This post was produced in partnership with MNTN, a Connected TV advertising platform optimized for direct-response marketing goals.
It’s no secret that an increasing number of people are “breaking up” with their cable TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services. This mass transition from linear to Connected TV (CTV) poses a huge opportunity for brands and the agencies who represent them, to reach new and existing customers on their favorite streaming platforms. If you’re new to the TV space, however, diving into CTV can feel overwhelming.
Don’t stress—success with CTV advertising is easier than you think. By utilizing CTV as a performance marketing channel, brands across a wide variety of industries can advertise on TV with full control over their campaigns and the accompanying results. Let’s take a look at how to maximize your CTV advertising efforts.
Lead With a Performance Mindset
Think of CTV as TV advertising with a digital backbone, with a set up akin to any social or display campaigns. CTV allows advertisers to:
- Target audiences with precision
- Have access to detailed campaign data
Because of this, it’s important to approach every CTV ad campaign with a performance mindset and to always consider the impact each campaign will have on the full marketing funnel. Fortunately, CTV advertising provides the tools and insights you’ll need to do just this.
Precision Audience Targeting
A key benefit of advertising on CTV is its audience targeting capabilities. MNTN Performance TV takes this one step further with its Oracle Data Cloud integration, which gives advertisers access to over 80,000+ audience segments—from “typical” demographics (age, location, etc.) to psychographic targeting via consumer interest or behavior. For example, if you’re an apparel retailer specializing in athleisure wear, you could target CTV viewers who recently purchased athleisure items or who like brands similar to yours. Similarly, you can also leverage your own first-party customer data and target users who previously visited your website, or previously converted (among others).
Detailed Campaign Data
This accurate audience targeting provides advertisers with comprehensive campaign data that wouldn’t be possible with linear TV. Platforms like MNTN Performance TV help brands to closely track their CTV ad campaigns and view detailed reporting via customizable dashboards. Unlike linear TV, which mainly tracks vanity metrics like impressions, CTV does double-duty by also reporting on bottom-line metrics that matter most to your clients, like revenue, return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per acquisition (CPA), conversion rates and more. This data can help you to understand which networks are driving the most performance and what types of content your ideal audience is most engaged with—ultimately providing you with actionable insights to guide your overall marketing efforts.
To get the full picture of your campaign results, we recommend pairing in-platform reporting suite data with a third-party platform like Google Analytics. Doing so will allow you to view CTV ad campaign performance alongside your other marketing channels and paint a holistic picture of the overall health of your marketing strategy.
Outcome-Focused Campaigns
The combination of precision audience targeting and detailed campaign data allows you to run campaigns that generate conversions and revenue across the entire customer funnel. No matter what your advertising objective is (reaching new audiences, building brand loyalty, increasing conversion rates), you can easily launch campaigns with outcome-focused goals (site visits, ROAS, eCPA) that are fully measurable and will move the needle.
For instance, both prospecting and retargeting campaigns have proven to be effective on CTV. While each type of campaign offers its own benefits, combining these types of campaigns yield stronger results—MNTN users who ran both types of campaigns saw a 34% increase in ROAS.
Inventory—it’s Kind of a Big Deal
In order to uphold a positive brand image, your ads need to be paired with the best content available. The CTV inventory landscape has a lot of great content…and a lot of bad. Because of this, it’s paramount to ensure your ad buys are only being served on top-tier streaming networks and apps.
“In our experience, there’s a lot of CTV inventory that relies on TV OEM-streaming channels that don’t get a lot of exposure, internet-based channels that are unreliable and mobile placements that seem like rebranded programmatic display buys with video,” says MNTN agency partner Lever Interactive. “To ensure our clients are getting the best possible results from CTV, we need to rely on premium inventory to showcase the exposure and direct response they can receive when they’re assured that their marketing dollars are reaching their target audience effectively.”
Not only should you ensure that your ads are seen on reputable networks and apps, it’s also important that they are served exclusively on television screens. Not all CTV advertising platforms are built the same, with some solutions serving these ads on CTV compatible devices like mobile and desktop. However, we cannot ignore the fact that users are on multiple devices (and often simultaneously), otherwise known as second-screen consumer behavior. Research shows a vast majority of viewers (83%) watch TV with a second device (mobile device, tablet, laptop, e-reader) in hand. If your ads are running solely on TV screens, as soon as a consumer sees your ad, they can navigate to your brand’s site on their second screen to learn more.
MNTN’s Living Room Quality feature ensures ads serve only on top-tier networks and only on TV screens. Via this feature you can advertise to your ideal customer on networks such as the Food Network, CNN, ESPN and many more. Another bonus? Living Room Quality ads are served in both a non-skippable and high-definition format. This makes for top quality advertisements that engage viewers, pulling their attention away from various second screen distractions. Then, once a CTV ad is viewed in full, MNTN’s Audience Extension feature serves related display ads across the same user’s other household devices for a fully immersive advertising experience.
“With CTV buying through MNTN and utilizing the detailed insights, we can be confident that we can showcase success in a myriad of ways. Our clients are not only happy with the detailed metrics, but also can build trust knowing that they’ll be able to speak to how their marketing dollars are performing.”
Performance + Premium Inventory = Advertising Success
Advertising on CTV offers many benefits to a plethora of brands, but in order to see the best results, you need to hone in on certain aspects of the channel. Leading with a performance mindset and focusing on serving ads only across premium inventory is the best way to drive success alongside your other marketing channels.
Wield Lever Interactive’s Partnership with MNTN
Connected TV’s ability to generate nuanced target audience data is revolutionizing marketing tactics on streaming platforms. At Lever Interactive, we provide our clients with custom solutions to leverage the benefits of Connected TV advertising to beat the competition. MNTN plays a large role, as our partnership yields shared learnings, advancing strategic efforts and maximizing CTV spend.
If you’re keen to understand how Connected TV advertising works and whether it’ll fit into your digital marketing strategy, you can reach out to us at sales@leverinteractive.com. We’re always looking forward to helping you with your CTV advertising and digital marketing needs.
HELLO.
If you’re looking for a different agency experience, look no further.