What is Connected TV (CTV) Advertising?

With extensive libraries of video content to choose from, unrestricted availability, and considerable savings, more and more people are turning to streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix to watch their favorite shows and movies. It’s easy to see why traditional cable TV is struggling to keep up. As a result of these behavioral shifts, TV advertising is evolving, too, with Connected TV (CTV advertising) on the rise.

What is CTV advertising?

Connected TV (CTV) advertising refers to video ads delivered on internet-connected televisions (smart TVs). A connected TV lets viewers watch TV shows and other video content on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix. Similarly, connected devices, such as Roku or Amazon Fire Stick, provide the same access.

While you may hear the terms “CTV” and “OTT” (over-the-top) used interchangeably, they have unique roles. OTT encompasses all digital streaming viewership (including TV, gaming consoles, and smartphones), while “CTV” refers to viewership that occurs on a smart TV.

4 Main Benefits of CTV Advertising

Precise targeting: Unlike traditional linear TV ads, which rely on scheduled programming to target a broad audience through satellite or cable, CTV advertising excels in advanced targeting capabilities. In addition to demographic traits like age or income, you can target specific audiences based on geographic location, behavioral habits and preferences, interests, first-party data, and more. This level of granularity ensures your digital marketing efforts and ad spend aren’t wasted on uninterested audiences, maximizing the impact and efficiency of each CTV ad shown.

Increased viewer engagement:  CTV ads are incredibly effective at capturing and holding viewer attention, especially since most ads are unskippable. Unlike traditional TV, where viewers might scan through channels or tune out during commercial breaks, CTV ads are integrated into the viewing experience in a way that feels seamless and less intrusive, leading to higher engagement and video completion rates. The increased focus on relevant, timely ads tailored to your target audience’s preferences and habits makes CTV advertising a strong tool for maintaining audience interest and boosting brand awareness and ad recall.

Enhanced brand authority: When an advertisement appears on the big screen of a smart TV, it benefits from the higher quality and larger format, but it also leaves a lasting impression. Appearing on what is often the centerpiece of the living room elevates the brand’s perception, giving it a greater sense of significance and reliability. For brands, appearing in the same context as popular TV shows and premium streaming content can help them look more established, enhance credibility, and positively influence consumer perception. 

Measurable impact and attribution: Unlike traditional TV advertising, where measuring the performance of an ad campaign can be challenging, CTV advertising platforms provide detailed metrics. While available metrics vary based on the goals and objectives of your campaigns, common KPIs include:

• Reach: how many unique viewers saw your ad
• Engagement: how viewers interacted with your ad, measured through metrics like video completion rate (VCR)
• Viewability: what percentage of impressions watched at least 50% of your ad
• Conversions: how many viewers took the desired action of your ad, as indicated by a tracking pixel, dedicated landing page, or other pre-set action

This data allows you to gauge the ROI of each ad, adjust campaigns, and optimize strategies in a data-driven manner. The accountability aspect guarantees you’re not just spending money on connected TV ads but investing in campaigns that deliver quantifiable results, making CTV a transparent option in your digital advertising budget.

Steps to Incorporate CTV Campaigns Into Your Marketing Strategy

Assess your existing ad campaigns: In our opinion, CTV isn’t a standalone tactic—it performs best when complimented by additional advertising strategies and initiatives, such as Paid Social and Paid Search campaigns. For this reason, we recommend going through your existing campaigns and looking for areas of opportunities that CTV ads might be able to help fill, such as retargeting past purchasers or helping promote a new product launch or service offering.

Identify your goals: After you’ve identified CTV campaigns as the right fit, it’s important to identify your goals. 

Questions to consider include: 

• Who do you want to reach? 
• What action do you want your audience to take? 
• How will this CTV advertising campaign work with your other marketing efforts? 

Your answers will help create measurable goals to monitor your campaign performance against.

Choosing a CTV advertising platform: With your goals identified, it’s time to focus on which platform best fits your needs. When it comes to buying your ads, you can buy ads directly through streaming service providers, like Disney+, for example, but you will be restricted to the streaming provider’s video content. For a wider inventory of streaming content, platforms like Tatari make it easy for you to run ads on any app or streaming device.

In addition to specifying how you’d like to buy your ads, you’ll also need to identify how each platform aligns with your campaign goals. Different platforms offer distinct capabilities and features that can significantly impact the effectiveness of your campaign. These might include advanced targeting options, detailed performance analytics, and various ad format or placement offerings. The right CTV advertising platform can be the difference between reaching your goals and wasting ad spend, so take your time on this step!

Decide on a CTV ad type and create the ad: The success of your campaign depends on many factors, especially the ad type. Depending on your goals, you might opt for shorter, punchier video content to generate quick interest or something longer and narrative-driven to build deeper brand connections. Once you’ve decided on the ad type, you’ll need to craft a compelling message that resonates with viewers and stands out.

Define the target audience and launch your campaign: With so many advanced targeting capabilities, you can narrow your audience to very specific segments, ensuring your ad reaches the viewers most likely to engage and convert. Some common targeting tactics include:

• First-party data: Leverage your CRM to deliver ads that are finely tuned to the preferences of your existing contacts 
• Look-alike-modeling: Broaden your audience by creating custom look-alike profiles that mirror your best customers
• Automatic content recognition (ACR) targeting: Reach specific households based on their TV viewing habits and interests
• Smart audience contextual: Engage potential customers who are already interested in your products or services by targeting users based on online activity, including website visits and search queries

Once you have defined your target audience, it’s time to launch your CTV ad on your chosen platform.

Measure, optimize, repeat: The ability to measure the effectiveness of your ad campaign is one of CTV’s most significant advantages. Utilizing the analytics provided by CTV platforms, you can track various metrics, such as viewership numbers, engagement rates, and more. We’ve run our fair share of CTV campaigns and have found that platform metrics provide a great surface-level view but can sometimes fall short in accuracy. Because of this, consider tracking the halo effect of your campaigns by monitoring brand search impressions, analyzing revenue trends during the period the ads were active, and measuring changes in retargeting pool sizes. This is a great way to gauge campaign effectiveness accurately.

Whichever process you choose to take, the data from your campaigns is invaluable for understanding what’s working and identifying areas of improvement. As with any digital marketing ad, it’s important not to exercise a “set it and forget it” mentality, so based on these insights, it’s critical to optimize your ads further—tweaking messages, adjusting targeting, or even reallocating budget to higher-performing segments.

Looking to the Future

The shift from traditional cable to CTV devices has given advertisers more opportunities to engage their buyers exactly where they are. With its ability to target precisely, engage viewers effectively, and measure impact accurately, CTV ads represent how flexible advertisers must be to connect with their target audiences.

Navigating the complexities of CTV campaigns, from selecting the right platform and ad type to defining your audience and optimizing performance, is easier with an advertising partner who has the expertise to help you succeed with CTV advertising from start to finish.

Luckily, Socium Media is a performance marketing agency specializing in creating and managing CTV campaigns that resonate with audiences and deliver measurable results. Wondering if CTV advertising works for a business like yours? We’d love to connect, learn about your goals, and see if our CTV ad services could be a good fit.