and dynamic pricing as CTV marries the reach of linear television with digital performance.
Regardless of your chosen access point to CTV inventory, it’s crucial to tailor CTV’s investment allocation to complement specific audience consumption patterns.Therefore, it’s just as important to maintain ongoing control with measurement, calculated testing, and optimizations. Brands must also verify that their partners can and will share data in ways that can be weighed against other CTV and linear providers fairly. This standardized data across distribution reduces the probability of fraud while increasing delivery and placement transparency.
Brands must also verify that their partners can and will share data in ways that can be weighed against other CTV and linear providers fairly. This standardized data across distribution reduces the probability of fraud while increasing delivery and placement transparency. It’s just as important to maintain ongoing control with measurement, calculated testing, and optimizations.
Testing and balancing of broadly targeted, lower-CPM placements with more tailored, higher-CPM audiences and premium ad formats deliver on both awareness and action. Optimizations should be made against performance goals on a fair and timely basis, while attention should be paid to any areas where your media allocation may overlap and exceed frequency cap best practices.
Working media cannot afford to chase audiences into mysterious alleys – advertisers shouldn’t take any risks around brand-impairing adjacencies or opaque inventory sources. To maintain a competitive edge while the shift to CTV happens faster than ever, it’s mission – critical to work with a platform-agnostic partner who removes ambiguity to most effectively connect with audiences and drive outcomes that matter.