After more than quadrupling over the last four years, CTV ad spending is heading for more moderate growth rates in the low double-digit territory. Nevertheless, it is still driving programmatic. In fact, CTV will grow more than three times as fast as mobile, and programmatic ad spending on desktop and laptop computers will be flat this year. In other words, despite its relatively small share of the total programmatic market, over 2 in 5 new programmatic ad dollars will go to CTV.
Plus, at the end of 2022, 98% of U.S households were reachable via programmatic CTV buys. Think about the scale and impact of that audience! This is due in part to the by the availability of conversion-based data for campaigns, coupled with the advancements in programmatic targeting technology and a burgeoning interest in addressable advertising. And, perhaps, most importantly, it helps advertisers become more cost-effective - especially in our recent uncertain economic climate.
A Need for Transparency in CTV Advertising
Although investments in CTV advertising are soaring, propelled by the platform's robust targeting capabilities and the rapid expansion of high-quality streaming inventory, the journey through programmatic ad buying on CTV is not without its hurdles.
The main issue that advertisers must look out for is that of transparency. As it stands, there is a lack of visibility into the CTV supply chain. Simply put, ad buyers do not always have access to which shows, episodes or Connected TV inventory their ads will run on on. Plus, publishers are hesitant to give up valuable information about their inventory to prevent advertisers from hand-picking content which is ultimately leading to more fragmentation and confusion in the CTV space.
The industry's push for greater transparency and improved measurement standards is a testament to the ongoing need for clarity and accountability in ad placements and performance metrics.
Free Video Series on the CTV Advertising Landscape. Watch Now.
Now that we've discussed the current landscape of CTV, let's outline the three main strategies that will help you accelerate your KPIs and achieve growth for your next programmatic CTV campaigns.
Strategy 1: Make a Shift Towards Private Market Place (PMP) Deals
Advertisers are making a move towards private market place (PMP) deals, in which a publisher sells premium inventory to a limited group of buyers in a real-time bidding (RBT) auction. Through PMPs, advertisers can layer specific audience targeting onto CTV ads across a range of publishers and get access to more detailed insights and targeting data.
This year, brands with bigger budgets are keen to increase their PMP ad spend as better attribution helps justify this rise in investment. After all, the power of programmatic is to increase the probability of conversions within a specific audience target.
Accelerate Your Growth with GumGum's Programmatic CTV Ad Placement Solutions
You can apply GumGum Verity™'s data to your programmatic campaigns for contextual targeting, brand safety and suitability protection at scale in your DSP of choice via private marketplace deals (PMPs).
Verity™ analyzes at the content-level, which helps ensure contextual accuracy and suitability for targeting. Plus, you can scale across premium CTV environments without blocking unnecessary content that is actually safe and suitable.
Key Benefits:
- Reach people in the right moment with real-time relevance at scale—without relying on cookies.
- Gain transparency as we unlock content-level analysis based on keywords, categories, threats/safety and sentiment.
- Streamline your campaign launch by activating a single PMP to run across several DSPs, or easily conduct A/B tests across DSPs.
- Skip the manual maintenance of inclusion, exclusion and keyword lists.
- Activate with ease by applying Verity™ Programmatic PMPs in 100+ popular DSPs for targeting. Simply request the PMP from the Verity™ CS team and apply it in your DSP.
- Receive exceptional service for the creation and troubleshooting of yourPMPs, including custom segments, thereby eliminating internal bandwidth and resource constraints.
Strategy 2: Advertise on FAST Channels
Programmatic CTV enables brands to expand their reach beyond retail environments to audiences streaming content across devices and platforms, especially those who have cut the cord for good.
FAST, free ad-supported channels in particular, brings a unique offering to the CTV market with a range of opportunities that build off its linear roots, adding dimensions that were previously unthinkable. Most notably, its advanced targeting capabilities can reach audiences that cable left untapped.
Key Benefits:
- FAST marketing capitalizes on consumer viewing trends and the technological capabilities that retain audiences, providing more reliable paths to maximizing ROAS.
- FAST channel ads reach audiences that are less accessible via other channels, like traditional broadcast.
- With 57% of all TV viewers watching some degree of FAST (compared to just 6% in 2020), these strategies will only capture more high-value viewers – and ultimately be a necessary component for any holistic marketing campaign.
Strategy 3: Invest in Connected TV Overlay Ads
MAGNA Media Trials found that overlay ad units on CTV are one of the higher performing ad formats on the advertising channel. In a new and emerging environment like CTV, traditional ad breaks simply are not beneficial for advertisers, publishers, or consumers. Let’s face it, we know that consumers today are increasingly rejecting TV ads by ignoring them or skipping them outright (especially prevalent among younger audiences).
Our new In-Video unit is a non-intrusive overlay ad within a CTV environment that seamlessly integrates in and out of the screen when viewers are the most engaged - while watching content. That means no more skipping ads.
GumGum’s In-Video ad unit offers the opportunity to meet viewers in the right mindset based on what they are consuming at the time – without interrupting the viewing experience. For instance if a viewer is watching a cooking show focused on grilling, an ad for grill utensils could appear in the bottom-half of the screen while the show is airing.
Overlay ad-insertions are not new within CTV environments, but have always been a manual process. But, after two years of engineering and development, GumGum has automated the insertion workflow with their patented Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) software to create dynamic overlays in post-production for video ad streams.
This streamlined process enables a set-it-and-forget-it workflow and identifies where overlay ads should go, generates the ads, and inserts the them. Overlay ad inventory is inserted automatically into the tech stack creating a simple, scalable, and more efficient programmatic advertising framework.
In-Video Drove Better Brand Perception for Lincoln
Lincoln looked to GumGum’s In-Video unit to help drive awareness as part of their Programmatic CTV strategy.
Using GumGum’s In-Video unit, Lincoln was able to greatly outperform industry standards in regards to a lift in brand awareness, familiarity, favorability and purchase intent.
Results:
- +14% Lift in Familiarity (3.8x higher than the auto industry standard of 3.7% lift)
- +13.5% Lift in Favorability (4x higher than the auto industry standard of 3.4% lift)
- +5.5% Lift in Aided Awareness (1.4x higher than the auto industry standard of 3.8% lift)
- +4% Lift in Purchase Intent (3x higher than the auto industry standard of 1.3% lift)
