Creative Power: The (Human) Secrets to CTV Ads that Convert

5 Min Read

Brands across the globe are developing marketing strategies for a competitive consumer market, which makes the quality of your ad creative more important than ever before. While video is essential, having the right video can be the deciding factor between a consumer choosing your brand over your competitor. 

Connected TV’s (CTV) boom in popularity caused the industry to change the way people think about ad creative. Now, marketers have to view it as an essential part of their video marketing strategy — because it is. With 95% of advertisers planning to maintain or increase their programmatic CTV spend, it’s time to create purpose-built ad creative that resonates with your audience and converts them into customers. 

Recently, Jeremy Bunya, Product Marketing Manager at QuickFrame, and Lexi Tierney, VP of Customer Success at QuickFrame, joined MediaPost to discuss the importance of crafting CTV ad creative with a human touch. Let’s take a look at some highlights from their conversation: 

AI Is a Powerful Creative Tool 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been dominating the conversation for a while now. According to a July 2023 Statista survey, marketers use AI in several different ways, including drafting content and brainstorming, giving marketers the ability to streamline the creative process. 

Get To Know MNTN VIVA 

We believe in the power of AI so much that we’re creating our own tool. 

With MNTN VIVA, you’ll be able to create, mix, and remix elements like generative video and audio, stock footage, and your own existing assets to create videos in record time. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to the creative space, you can easily fast-track video creation, iteration, and exploration. Learn more and sign up for early access here. 

But Ad Creative Still Needs a Human Touch

There’s no doubt these tools are incredible. But we also know AI can’t perform by itself just yet. It might become self-sufficient in the future, but today’s not the day. 

There are a few reasons for this, including consumer ambivalence. According to Forbes, over 75% of surveyed consumers are concerned about misinformation in AI-generated content distributed by businesses. For brands, this means producing content with a clear human touch is essential to driving trust — and results. 

Best Practices for CTV Ad Creative 

Thankfully, you can pair performance-focused creative with the right technology to deliver results. With CTV, you can combine the prestige of television advertising with the performance power of digital marketing to reach your audience in an impactful way. 

Here are some best practices you can follow to make the most of your strategy: 

Know Your Audience 

Successful ad creative starts in pre-production, when you’re mapping out ideas, goals, and your target audience. Before you even think about filming, you have to understand who will watch the ad. 

Purpose-built creative — as the name implies, ad creative made with a specific purpose — can help you hone in on your audience. For example, if your goal is to retarget existing customers, you won’t need to include high-level information about your company. Since they’ve already made a purchase, you can include more specific details about your products or even an exclusive deal for returning customers. By crafting your ad to a specific audience segment, you’ll be able to reach them more effectively. 

Create Ad Variations 

Like we mentioned above, TV ads have a certain level of power that other platforms don’t typically have, so your audience — no matter who they are — is expecting high quality content. But even with premium content, you can’t air the same ads over and over again. 

If viewers see the same ads too many times, they’re likely to experience ad fatigue, which can result in decreased performance and even cause a negative perception of your brand. Plus, we found that 67% of consumers actually want a variety of different storytelling approaches to avoid ad fatigue. So by creating several different ad variations, you’re giving your audience what they want, too. 

Don’t worry; this doesn’t mean you’ll need to reinvent the advertising wheel with every video. Like we discussed in this MNTN Research analysis, marketers can make subtle adjustments to creative that can significantly impact the tone and message of a CTV ad. Whether you swap the CTA, voiceover, or talent, these seemingly minor changes can have a massive impact on your ad performance. 

Use Creative Analytics 

We know what you’re thinking: “OK, these variations sound great, but how will I know which ones my audience likes best?!” That’s such an insightful question, we’re so glad you asked! 

The answer lies in creative analytics, which allow you to analyze and draw insights from your ads. When you’re first starting out, it’s often more advantageous to examine higher-level elements. For example, you might want to see if animation or live-action video works best with your audience.  

By crafting more variations, you can continue getting more and more granular with the elements you examine. With each video production, you’ll be able to draw insights, creating a feedback loop of creative analytics for your marketing team to use. 

Power Your Performance With Effective Ad Creative 

With the right ad creative (crafted by humans, with some help from our digital friends) and performance partner, your CTV campaign can reach the right audience, at the right time — no matter where they’re watching their favorite content. 

Ready to learn more about creating effective ads for CTV? Watch the full webinar here.