Come On In: All Types of Advertisers Can Find Success on CTV

4 Min Read

Over the years, traditional television has come to be seen as a prestigious advertising channel. Events like the Super Bowl have only strengthened this viewpoint as football enthusiasts and non-sports fans alike stay tuned in during commercial breaks to see what ads will make their debut. While obtaining a spot on linear TV is a key advertising strategy for some brands, it’s not an attainable goal for all advertisers. Purchasing ad placements on traditional TV can be extremely costly. Not to mention, on linear TV it’s tough to get hyper-targeted with audiences, and brands often don’t have control over when their ads will play.

So what should you do if your brand wants to advertise on TV but also ensure that your ads reach an audience that will convert, all while getting a high return on investment? Advertising on Connected TV (CTV) may be the right solution for you.

Brands who want to advertise on TV but have yet to pull the trigger might feel overwhelmed by the many factors to consider when developing an ad strategy. We feel you on this. The rise in popularity of CTV usage has yielded a ton of data to analyze and so MNTN Research was founded to make sense of all those learnings.

Join Director of Content & Research, Tim Edmundson for a behind-the-scenes look at what MNTN Research has learned from digging into 10M+ hours of CTV advertising data. Tim will take you through an analysis of the top trends we’ve seen develop over the course of the last year. In addition, you’ll learn how to use those findings to effectively build a CTV ad strategy for seasonal or evergreen campaigns. Don’t miss out on this important webinar—RSVP now for free.

CTV is Opening Doors for Advertisers

CTV—it’s all the rage. As of June 2022, 87% of U.S. households with a TV have at least one CTV device (up from 80% in 2020). CTV viewership is skyrocketing, and, with the mass amounts of content on various ad-supported streaming services (FAST channels), there are more available advertising spots than ever. Meaning, there is a huge opportunity for brands who haven’t advertised on TV before to do so. Many brands are already taking advantage of this—we found that 62% of MNTN customers have never advertised on TV before.

With Connected TV advertising, there’s no mold that brands have to force themselves into. Brands of all sizes and from a wide variety of industries can utilize CTV as a powerful advertising channel. A large factor to this is the ability for advertisers to get granular with their targeting. When advertising on CTV, you can use “typical” demographics (age, location, etc.) to target audiences, but you also have the ability to target viewers by interests, behaviors and previous interactions with your brand. For instance, if you’re a small retailer of customized hiking backpacks, you could target CTV viewers who have purchased outdoor gear recently, or who like brands similar to yours, or who previously visited your website—the options for getting specific with your targeting are extensive.

Prospecting Isn’t Just for Awareness, it Yields Results

Even if you’re fresh to the CTV advertising space, you’re likely familiar with prospecting as a way to reach new audiences. Similar to paid social media or banner ad campaigns, CTV can be an extremely effective channel to raise brand awareness and target potential customers. By leveraging third-party audience data sources you can consistently reach viewers who align with your brand and message. And when an ad resonates with or is specifically catered to a viewer, they are more likely to convert. Our analysis found that fashion and apparel advertisers who ran prospecting campaigns over the past year experienced a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 2.95X while generating ~1.5M Verified Visits.

So what does a successful prospecting approach look like? Here are some best practices:

• Keep audiences large, but remain focused on the core demographic/ideal customer profile (ICP) 
• Remain mindful of audience performance
• Utilize performance ad creative best practices

There’s No Better Time to Begin Your CTV Advertising Journey

If you’ve been thinking about advertising on TV but have yet to act, this is your strong nudge to give CTV a try. Advertising on CTV will not only allow you to reach new audiences, but specific targeting will get your ads in front of viewers who are more likely to convert. Want to learn more? Join us as we share our Data-Driven Insights From Running 10M+ Hours of Ads.