Connected TV has opened the door to massive opportunities for advertisers of all sizes looking to maximize their video assets. Let’s take a deeper dive into four compelling reasons you should consider partnering with Performance CTV to drive real value from the channel.
It's simple economics, the reason that staggering amounts of advertising dollars are invested in TV commercials each year is because it works. Unlike other media formats, video is in a class of its own when it comes to grabbing attention and evoking emotion, which leads to a greater connection between the advertiser and audience. TV screens are the largest screen in peoples homes, and represent more than just a device - it’s where people gather together to unwind and make memories.
We’re interested in building and delivering on CTV campaigns that perform well and drive real value for our clients. Here are some important performance metrics to consider when vetting out potential CTV agency partners.
Business Model: First, although basic, it’s important to understand how the media/inventory is being purchased for your campaign. CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) is the most effective and common model across the industry, although some platforms/vendors may offer a CPV (cost per view) model.
That being said, the best vendors will offer a dCPM (dynamic CPM), rather than a fixed CPM. The benefit to a dynamic CPM is that you set the cap (on the high end) for how much you’re willing to pay for each 1,000 impressions. If, as the campaign is running in real-time, there is inventory available for less than your max CPM bid you will be able to buy inventory at the lower amount, effectively stretching your ad dollars to the max.
ROAS (return on ad spend): The holy grail and the ultimate end goal by advertisers investing in any marketing channel. This is simply calculated by dividing the revenue driven from the campaign by the total dollar amount spent on the campaign.
CPA (cost per action): A major benefit of investing in a Connected TV campaign is the large number of actions you desire the audience to take. These actions can range from a simple phone call, to scanning a QR code to add items to a cart or download an app on a mobile device.
Conversion Rates: As previously stated, the term conversion rates could be defined a number of different ways relative to the advertisers goals. Clicks and website/page views generated from the campaign are great metrics to take into account to calculate the conversion rate.
CPCV (cost per completed view): Admittedly, this metric isn’t the most meaty metric by any means. That being said, the majority of available CTV inventory is non skippable, which assures advertisers that the audience is viewing the entire video, rather than a 5-6 second snippet.
The TV screen will always be invaluable for branding, but as the digital and technological landscape continues to develop for CTV, we’re placing our bet that Interactive ad formats will quickly become the standard for Connected TV campaigns. The shift to Interactive ad formats in effect transforms TV into a Performance and/or Direct Response digital marketing channel that advertisers of all sizes can benefit from.
QR Codes: If you watch TV in any form, rest assured you’ve noticed that most commercials are starting to include a QR code which the audience can scan using their mobile phone (most common) or tablet camera.
Galleries & Hotspots: Whether it be a Roku remote or gaming console controller, the inclusion of these devices has created the opportunity for the audience to literally engage and interact with the content displayed on the TV screen. From pointing and clicking the remote to choose their desired experience, to clicking through arrows to consume additional, more personalized content, this level of interaction will create more meaningful experiences and further engage audiences.
Location Based/Dynamic Content: Once again, the digital nature of Connected TV has created the ability for advertisers to serve dynamic content to targeted audiences relative to their location. For example, Mike’s Tire Shop serves a dynamic ad to residents in the city of Denver, CO., which displays the addresses to Mike’s Tire Shop locations in Denver once the audience engages.
To be clear, Connected TV performs incredibly well as a stand alone tactic. In fact, the vast majority of advertisers investing in CTV campaigns aren’t blending in additional tactics at all. The benefits of advanced audience targeting and real-time reporting/analytics already place Connected TV much further down the marketing funnel when compared to Traditional or Linear TV campaigns.
That being said, thanks to the digital flexibility of the channel there is the massive opportunity to craft a campaign strategy which includes multiple tactics all in an effort to better influence the audience all the way to conversion. Here are a few tactics to highlight to compliment your CTV campaign.
Retargeting: Retargeting (website visitors) is incredibly versatile. Most commonly, advertisers use retargeting to build the target audience in which to serve ads to, which has proven to be an incredibly effective tactic. CTV takes this a step further by allowing advertisers to build an audience based on users who visited their website or took an action specifically from the CTV campaign. This allows the opportunity to serve said audience with additional ads, across additional devices, all with a seamless creative experience.
Display: Similar to retargeting, layering in display ads to a CTV campaign allows the advertiser to target the audience with additional ads, across additional devices with a seamless creative experience increasing the number of touchpoints.
Due to the current slowdown in the economy, it’s even more vital that advertisers are careful with the channels they invest marketing dollars into and vendors they choose to partner with. Connected TV will continue to emerge as a leading performance marketing channel as marketing budgets shift away from less direct response type strategies. In our opinion there has never been a better time to test the waters and get ahead of your competition by adding Connected TV to your marketing mix.