Direct-to-consumer (DTC) retail brands know that video and connected TV (CTV) ads are some of the most effective tools for capturing attention and driving sales. These formats thrive on their ability to engage audiences with rich visuals and storytelling. However, for brands that focus exclusively on running video and CTV ads on social media, there’s a significant missed opportunity: the open web. 

Expanding your video and CTV campaigns beyond social platforms to the open web can unlock new customer segments, amplify your reach, and diversify your advertising strategy. Here’s why the open web deserves your attention.

1. Go Beyond Social Media’s Limitations

Social platforms are useful for engaging existing audiences, but they operate within closed ecosystems. These “walled gardens” restrict your reach to their user bases, limiting your potential customers. By bringing video and CTV ads to the broader open web, you can:

• Access millions of consumers who aren’t active on social platforms
• Reach users during high-intent moments, such as researching products or reading reviews
• Complement your social media campaigns with a broader, more diverse audience

2. Maximize Targeting Precision and Context

While social platforms offer robust targeting, the open web provides even more flexibility and granularity. Leveraging AI technology to identify and target relevant audiences at scale, The Quantcast Advertising Platform uses real-time data to analyze online behavior. With programmatic advertising, you can:

• Leverage first- and third-party data to pinpoint high-intent shoppers
• Utilize contextual targeting to place ads alongside relevant content
• Retarget users who’ve interacted with your brand on social platforms or your website

With advanced AI and machine learning, your targeting becomes more precise, ensuring that your video and CTV ads are not only seen but are shown in the right content to the right audience, maximizing their impact.

3. Capture Attention in Premium Environments

The open web offers a variety of high-quality, brand-safe environments for your ads. When your video and CTV content appears on trusted sites or within respected streaming platforms, it benefits from the credibility of those environments. For instance:

• A pre-roll video on a news site can reach engaged readers
• A dynamic CTV ad during a popular streaming program can capture viewers during immersive moments

These placements allow for longer ad formats and deeper storytelling, making it easier to communicate your brand’s value and drive action, wherever your audiences are spending their time. 

4. Optimize Your Budget and ROI

Social platforms are highly competitive, which can drive up costs for ad placements. By running video and CTV ads on the open web, you can tap into a broader inventory of ad placements, often at more competitive customer acquisition costs (CACs). Programmatic advertising ensures efficient spend, delivering impressions that truly matter. For DTC brands, this translates to more bang for your buck without compromising on quality or reach.

5. Diversify Your Ad Strategy for Long-Term Growth

Relying solely on social platforms makes your brand vulnerable to changes in algorithms, ad policies, and increasing privacy restrictions. Expanding to the open web not only diversifies your strategy but also builds resilience against these challenges. The open web’s embrace of cookieless targeting solutions ensures your campaigns remain effective as privacy regulations evolve. Diversification also positions your brand to reach consumers across multiple touchpoints, creating a seamless and cohesive customer journey. 

Take Your Video and CTV Ads to the Next Level

If you’re already seeing success with video and CTV ads on social platforms, it’s time to extend that success to the open web. Start by partnering with a programmatic advertising platform (or demand-side platform (DSP)) that specializes in video and CTV. Optimize your creative assets for omnichannel environments and devices, and use data-driven insights to refine your strategy over time.

By tapping into the open web, you’ll unlock new customers, diversify your ad placements, and elevate your overall marketing performance.

Ready to Expand Your Reach?

The open web is brimming with untapped opportunities. Don’t limit your video and CTV ads to social media—explore the open web with Quantcast today and take your brand’s growth to new heights. Ga.Ma, a global leader in hair and beard care technology, adopted a multi-channel strategy to expand into the US that resulted in a 53% brand lift and 1.4x higher site visit rate.