Ways to Elevate Your Brand On Connected TV

Marketers have been hearing a lot about Connected TV (CTV) lately, and for good reason. The growth of streaming and cord-cutting has been accelerated by the pandemic, giving advertisers ample opportunity to reach their customers where they are spending the most time.

So what are CTV ads exactly? They are ads that allow brands to reach audiences on streaming devices such as video channels and most commonly, the largest screen in the room. Like other programmatic formats, CTV ads let you leverage data to refine your targeting strategy with digital precision. 

For maximum effectiveness, it’s important to partner with a multichannel platform for ad buying to execute full-funnel campaigns. With a channel as broad as CTV, platforms like The Trade Desk allow advertisers to reach their targeted audience with ease. As the TV landscape continues to change, we dive deeper into how leveraging precision targeting on this evolving platform can improve brand awareness and drive conversions across devices.

Focus On Audience Targeting 

In the golden age of linear TV advertising, advertisers would think in terms of channels or events. When buying ad space, brands would have to determine which shows or live events would have the largest audience of potential customers. With CTV the “channel first” mindset is no longer a focus. 

Digital shifted the mind set to focus on buying audiences and being there on the viewer’s schedule. Once you can narrow down who you want to reach, serving platforms can determine exactly what and when those users are streaming, taking the guesswork out of identifying which of the thousands of programs and platforms your buyers are watching. This is becoming increasingly important as the size and scope of CTV continues to grow. 

Reaching these audiences relies on the data, particularly first-party data. From past page visitors to former buyers, this information can help identify your existing audience and can target them effectively. You can then take this data a step further through look-a-like modeling, which determines the characteristics of your high-performing audience and finds similar users and households to target. 

CTV advertising can also find new prospects through third-party targeting. By outlining new target demographics and behavior traits, a brand can expand their reach or launch new products or services.

Bid Management and Retargeting 

Accurate bidding can also improve your CTV ad campaigns. It’s not only important to reach the right audiences, but do so at the right times and at the appropriate frequencies. Studies show that excessive ad frequency can actually have the opposite effect. Buyers that were shown an ad six to 10 times are actually 4.4% less likely to make a purchase than the buyer who only saw the ad two to five times. 

With repeated ads having a lesser impact on conversions, it’s crucial that brands retarget strategically. If your first or second ad is significantly more valuable than the fifth, you shouldn’t be paying the same amount. Optimize ad cadence by decreasing the max bid incrementally for every ad a user is shown. Campaigns should be set up to bid less aggressively on targeting viewers with a larger time gap between ads who have a lower propensity to purchase. Bid allocations can be modified based on when top converters are most likely to be viewing your ad and can help ensure you’re retargeting throughout the day to get in front of cart abandonment – and at a granular impression level. 

Expanding Reach Across Channels

Not only can CTV ads effectively retarget on the platform, this same data can be carried over to send ads out across other channels. From display to pre-roll video to native ads, you can take your brand’s message further with second screen retargeting, following up with a sequential ad to drive action. 

With shorter attention spans and mobile devices always in reach, audiences are multitasking during their streaming time. Over 70% of streaming TV viewers say they use a mobile device to look up a product they see related to the ads or content they are watching. Second screen ad capabilities improve the ability to follow up on an ad by 75%.  

Essentially, second-screen viewing means TV is no longer a solitary experience. People watch, then comment and share on social feeds with friends and strangers to discuss what’s happening. Or, they look for products seen either on the show or during the ads, trying to gather more details to consider completing a purchase.