In today’s digital marketing landscape, it is no longer effective to take a single-channel approach to advertising. Instead of focusing on either connected TV (CTV), over-the-top (OTT), or linear TV, successful campaigns engage audiences throughout the entire marketing journey with ads across channels, based on where and how their audiences are spending their time. Savvy marketers are making the most of emerging opportunities by expanding and diversifying their ad spending mix with omnichannel activation.
Omnichannel is a holistic approach to advertising that takes into account the customer journey and how it spans multiple channels and touchpoints. It provides a consistent brand experience with seamless messaging across channels that work together to drive awareness, consideration, and intent, all the way through to conversion. This integrated approach involves a range of ad formats (including display, native, and video) that run on different channels (including websites, social media, and linear TV). CTV is one of the latest digital advertising channels available to add to the marketing mix.
As covered in part 1 of our CTV blog series, the pandemic accelerated consumers’ adoption of new media channels. People increasingly turned to streaming entertainment on CTV devices (like smart TV platforms, streaming devices, and video game consoles) as well as OTT streaming services or apps, delivered over the internet. Fast-forward to 2022, and 94% of US households are now reachable via CTV through open programmatic ads, a huge increase from 59% in 2020. This steady growth will only continue along with the increase in providers and content, including Netflix and Disney+ entering the marketplace in Q4.
Not surprisingly, 76% of video buyers called connected TV a “must buy” in their media planning budgets. IAB’s recent 2021 Video Ad Spend and 2022 Outlook report found that CTV ad spend in 2021 increased 57% year-over-year and is projected to expand another 39% in 2022 to reach $21.2 billion.
By adding CTV and OTT to your overall marketing strategy, you gain these significant advantages:
1. Unique and precise reach: CTV and OTT inventory helps brands capture unduplicated or incremental reach, including those hard-to-find cord-cutting and cord-never consumers. In addition, you can reach more highly engaged audiences on niche channels and have more control over where your ads appear. Rather than placing an ad based on a program or service, you can connect with the right audience based on accurate household data and audience signals. With advanced machine-learning models and first-party data, you can maximize audience reach.
2. Agility in a constantly changing marketplace: Unlike linear television ads, programmatic technology gives brands the dexterity they need to stop a campaign almost immediately and have a new one up and running within hours. In our 24-hour news cycle, having the ability to pivot messaging at a moment’s notice is crucial to connecting with audiences and staying relevant.
3. Access to curated premium deals: Private marketplaces give buyers assurance that their campaigns are running where they want. The majority of CTV transactions occur within curated, private marketplaces, giving buyers greater control as to how they structure deals and more insight into how their ad dollars get spent.
4. Addressable audiences at scale: With programmatic buying, brands and agencies win access to addressable audiences at scale. For example, buyers can easily go to 50 premium CTV publishers at once, all with the ability to reach their ideal audience.
5. Personalized, high-impact ads: Driven by data, CTV campaigns allow you to deliver personalized advertising to specific consumers with the power of traditional TV-like messaging and creative.
6. Tangible measurement of performance: CTV buyers can justify brand dollars spent on upper funnel campaigns with metrics that include reach, frequency, impressions, cost per view, and brand lift study results.
7. Actionable insights: With CTV measurement results and detailed reporting, you can make in-flight optimizations for better results and gain a deeper understanding of your desired audience across different channels, campaigns, and the entire marketing funnel.
8. Frequency management: Using a single programmatic CTV and video advertising platform can easily prevent repetitive ads. With one platform, buyers can manage cross-publisher frequency, pacing, and audience onboarding using a single source, in one place – a much-needed benefit as CTV scales and becomes more mainstream.
CTV is a channel that is ideal for creating scalable brand awareness. It is primarily a mid- to upper-level funnel tactic, much like traditional television advertising, but it goes further by leveraging the benefits of digital attribution. While CTV in and of itself is not geared towards pushing viewers to make an actual purchase or take an action, there are ways to attribute its effectiveness and return on investment (ROI), including attribution reporting, brand lift studies, and overlap studies. These metrics can prove the positive impact that this type of advertising has on conversion rates.
The Quantcast Platform with CTV capabilities leverages first-party data, AI-driven audiences, premium supply curation, and actionable insights and measurement that enable our clients to reach the ideal CTV household. We encourage expansion into CTV as part of an overall media buy that includes display, native, and video to drive more effective, measurable omnichannel marketing. When combined with these other formats, CTV becomes an effective tool for driving intent all the way through to conversion.
Learn more
Stay tuned for the third installment of this blog series, which will take a closer look at the opportunities and challenges of CTV measurement. You can also watch the new module on connected TV in the Quantcast Academy. And check out our case studies to see how Sky Glass TV, Jack’s Family Restaurants, and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders ran successful omnichannel campaigns with CTV.