What you need to know before launching your first connected TV ad campaign
Netflix released its ad tier for the first time in 2022. In just under a year, it grew to 15 million users. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
Today, overall connected tv viewership continues to grow steadily. Premium streaming advertising (aka CTV plus OTV advertising) presents a huge opportunity, in terms of numbers of users and value of data, if you know how to do it.
What Is Streaming Advertising? Explained Simply
Streaming advertising is placing advertisements in on-demand streaming services, like Netflix or HBO. For a long time, cable television dominated the television ad market, but with the invention and monetisation of on-demand streaming, advertisers created new ways to show viewers products and services.
Streaming Advertising vs Cable Advertising: Who Wins?
There are three big differences between streaming advertising (which includes Netflix advertising) and cable advertising.
The first is the medium. One is streamed over the internet, the other operates through cables, duh. Cable television and premium streaming both usually work on some sort of subscription model, but premium streaming is through a private company that collects information like email addresses, and it generally requires Wi-Fi to work. These are important points for digital marketers.
That brings us to the second big difference: the data that both goes into the ad platform and comes out of it. With traditional cable advertising, advertisers have much less control over audiences and targeting, and it is much more difficult to track key data, like who exactly saw your ad and how much of it they watched.
The final difference is that cable advertising goes through very different governing bodies and is often done regionally. With streaming advertising, the buyer markets are generally much more centralised. With Microsoft Advertising, for example, you can advertise on global platforms, like Netflix or Disney+, as well as regional ones, like Hulu or Channel4, all from the same platform. This makes it a bit easier to launch campaigns, especially if you already have accounts in Microsoft Advertising.
Of course, not everyone is on streaming platforms, so if you are looking to advertise to people who you can’t reach through streaming media advertising – like an older demographic, for instance – traditional cable advertising might be the way to go. However, if you seek to get really precise in your audience targeting and tracking metrics, or reach younger, digital native audiences, streaming advertising is likely the way to go.
H2: How to Use Microsoft Advertising for CTV Campaigns
With Microsoft advertising, you can buy non-skippable ads from 10 to 90 seconds in duration, in pre-roll, mid-roll, and other placements, depending on your market. They have traditional targeting features, like age, gender, location, and genre targeting. But they also have more advanced targeting, like in-market audiences, remarketing, similar audiences, and customer match. The best part is there is no minimum spend, so any brand can get premium placements in front of super high-quality viewers. Cost-per-view ranges from about 1 cent to 20 cents, depending on region and placements.
One of the downsides to premium streaming campaigns is that the reporting metrics are less actionable and clear than traditional PPC metrics. Whereas with a traditional campaign, we can assume that a click signals generated interest, most of the metrics with premium streaming campaigns are based on reach, rather than reception or sentiment. You will know how many people saw your ad and for how long, but unless you have a QR code or a coupon code linked exclusively to this campaign, understanding how your viewers react to your videos is not so straightforward. For this reason, CTV campaigns work best at the very top of the funnel for building brand awareness.
That does not mean that there are no demonstrable effects in your lower-funnel campaigns from CTV campaigns, though. In fact, recent studies have shown an 18% lift in click-through-rate on audience ads and an almost 10% lift in brand searches after running a CTV campaign.
How does targeting work on CTV campaigns in Microsoft Advertising?
The most exciting part of Microsoft Advertising’s premium streaming capabilities are its unmatched targeting options. You can use standard targeting features, like targeting by age, gender, location, and genre. Or, you can get into advanced targeting so that you reach your exact ICP.
With in-market audiences, you can leverage search intent data from across the Microsoft’s search network to target users actively looking for your product or solution. Remarketing shows CTV ads to users who have already visited your website, and likewise, similar audiences show CTV ads to users who are similar to those who have already visited your website. Finally, customer match lists let you target a specific list of prospects from first or third party data, like Bombora intent data, so that you nail your audience, every single time.
CTV Campaign Setup: Checklist for First-Time Advertisers
When you are beginning to run your first premium streaming campaign, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Because there is no minimum spend requirements, discuss a pilot campaign with your clients with a smaller budget, then scale up once you’ve proven the concept.
- To take advantage of the full funnel approach, make sure you have other pay-per-click campaigns running in Microsoft Advertising to measure how your premium streaming campaign lifts your other campaigns
- Try out the advanced targeting features, using your own first-party remarketing data or third-party data, like Bombora intent data
- Make stunning video content, either on your own or with one of our fantastic video partners, and roll film!
If you want more specifics on premium streaming, check out our full premium streaming webinar and follow us on Linkedin to keep up-to-date with the latest insights. As always, you can reach out to your account manager or grow@diginius.com if you have any specific questions about your clients or campaigns. We would be happy to help!
