How CTV is Changing Advertising for Performance Marketers

4 Min Read

In the past, brands advertised on television to drive awareness—and that’s where the benefits stopped. But the times, they are a-changin’. 

Thanks to Connected TV (CTV), ad-supported services, and other streaming evolutions, TV advertising has grown substantially more powerful. Today, advertisers can use the platform to achieve performance, alongside social and search ads. 

Ali Haeri, Senior Vice President of Marketing at MNTN, joined the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to discuss the future of television advertising. Here’s a quick look at the discussion: 

TV Advertising is at a Crossroads 

We’ve found ourselves at a turning point in TV advertising. 

Many teams are torn on what decisions to make about their TV advertising strategies. Should they keep an awareness-focused plan on linear TV, or shift to streaming? To help clear things up, let’s take a look at the industry now. 

Audiences are spending more time streaming content than ever before, with streaming outperforming cable for the first time in July 2022. So, advertisers have to follow them to reach them now. 

But many marketing teams aren’t sure they’re ready to make the switch. Traditional television advertising came with a lot of baggage and restrictions, which has some experienced folks on edge about CTV. 

But CTV doesn’t come with the same restrictions as linear. Instead, CTV advertising offers the same kinds of benefits you’d likely expect from legacy performance marketing channels, like flexibility, effective targeting, and effective reporting. 

Get to Know Performance TV 

Because CTV is a performance marketing channel! 

Connected TV has redefined the potential of the living room screen. That’s why MNTN made these benefits more accessible to brands looking for the missing piece to their performance marketing strategy. 

Pioneered by the ad tech team at MNTN, Performance TV (PTV) brings the quality look and feel of legacy linear TV ad creative and merges it with the reporting and performance power of digital marketing channels. Think of it like search and social for the focal point of your living room. 

The Benefits of Performance TV

Just like your favorite social media ad platform, PTV allows you to target a specific audience, quickly swap your creative, and effectively understand your campaigns’ performance. 

With MNTN’s PTV solution, you can expect benefits like: 

Precision Targeting

With television advertising in the past, you’ve had to send out a generic message to a broad audience and hope something sticks with someone. But today, you can connect with the people you actually want to reach, quickly and precisely targeting your intended audience just like you would with other performance marketing channels. 

For example, you can use first-party data to target a specific audience, including loyalty program members. Since you know who your audience is, you can target your message directly to them. 

(Actually) Automated Optimization 

This one is exactly what it sounds like: automatic optimization of your campaign. 

Some platforms claim to have automated optimization, but it’s really a performance analyst on the backend making manual campaign optimizations. Since it’s not really automated, this can cause some issues, including delays and miscalculations. 

In MNTN’s case, our automated optimization is fueled by website visit and conversion data from verified sources to optimize your campaign as you go, improving performance along the way. 

Attribution 

CTV should only take credit for the conversions it actually drives. That’s why we created Cross-Device Verified Visits, which solves the problems legacy CTV used to cause. This technology allows marketers to get an accurate picture of the performance driven by CTV campaigns. 

Measurement 

In order to successfully understand and optimize your campaign, you have to be able to measure it properly. 

Accurate measurement offers insight into your creative and campaigns so you can find out which elements resonate with your audience the most. This allows you to focus on those elements while trimming away video creative that’s not holding up as well. 

Creative 

Effective video creative is critical to success, especially when it comes to performance marketing. You’re no longer talking about your brand to a broader audience. Instead, you’re sending a specific message to a specific audience. 

For example, if you’re targeting an audience who already knows everything about your business, you don’t need to serve them introduction-level creative. They already know who your brand is and what you have to offer. 

This is where purpose-built creative becomes essential. Purpose-built creative puts your goal, audience, or data front and center in the video production process, ensuring your creative is built with these specific elements in mind. When it gets to your audience, they’ll know it was meant for them, which improves relatability and drives engagement. 

Get Ahead of Your Competition with the Full Webinar

As streaming services multiply and more ad inventory becomes available, CTV will become increasingly central to performance marketing plans. By adding it to your strategy, you’ll be able to connect with your target audience on the largest screen in the house. 

To learn more about making the most of Performance TV for your brand, watch the full webinar here. Please note that a membership with the Association of National Advertisers is required to access this webinar.