Clearing The Air: Why Your CTV Reporting Needs More Transparency

4 Min Read

Now that many (dare we say most?) advertisers are familiar with Connected TV (CTV), it’s time to talk about how to enhance the channel’s performance capabilities. And transparency is a key part of that conversation. 

Erik Gray, Director of Product Analytics at MNTN, recently joined MediaPost to discuss why CTV reporting needs more transparency, including the tools and knowledge you’ll need to access better measurement and performance data for your team. 

Transparency in Digital Marketing

Television has always been a powerful ad format, but it’s never been great with transparency. With linear TV campaigns, it’s nearly impossible to tie meaningful metrics back to the ads. This means brands often overspend to broadcast video creative to the largest audience possible, during popular shows, sports, and other big events. 

When comparing CTV measurement vs. linear TV measurement, many advertisers worry CTV attribution might look a little too traditional. But thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

As ad formats have advanced, so have advertisers’ options, from paid search and social media to CTV. With the click of a button, users can pull detailed reports on the most effective content, how their ads resonate with their target audiences, and which campaigns they need to revise. And you need access to all of this information. As technology improves, marketing teams should have more straightforward, accessible data about their digital marketing campaigns, including on CTV. 

Why Is CTV’s Transparency So Essential? 

If you’re in the ad industry, you’ve likely heard a conversation or two about CTV transparency. And for a good reason — there’s a lot to cover. 

There was a bit of a rush to the channel once its performance features became known. Because of this, there are varying degrees of measurability, targeting, and transparency across platforms. With several different attribution models available, it can be difficult for advertisers to know which is the best for their strategies and goals. 

CTV’s transparency is particularly critical, since it opens up a view into television advertising unlike anything marketers have experienced before. With these insights, teams have the power to make data-driven decisions. We could spend all day talking about how effective CTV transparency improves the experience, but here are three key ways: 

It Builds Trust in the Industry

People can spend all day telling you how amazing CTV is for advertisers, but until you see some numbers, you’re going to be (at least) a little skeptical. With more transparency in attribution and measurement, more advertisers are going to view this as a reliable performance channel. 

Transparency helps everyone involved in CTV. It allows advertisers and publishers to agree on the value of these ad placements while ensuring advertisers know their content is being seen exactly where they expect. 

It Can Optimize Campaigns To Meet Goals 

On linear TV, you can launch an ad, set it, and forget it until it’s time to run your next campaign. Actually, that’s your only option. While this is a great strategy for reaching larger audiences, it’s not ideal for performance goals. 

Since audiences are constantly changing — from demographics to what content they’re watching to what streaming services they’re engaging with — your content needs to change with them. With audience targeting and insights, you can optimize pieces of content for specific audiences and connect with them more effectively. 

It Can Prevent Ad Fraud

One of the most common concerns we hear about CTV is the potential for ad fraud. Since not all CTV ad solutions offer transparency around placement and performance, there have been some issues. And these concerns have (rightfully) caused skepticism about whether or not viewers are actually seeing the content. 

As more CTV platforms build transparency into the process, more advertisers can feel confident in the channel. In other words, transparency is essential for creating trust in the industry, including through the prevention of fraud. 

As Clear As CTV Can Be 

All of this is to say: you deserve a CTV platform with transparency around inventory, attribution, reporting, and more. With these elements, you’ll be able to optimize your content, improve your strategies, and make the most of your ad dollars. 

Ready to see how your current CTV transparency stacks up against the rest? In the recording below, Gray will help you build out a report card to identify gaps, find ways to remediate them, and use transparent reporting to fuel higher performance. 

Watch the full webinar here to learn more about the importance of transparency for CTV.