OTT Advertising vs. CTV Advertising: What’s the Difference?

As digital advertising continues to evolve, marketers are consistently presented with a wide variety of platforms and channels promising to increase brand awareness, improve engagement, and, ultimately, boost conversions efficiently. From traditional display ads to social media campaigns and beyond, the digital ad ecosystem is vast and varied.

Among these, Connected TV (CTV) and Over-The-Top (OTT) ad campaigns have emerged as powerful options in the ad space, offering unique opportunities to connect more impactfully with specific audiences, something traditional tv advertising struggled with.

Understanding how CTV and OTT ads fit into the bigger picture of your marketing strategy and how video advertising can support and enhance other ad campaigns is essential. Equally, recognizing their differences will help you leverage each for maximum impact.

Understanding OTT and CTV

At a high-level, think of OTT as the delivery method for video content and CTV as the specific device that allows viewers to watch that video content. Let’s explore each in more detail!

Over-The-Top (OTT) refers to the video content delivered directly to viewers over the internet without the need for traditional cable TV. When you hear the phrase “OTT,” it’s often about the OTT platforms or publishers that provide streaming services across OTT-enabled channels.

OTT publishers offer a variety of models for streaming services, including:

• Subscription video on demand (SVOD): Users pay a recurring fee (typically monthly or annually) to access a library of video content. Common streaming services that utilize an SVOD model include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu.
• Ad supported video on demand (AVOD): Users don’t pay any subscription fees, however, they’re required to watch video ads sprinkled throughout their video content, as this is how the platform offsets the cost of delivering free video content. Common streaming services that utilize an AVOD model include YouTube, Tubi, and the free versions of Peacock and Hulu.
• Transactional video on demand (TVOD): Users pay for each piece of video content individually, either to rent for a set amount of time or to purchase and maintain access permanently. This is common for new movie releases, special sports events, or any content where pay-per-view (PPV) is applicable. Common streaming services that utilize a TVOD model include iTunes, Google Play Movies & TV, and Amazon’s rental service.

Connected TV (CTV) refers to the internet-connected device viewers use to watch video content on demand.

Common CTV devices include:

• Smart TVs: Including Samsung, Sony, or LG
• Streaming sticks: Including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Google Chromecast
• Gaming consoles: Including Xbox or Playstation

Through a smart TV or a TV paired with a streaming device (i.e., a streaming stick or gaming console), CTV and OTT services provide viewers access to extensive libraries of TV shows and other video content through streaming platforms like Hulu and Disney+, bypassing traditional cable and broadcast television.

4 Key Differences Between OTT and CTV

For most OTT services, the majority of video content viewing takes place on a TV screen, making it CTV, too. This is part of the reason the two terms are used interchangeably. Let’s set this aside and look at OTT and CTV objectively. Here are 4 key differences between them.

1. Viewer Profiles

CTV and OTT platforms tend to attract different demographic profiles. CTV users are typically cord-cutters (individuals who canceled their cable plan and switched to streaming services), or families or couples watching video content together, seeking a traditional TV experience with the added benefits of on-demand content.

In contrast, OTT viewers are more diverse and often prefer streaming video content on smartphones or iPads, leading to a more individualized viewing experience.

2. Targeting Capabilities

Both CTV and OTT campaigns have access to advanced targeting capabilities, allowing you to deliver personalized ads to audience segments most likely to convert.

The primary difference is that OTT ads target video content across many devices, including mobile devices, computers, or CTVs, while CTV ads will only display on TVs.

3. Ad Types

Typically, CTV ads lean toward a more traditional TV-like experience, so longer-form ads (30 or 60 seconds) are most effective. You can also choose between skippable or unskippable ads.

On the other hand, when running ads across OTT platforms, there is a wide range of OTT ad types, which makes sense given the variety of streaming devices your ad may appear on. Common types of OTT video ads include:

• Pre-roll ads: These are short ads that appear before the content begins. They are usually 15-30 seconds long.
• Mid-roll ads: These ads appear in the middle of the content, usually after a certain amount of time has passed. They tend to display longer than pre-roll ads and can range from 30 seconds to several minutes.
• Post-roll ads: These ads appear once the main content has ended. Like mid-roll ads, they can range from 30 seconds to several minutes.

4. Measurement and Analytics

Both CTV and OTT platforms offer comprehensive measurement capabilities, such as viewability metrics, conversion rates, audience insights, and more; however, the extent of the available data can vary.

In the case of OTT advertising, available data is dependent on the publishers’ decision to share certain metrics (and whether or not they possess the necessary tools to track the data accurately). For CTV, it depends on the DSP (demand-side platform) or the streaming platform your ads are running on.

How to Incorporate CTV and OTT Ads into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Assess your existing ad campaigns: In our opinion, CTV and OTT advertisements perform 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 these ads might be able to help fill, such as generating additional brand awareness, retargeting past purchasers, or helping promote a new product launch or service offering.

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

Questions to consider are: 

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

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

Choosing a CTV or OTT advertising platform: With your goals identified, it’s time to focus on which platform best fits your needs. You can buy ads directly through streaming service providers, like HBO Max, but you will be restricted to the streaming provider’s video content. For access to a larger library of streaming content, platforms like Tatari make it easy 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 which platform aligns best with your campaign goals. As we shared earlier, some CTV and OTT platforms offer different capabilities and features that can impact the effectiveness of your campaign. Make sure you read up on the specifics of the platform you’re considering.

Decide on an 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.

Remember, CTV and OTT platforms have different ad types—30 to 60-second ads are the most common for CTV, whereas pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads are most common for OTT content—so pick one that best suits your overall message and goals, but keep your audience in mind.

And if you decide to run OTT ads, ensure your OTT content is suitable for screens of all sizes!

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

• Interest-based targeting: Connect with your target audience through their hobbies, passions, entertainment preferences, and more
• Look-alike-modeling: Broaden your audience by creating custom look-alike segments that reflect your best customers
• Geolocation targeting: Reach specific audiences within a predefined location

• Retargeting: Re-engage potential customers who have already visited your website but left before making a purchase or qualifying conversion

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

Measure, optimize, repeat: The ability to measure the effectiveness of your ad campaign is one of modern TV advertising’s most significant advantages. Utilizing the analytics provided by your OTT or CTV platform, you can track various metrics, such as viewership numbers, engagement rates, and more. We’ve run our fair share of OTT and 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.

The Future of TV Advertising

From deciding between OTT and TV ads to picking the perfect ad type, precisely defining your target audience, and continuously optimizing campaigns for the best performance, there are many key decisions to make. But they’re much more manageable with an experienced advertising partner by your side.

Luckily, Socium Media is a performance marketing agency specializing in creating and managing OTT and CTV campaigns that resonate with audiences and deliver measurable results.

What might the benefits of OTT advertising or CTV campaigns be for a business like yours? We’d love to connect, learn about your goals, and help you find out.