Programmatic advertising has taken the advertising industry by storm in recent years, yet you wouldn’t know it if your media consumption is limited to the nightly news. The impact of programmatic advertising on Connected TV (CTV) is largely overlooked. CTV is capturing market share from traditional TV, but the mainstream media typically glosses over this relatively new form of content distribution as it has a vested interest in the success of cable television.
Programmatic advertising is making an indelible impact on CTV, a medium that has made its way into nearly 90% of homes throughout the United States. Continue to sort through the latest TV-watching trends and you’ll find that programmatic advertising is gaining significant ground on traditional advertising presented to the public through ads aired on cable TV.
Programmatic Advertising for CTV
Though CTV is still in the process of evolving as a platform for programmatic advertising, it has proven highly effective in its infancy. Programmatic advertising on CTV is calculated, streamlined, efficient, and mutually beneficial for both content providers and advertisers. This unique approach to advertising centers on the use of an auction system to air ads for exposure to the target viewing audience.
Auctions for such ads are unified, empowering CTV services to provide inventory across several advertising exchanges for optimal efficiency that heighten yield. The winning bid for an available ad slot is awarded the opportunity to present a commercial to the viewing audience for targeted exposure.
CTV ad inventory through the programmatic approach ultimately maximizes the audience reach, connecting businesses seeking exposure to audiences through multiple exchanges. Though this approach might seem complex on its surface, the truth is it is actually quite simple thanks to advances in computing and automation. In contrast, the procedures necessary to purchase ads on TV are becoming more complex by the day.
Why the Programmatic CTV Approach Works?
Compare the litany of hurdles in conventional TV advertising ranging from confusing ratings to altering formats for pricing to the relative simplicity of programmatic advertising through CTV and the choice between the two becomes easy. Programmatic TV ads are highly effective as they are shaped by accurate data and fully automated, proving mutually beneficial for both ad buyers and sellers.
Delve deep into the differences between programmatic advertising on CTV and that of conventional cable TV and you’ll find some glaring differences. The targeting of CTV ads is much more advanced compared to that of cable TV. Geolocation information to pinpoint the locations of the target audience combined with intricate data empowers businesses and advertisers to target programmatic advertisements on CTV directly to a target audience in as efficient a manner as possible.
A large part of the appeal of programmatic ads is the ability to customize ad content to zero in on a target audience. In particular, programmatic ads displayed on CTV are beneficial in terms of timing. The CTV programmatic advertising approach empowers businesses to present video spots at distinct points in time throughout the presentation of content distributed online, be it mid-roll, pre-roll, or even post-roll. As an example, an ad presented pre-roll is automatically played before featured CTV video content, regardless of the CTV platforms and devices used to play the content.
Examples of CTV platforms and devices include but are not limited to the following:
- Video game consoles such as Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch
- Roku TV
- Desktop computer
- Web-enabled mobile device
- Smart TV
- Amazon Fire
- Apple TV
Most such pre-roll ads are a minute or less in length. Some programmatic CTV ads are as short as 15 seconds in length. There is also the opportunity to advertise in between these extremes with the placement of a programmatic ad of 30 seconds.
Breaking Down the Minutia of Programmatic CTV Ads
Take a deep dive into the nuances of programmatic advertising on CTV and you’ll find certain metrics are especially informative. As an example, the programmatic TV ads’ cost per view, the completion rate of video content, and the view-through conversion rate provide invaluable insight into the content that works and that which fails or only partially succeeds. Programmatic advertising on CTV is also revered for providing an opportunity for minimal spending through distinct ad platforms, empowering businesses to purchase at scale under budgetary limitations and to ensure business success easily.
Give programmatic advertising on CTV a try and you’ll find it enables your business to scale for your unique audience to present informative ad content that cannot be skipped. This is a golden opportunity to connect with a target demographic of viewers in a calculated manner characterized by economic efficiency that cannot be achieved through conventional ads aired on traditional cable TV.
