“Automated Optimization”—When It’s Done Right, It’s More Than Just a Buzzword

6 Min Read

These days, every adtech product out there offers some form of automation. In theory, this is ideal, but with mentions of automation everywhere you look, the word starts to lose its meaning. Especially when it comes to automated optimization, which when done right, automatically guides your campaign to hit your desired goals. The only problem is not all automation optimization is created equal—some platforms use human media buyers behind the scenes, while others focus solely on lower CPMs to optimize for reach.

At MNTN, automated optimization isn’t an empty promise—our Performance TV platform is fully automated and leverages website visit and conversion data from real, verified outcomes to optimize bids in real-time. That means your campaigns are not only fueled by real data, but can act on it immediately to drive the best performance.

“Automated” Doesn’t Necessarily Mean “Automated”

Multiple Connected TV (CTV) and OTT platforms offer automated optimization, but oftentimes, this claim is misleading. Many of these solutions actually use performance analysts on the backend to make manual campaign optimizations. Meaning, they aren’t really automated at all… This obviously creates some issues. First, fewer optimizations can be made when done manually, as opposed to when they are made by AI—when we say “fewer”, we’re talking thousands. Second, manual optimizations are exponentially slower than fully automated ones. What can be done in an instant by true automated technology can take three to five business days when performed by a human. This kind of lag time on optimizations doesn’t do much good for campaigns that are expected to consistently update with new information and can ultimately lead to a loss in business.

Automating Towards Reach Can Lower Inventory Standards

Even if a CTV or OTT solution does supply some level of automation (full or otherwise), it might be automating in a way that sacrifices more than you’re comfortable with. To maximize reach, many of these platforms automate to serve as many impressions as possible. In doing this, a lower CPM needs to be used in order to stretch the budget as far as possible. The problem here is that low CPMs essentially disqualify these platforms from bidding on high-quality inventory, leaving only lower quality streaming networks and apps. A broad reach can be powerful, but it can pair your brand with content you wouldn’t necessarily want to see your ads running with. Nor will it help to increase return on advertising spend (ROAS), conversions, site visits or other performance metrics if your ads are only being served on poor quality networks with weak viewership numbers.

Performance TV Offers True Automated Optimization Making For Unmatched Results

In comparison to other CTV or OTT solutions out there, MNTN uses fully automated optimization to drive performance goals. When using the platform, just input your budget, goal and ad creative, and the campaign will automatically optimize across 50+ different inputs to ensure your ads are achieving the results you’re after (it’s really that easy). This means thousands of campaign optimizations can be made per day.

As an FYI—other comparable softwares typically only optimize across 10+ dimensions to drive incremental reach vs. linear TV buys, making for notably different campaign outcomes.

With Performance TV you can depend on the platform to produce intelligent, real-time optimizations while knowing that you won’t be slowed down by time-intensive manual inputting. In fact, when comparing partially/manual optimized campaigns with MNTN automated media buying, advertisers using Performance TV experienced the following results (on average):

• 91% increase in ROAS
• 20% decrease in CPA

Another perk—Performance TV was built to drive performance (as opposed to just reach). Utilizing real campaign data, MNTN’s AI recognizes what factors led to successful outcomes and then uses that data to optimize real-time bids to produce better results in the future. The platform optimizes across multiple dimensions—from recency windows to underperforming elements—to drive towards campaign-specific goals like site visits, conversions and revenue. Meaning, MNTN does all the heavy lifting to ensure your ads will consistently reach your ideal customers on reputable streaming networks, in order to generate top campaign performance.

Popular Dating Platform Finds a Perfect Match in Performance TV

Performance TV’s automated optimizations enabled a leading dating platform to increase site visit and conversion rates. Here’s their story:

Hoping to add a new advertising channel that would generate results comparable to paid search and social, they turned to MNTN to drive measurable performance. Performance TV’s automated media buying optimized the prospecting campaign thousands of times, tailoring CTV ad delivery to users who were likely to visit and convert and ensuring ad spend was efficiently deployed with the dating platform’s performance goals in mind. The campaign produced significant visit and conversion rates—a testament to Performance TV’s ability to reach the right audience and drive action.

Ensure Accurate Campaign Results With Automated Attribution

Regardless of how you optimize, advertising on CTV isn’t much use if you don’t have access to clear results that will prove out campaign performance. You need access to detailed reporting and you should be able to depend on the accuracy of those results—this can be tricky with some CTV ad solutions.

Many Connected TV or OTT platforms use view-through attribution as their primary form of real-time measurement. This type of attribution allows advertisers to take credit for any site visit that occurred after a user watched their CTV ad, then took an action within the attribution window—even if that visit was driven by another marketing channel like paid search, social or email.

Performance TV’s unique attribution model optimizes based on de-duped visits to ensure it only takes credit for consumer action driven by MNTN campaigns. This produces better and more accurate performance as the platform actually optimizes towards the results for which CTV is typically credited. For instance, if a user watches an ad served by MNTN, then clicks through an Instagram ad, Performance TV won’t take duplicated credit for that action. Attribution is done in real-time and informs MNTN’s optimization engine to drive visits the brand would not have earned with another performance channel—enabling Performance TV to produce the best value possible in every campaign.

Drive Top Performance With MNTN’s Automated Optimizations

“Automation” may be a buzzword right now, but at MNTN, we take it seriously. Performance TV enables advertisers to move away from manually inputting campaign optimizations. This can help to save your team time and generate more optimizations—creating a greater number of opportunities for consumer engagement and ultimately, conversions. Our platform automatically optimizes towards your goals in order to drive top performance. And, with Performance TV’s attribution model in place, you can feel confident that your campaign results are accurate. Create more efficiency while producing top campaign performance with Performance TV.