Impressions on CTV: better user and advertiser experiences

With a spending increase of 57% in 2021 and a projected growth of 39% for 2022 to 21.2 billion USD, according to the IAB, half of the buyers are shifting budgets from Broadcast and Cable TV advertising toward Connected TV (CTV). Why are advertisers spending more on CTV? Mainly, it brings a better experience for both the consumer and the advertiser. 

Let’s dive right into the specifics. 

A better experience for the consumer

According to a Hubspot report, media consumption habits have been permanently changed so much that the definition of watching TV for GenZ and millennials now equates to watching video content via an online source. If you're looking to advertise, you're probably trying to make it as easy as possible for your customers. You want them to be able to find you when they need you and when they are more engaged. What would be better than to pair your brand with their favourite TV show they selected to watch at a particular moment of the day? It doesn’t get much better at audience engagement than that. In fact, when done right, Gen Z is more receptive to advertising messages than older generations.

Advertisers will also have access to HD formats shown on a big screen. In addition, ad placements, particularly HD video and non-skippable HD video, bought in real-time through OpenRTB will improve view-through rates and reduce ad waste. 

As user experience goes, it is important to mention how the CTV ads interact with the rest of the campaign. ‘TV sync’ has been a thing in the industry for a long time, where companies ‘manually’ synced traditional TV ads with a mobile campaign that was launched when the TV ad was rendering. Truth be told,  it was a game of second-guessing, as there was no certainty of which households had been impacted by the actual TV ads and the mobile campaigns were launched everywhere.

CTV advertising, when paired with the right technology like mediasmart’s Household sync, will improve the ability of the consumer to interact with the brand while allowing a seamless ad sequencing experience. Ads will be delivered in those households where we know a CTV ad has been served. The enhanced user experience, where a user doesn’t need to fumble up with searching the particular offer or the closest store, will unquestionably lift brand appreciation. 

A better experience for the advertiser

As CTV inventory is sold and bought programmatically, undoubtedly, it is easier for advertisers to buy impressions on larger screens. We can consider the days of exaggerated minimum budgets, lots of pre-planning and the need for a media agency long gone.

One of the main advantages of running CTV is the ability to measure results and, thus, the return on your investment. CTV advertising just like programmatic campaigns, also delivers real-time tracking, measurement and optimization, including an exact number of served impressions. Advertisers can also potentially measure and attribute conversions such as app downloads, eCommerce conversions, and store visits.

Although saturation is not high on CTV yet, programmatic buying frequency capping has become a reality for TV ads. You can now choose the number of times your particular ad will be shown on a specific device and avoid ad fatigue and negative feelings on the user. This means advertisers get greater flexibility, transparency and less ad wastage. Smarter uses of advertising budgets are here to stay! 

Buying on CTV opens the door to more sophisticated strategies. For example, not only can you identify and target particular devices, but you can also use tools to sync ads within the same household (the previously mentioned Household sync) and cross-screen audiences. 

In practice, the targeting audiences bit means that advertisers can target particular groups of users that share some characteristics by means of solutions like the IP-based audiences from our partner Digiseg. It can also mean reaching users identified on pre-existing mobile audiences by taking full advantage of mediasmart’s cross-screen audience capabilities. For instance, targeting users that physically visited your competitor’s store in the last week with a commercial on their Smart TV for a more significant brand impact is possible using mediasmart’s location-based audiences. 

On top of it all, you complement or sequence your ads within the same household using Household sync. As mentioned above, CTV advertising is more attractive by syncing CTV campaigns with ads on other connected devices up to 24h after serving the first impression, boosting brand impact. 

All in all, Connected TV brings the TV ad experience to a whole new level on all fronts. Not only is the experience better for the consumer, but it also allows tracking and measuring impressions and conversions, which can be broken down at a very granular level and attributed to particular devices. And as technologies evolve, it offers advanced and immersive customer engagement when paired with Household sync. 

You can check why you should buy CTV ads with mediasmart below:

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