What Are Connected TV Ads?

With digital marketing always changing, being accustomed to the popular ways on how to connect with customers is very important. The one way we are going to focus on today is Connected TV Ads. Connected TV Ads are ones that can be listed on any device or TV that is connected to the internet and can access video streaming content more than what a regular cable provider can offer. These types of ads are ads that can be seen on Amazon Fire, gaming devices like Xbox and PlayStation, smart TVs, etc. Typically, they consist of a variety of different types of ads that have a combination of both video and non-video components.  Many platforms are combining both TV experiences with web experiences in seeing ads.

Why Connected TV Ads?

1. Large Reachable Market

The opportunity to connect with a larger mass of people is more plausible than in other markets BUT highly targeted as we will show below. Researchers are suggesting that about 80% of households in the United States have at least one connected TV. Connected TV advertising is one of the fastest-growing marketing channels in the digital marketing world. Investment in this advertising rose by 20% in 2020 for the United States, with the spending being over $9 billion. You also have your potential client’s attention with often a 98% view to completion rate, meaning they watch 98% of the video you present.  That allows you to ensure your target message is heard.

2. Millions of  Data Points for Targeting

Targeting potential customers is more accessible because of first-party data. This type of data gives you a broad range of information to choose from in order to market your content the way you want to. This data is collected with 1,000 of data partners.

• Categories such as news in general or “Home and Garden”
• Business and Industry such as the size of the company, age, sales, and occupation.
• Typical Demographic info like gender, age, ethnicity, education, marital status, income, net worth, household type, and ownership.
• Interest such as Beauty, DIY, and 100’s more.
• Lifestyle targeting such as luxury living, healthy living, and much more.
• Online Activities such as browsing blogs, social media, frequent clickers, and more.
• Past Purchasers by category like apparel, travel, and more.
• Location targeting down to the zip code.
• Re-Targeting with a device ID located inside of connected TVs.
• Lookalike audiences to uploaded audiences.
• Amazon retargeting; to your shopping cart behavior on Amazon.
• Sequential retargeting; you saw this connected TV ad so now we are going to show you this ad.
• Encore targeting; make sure you see a video so many times within a given period.
• Competitors targeting; target people who have seen your competitor’s connected TV ads.
• Divide impressions between small and large screens. The small screens being phones, tablets, and laptops, perhaps a young generation, and a large screen such as your smart TV.

3. Location of Ads

Quite simply put your ads are going to be placed in 1,000 premium places such as these networks below and targeting by types of content such as news channels, vs. HGTV, Sports channels, and more!

4. Real-Time Metrics

Real-time data is available to analyze and interpret. Information such as impressions, views, device type, geo-heatmap, video engagement, etc. will all be influential to interpret when trying to accomplish your Connected TV Ads goals. Not only can you use this information to help your next step, but you can also utilize this data to see what went wrong and see if there are other segments of people that you should be targeting.

5. Get Your Pennies Worth

The previous point leads us into our next one, which is that every cent will get its worth in your budget while advertising on Connected TV Ads. Since you get to select who you want to target, you are guaranteed that your money spent will be on those that you are trying to attract. This is the opposite of traditional TV. With traditional TV, your ad will get played with hopes it is reaching your intended audience. On Connected TV, you get to review the options and data in order to operate more effectively.

6. Interactive Call-To-Action

Connected TV Ads make it easier to interact with ads than traditional TV advertising. Usually, with traditional TV advertising, they want to lead viewers to make a phone call or view their website. Connected TV Ads contain a button that is clickable, allowing people to complete the desired action. That could be a sign-up for something, visiting a landing page, purchasing something, etc. Whatever you want your next step to be, it should be clear and the following link should be responsive.

7. A Better Chance Your Ad Will Be Seen

Connected TV Ads usually occur during or before the programming, and most are not skippable.  This means that the person watching has to watch the entire length of your video in order to continue what they were watching. Whether they decide to watch or take a break, there is a higher chance that they will watch your content through or at least catch a snippet of it. Also, there is a decent chance that whoever is watching a show is watching it with friends or family, so even more people will view your ad!

8. Test Different Ad Formats

Listed below are the different ad types that we are able to experiment with. This lets you compare different ads and see how they perform, allowing you to identify what ads are most and least successful.

The Different Ad Types Are:

• In-Stream Ads: The ad is shown at any point of viewing with a short and memorable message.
• Pre-Roll Video Ads: These ads are catchy and are shown prior to the main content. They tend to focus on increasing brand awareness and sales.
• Mid-Roll Video Ads: This is one that many viewers do not enjoy as it is shown during the main content.
• Post-Roll Video Ads: Shown after the main content and does not negatively affect the viewer’s experience, which makes them more likely to complete the action of the ad.
• Pause Video Ads: This type of ad does not interrupt the viewer’s experience, the ad is shown once the viewer pauses the content.

Wrap-Up

Incorporating Connected TV Ads into your omnichannel marketing will be vital because it can help improve other digital marketing campaigns. For example, it can help with paid search campaigns. Once your Connected TV Ad is displayed, the viewer can research your business’s services or products on the internet, and they will be more likely to purchase from you because they have already seen your brand.

There are multiple benefits of including this form of advertising; it is cost-effective, reaches a larger audience, real-time data is collected, etc. There are platforms available to help kickstart your Connected TV Ads campaigns. Remember, it does not matter the size of your company, anyone can use this form of marketing.