Over the last few years, Connected TV has increasingly absorbed more advertiser mindshare as a performance marketing platform. As more streaming services and viewers embrace ads, and as the platform’s targeting and measurement capabilities continue to evolve, CTV is at the focal point of advertisers’ omnichannel marketing mix.
A 2023 poll by Digiday reflected just how crucial CTV advertising has become for marketers everywhere. Of the respondents who said that CTV part of their marketing strategies, a combined 76% said it was either moderately or very significant to their advertising campaigns. That's a big number!
And, investment in CTV advertising is not slowing down either. By 2028, CTV ad spend will exceed a whopping $42 billion. As we head into 2024, the evolution of Connected TV will no doubt shape the future of digital advertising.
In this blog post, we will outline the top 5 considerations to keep in mind when picking the right CTV partner to help you achieve growth for your business.
Top Reasons Why Connected TV Advertising will Boom in 2024
This continued growth in Connected TV is driven by three key factors: the surging popularity of CTV, precise targeting capabilities, cost-effectiveness and real time reporting.
Popularity of CTV Advertising
The growth of CTV has been nothing short of extraordinary, as audiences worldwide increasingly embrace this innovative form of media consumption. This year, the number of CTV users in the US is expected to increase from 230 million to 234.1 million. Plus, 98% of U.S. households and 110 million Gen Z and Millennials are now CTV users.
CTV's rise in popularity can be attributed to changing viewership patterns and consumer preferences. Traditional linear TV is no longer the dominant force it once was, as viewers increasingly opt for on-demand and personalized content experiences. CTV platforms offer a vast array of video streaming service options, including subscription-based models (e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime Video) and ad-supported platforms (e.g., Hulu, Peacock), allowing viewers to access content anytime, anywhere.
Precise Targeting Capabilities
Connected TV offers exceptional targeting precision compared to traditional advertising channels. With the ability to zero in on audiences by demographic, geographic, behavioral, interest-based profiles, and more, advertisers can craft campaigns with laser focus.
With CTV advertising, marketers can also leverage first-party data to refine their targeting, ensuring ads reach the right audience. The platform provides a diverse set of targeting options, including retargeting, lookalike audiences, contextual targeting, geolocation, and time-of-day targeting.
Cost-Effectiveness
CTV advertising is a cost-effective option for brands and advertisers. Unlike traditional TV advertising, CTV allows you to reach your target audience on the big screen without the hefty price tag. CTV offers flexibility in pricing structures, such as cost per metric or cost per view, making it more affordable to reach your desired audience.
Compared to other channels like web or a single device, CTV offers lower impression costs. This is because CTV users often stream content in the company of others, which leads to more views per ad. As a result, advertisers can benefit from reduced impression costs and maximize the value of their ad spend.
Overall, CTV advertising provides a cost-effective solution for brands and advertisers to reach their target audience on the big screen, while also offering lower impression costs compared to other channels.
Real Time Reporting
CTV advertising provides real-time reporting that is a significant advantage over traditional TV ads, where advertisers have to wait at least one month to receive insights about their campaign’s performance. In the case of Connected TV the data is available in real-time. This means advertisers can access data and metrics about their ad campaigns anytime they want.
This immediate access to real-time reporting allows advertisers to make timely adjustments and optimize their campaigns for better results. With this level of control and visibility, advertisers can effectively track and measure the effectiveness of their CTV advertising campaigns in real-time, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and maximize their ROI.
How to Pick the Right CTV Advertising Platform
Now that we have an understanding of where CTV advertising is headed in 2024, let's discuss just how to pick the right Connected TV partner to accelerate your KPIs and achieve your business goals.
Here are the top 5 things to keep in mind when considering a CTV data partner:
Do They Analyze Video at the Content Level?
Advertisers have seen or experienced the cost of neglecting brand safety and suitability standards across the board, and these challenges can extend to CTV. To give advertisers more transparency and control over the CTV environments in which their ads play, you must confirm how your CTV provider analyzes video content.
Most CTV advertisers today use brand safety providers that analyze metadata—often consisting of simple or generic descriptions of CTV video, titles, etc.—to determine their safety level. But, to gain a complete understanding of a video’s suitability for any ad placement, we must go beyond metadata to analyze the full content of a video to assess if it’s safe or not.
Imagine this: You’re a vacation rental company looking to connect with new customers via CTV. You work with a CTV partner who places your ads against a video titled, “Man in Hotel Room.” But in reality, your ad appears next to a video of a thief breaking into a hotel room. The CTV environment you believed to be safe is actually unsuitable and damaging to your brand.
This proves that advertisers cannot rely on metadata alone. While most providers only have analysis at the property-level, meaning they focus on a video’s metadata, GumGum's contextual intelligence engine, Verity™ conducts a frame-by-frame analysis of the video, audio, images and text of CTV content down to the second, helping clients avoid placing ads within unsuitable video content.
Are They Serving Premium and Professionally Produced Content?
It's crucial to identify exactly what type of content will accompany your CTV ads. Premium and professionally produced content is more effective at attracting audiences and keeping their attention, thus, your ads are more likely to be seen and engaged with.
CTV ads can run on a wide range of platforms, including streaming services, smart TV apps, and even on-demand video platforms.
- Streaming services like Peacock TV, Hulu, and Disney+
- Smart TV apps like YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC
- On-demand video platforms like Vudu, Sling TV, and Pluto TV
- Gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation
When picking a CTV advertising provider, it is crucial to note which type of content is being served through which Connected TV platform in order to determine if its high quality and has the ability to attract audience attention.
Which Metrics Do They Report?
When picking a CTV partner, it is important to know exactly which metrics will appear in your campaign dashboard. These questions will help you learn more about this OTT advertising platform’s transparency and reporting.
- Is the reporting in real-time, or do I have to wait until reports are created by the vendor?
- Do I get Reach and Frequency metrics throughout the campaign?
- Do I get impression-level reporting for auditing purposes?
- Do I have complete impression-level transparency on my placements and what streaming apps I am running on?
How are These Devices Being Served?
Connected TV advertising offers remarkable versatility, enabling marketers to conduct experiments with various ad formats such as static, animated, and interactive video advertisements.
This flexibility allows for an exploration of what drives optimal consumer engagement and conversions. With CTV advertising, you have the ability to optimize your ads for different platforms.
Whether it's a static ad displayed on a home page, an interactive pre-roll, or a non-skippable in-stream video ad, you can tailor your approach to suit the specific platform and audience.
When it comes to advertising on CTV advertising platforms, there are a few different options available. Some popular options include:
- Pre-roll ads: These are ads that run before a video starts.
- Mid-roll ads: These are ads that run during a video, usually at natural breaks in the content.
- Bumper ads: These are short, non-skippable ads that run before, during, or after a video.
Is Their Technology Third-Party Verified and Brand-Safe?
It is important to make sure your CTV provider’s brand safety expertise is tested and vetted by a credible third party. This will help you protect your ad messaging online, avoid any future mishaps that may threaten brand reputation and enable you to unlock suitable CTV inventory to drive meaningful results for your campaigns.
GumGum’s contextual intelligence engine, Verity™ is the first to receive an accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) for content-level analysis for brand safety, suitability and contextual analysis within CTV environments. This expands on Verity™’s previous accreditation across desktop and mobile web environments.
GumGum's Proven CTV Advertising Success
GumGum recently partnered with the powerful video platform IRIS.TV to drive video performance for a jewelry company.
GumGum Verity™ and IRIS.TV worked together to drive a strong VCR metric by utilizing Verity™ Video PMPs to target contextually relevant videos related to fashion, parenting, shopping and more. In addition to targeting these IAB contexts, the Verity™ team created a custom Mother’s Day segment for this advertiser.
Results:
Together, GumGum and IRIS.TV exceeded the client’s goal, generating a VCR of 98.54%.
The Verity™ Video PMP campaign also outperformed the advertiser’s two other CTV providers, achieving a higher VCR than both and a lower CPM than one.
