How to do Connected TV Ads Right: A Guide for 2023 and beyond

From Seychelles to San Francisco, consumers are watching a lot more connected TV (CTV). We witnessed a startling increase in on-demand, curated content, particularly during the pandemic when people had nowhere to go and no access to entertainment. Between 2019 and 2020, CTV use increased by 81% year over year. CTV accounts for 50 percent of all worldwide video impressions. Nearly all US homes have a CTV, and most customers between the ages of 18 and 54 watch streamed content.

Connected tv ads

Connected TV ad campaigns are the new battle ground for brands and advertiser.

CTV is a natural fit for advertising in 2023 and beyond. It captures the mindshare of households like the good old days of unskippable TV ads. Connected TV ads offer immersive viewing and social experiences to screen-exhausted audiences. They address the large proportion of viewers who favour free, ad-supported content.

The stage is set. But if there were no difficulties, what fun would that be? Here we will talk about:

• The top two trends influencing the growth of smart TV advertisements
• The targeting and measurement challenges that must be overcome for marketers to maximise the effectiveness of their connected TV ad campaigns

Connected TV ads: Top trends and pain points in 2023 and beyond

Like any brand-new advertising platform, OTT ads have both great promise and drawbacks. Let’s dive right into it.

Trend 1: Privacy-first cookieless future will see brands flocking to CTV advertising

Don’t worry, we won't be discussing the demise of cookies and advertising here once again! OTT advertising has never been dependent on cookies. And that’s why CTV advertising is here to stay.

Google already made the cookie deprecation announcement, and it just extended this deadline to 2024. The writing is on the wall; future of advertising will be cookieless.

Marketers are under pressure to balance customer needs on privacy and personalisation simultaneously. They are looking for new platforms which will help addressing this. In 2023, the search for such platforms and solutions will reach its zenith, paving the way for even more rapid growth of CTV ads

CTV advertisements are cookieless by design, and this is exactly what will fuel their expansion. What's even better is that CTV ads provide marketers the ability to target families, which is essential in the cookie-less world.

CTV targeting roadblocks

To access streaming content, consumers first buy hardware (think Roku, Apple TV, X-Box, smart TV, Fire TV, etc.). Then, they download specific streaming apps. 

When marketers buy connected TV ad inventory, they know which streaming service they are buying from. But not which device their ads will be served on. This creates challenges in targeting and frequency capping. Repetitive ads annoy disengaged customers and there is ad wastage on those who has already purchased.

To consumers, CTV ads can often feel like the return to the era of linear TV's one-size-fits-all ads. CTV’s lack of integration with other digital platforms like social media also hampers retargeting efforts.

Tip for marketers: Choose the right identity solution to make the most of contextual connected TV ads

Addressing CTV campaigns, targeting and ad waste challenges requires identity solutions built for CTV's advertising capabilities. These solutions should have privacy, holistic customer data, and transparency at their core.

Bonus tip - To make the most of your CTV ad investments, look out for a CTV ad platform that:

• Partners with the most prominent apps and publishers to ensure a holistic inventory that delivers results
• Recommends targeted genres and specific content within the vast CTV inventory
• Provides platform-specific (traffic, time spent, engagement, top rated content etc.) and audience insights (life stage, lifestyle, location, demographics etc.) for a high-impact contextual ad plan 
• Offers custom audiences for retargeting even in the siloed media ecosystem

Request a demo for 9MO for a fresh, hyper-targeted approach to contextual advertising on CTV.

Trend 2: The looming recession will lead to conscious spending on smart TV ads

Fun fact - when the economy goes south, reduced advertising budgets are the quickest and easiest cost-cutting measure. 

It's simple - you will cut ad spending before laying off your people. Last recession, ad spends dropped by double digits. Of course, that was a time of linear, traditional advertising and ad measurability was an unknown concept. 

With ad tech's quantum leap in the last decade, advertisers may not completely stop their spending in the upcoming recession. But they will see increased pressure to prove high ROAS.

Though in nascent stages, CTV's programmatic approach and 90% ad completion rates due to unskippable ads make it a robust investment. 

However, there is room for improvements in measurability and attribution. CTV's lack of common currency, identifiers, and precision can pose challenges in proving ROI. It becomes a bigger problem during recession.

CTV measurement and attribution roadblocks

CTV advertisements are uncharted area in terms of measurement and attribution.

Vanity metrics do exist, but they don't provide actionable performance insights that mean business - like store visits and actual purchases. As we discussed earlier, brands also lose money in ad duplication.

CTV ad campaign measurement falls between the unmeasurable linear TV and the cookie- and identifier-led precise PC and mobile ad attribution. CTV is fragmented into many devices and lacks common identifiers.

Tip for marketers: Consolidate your connected TV ad measurement and attribution data

Finding the precise KPI for each campaign is the first step in enhancing CTV measurement. For brand awareness campaigns, the ad completion rate, for instance, serves as a suitable metric. However, actionable insights like visits to physical or online stores make more sense for performance marketing. But how do we get to these sharp metrics for OTT ad campaigns?

CTV Ads

Need of the hour for advertiser is to consolidate the data points in CTV measurement and attribution. Only in that way can campaign performance be accurately analysed, and precise metrics shown.

Bonus tip - Maximize and prove your CTV ad spend ROI by bringing on a measurement partner that:

• Provides quick, sharp, and layered insight on people, households, and devices, so you always know who saw your ad 
• Integrates with your most crucial CTV and digital channels, platforms, publishers, and networks for privacy-compliant performance data collaboration to optimize campaigns in real-time
• Allows you to control ad serving frequency and channel spend optimization to increase campaign reach wherever your clients are

Measure, optimize and prove the ROI of your CTV ads with ease and accuracy. Book a demo for 9MO.

What’s next for connected TV ads?

CTV is the next big thing for advertisers and marketers, especially those looking for new advertising solutions in the post-cookie world. 

But managing CTV ad investments sustainably and with ROAS means looking beyond the obvious. Advertisers must get a real time access on targeting, identity, and attribution. Performance oriented and privacy-compliant partners built for CTV can help with this. 

9MediaOnline.com is one such partner. With 9MO, global advertisers are pushing the envelope on CTV by:

• Accurately targeting individuals and households with people and device data consolidation 
• Measuring holistically through relevant integrations with digital-first environments
• Continuously optimizing their campaigns and channel spends to achieve up to 20% higher ROAS 
• Staying privacy-compliant with unique identifiers that protect personally identifiable information  

Switch to performance oriented and privacy-compliant partners for CTV advertising.

Book a Demo with 9MediaOnline