How To Apply a Digital Marketing Mentality to Connected TV

3 Min Read

Today, Connected TV (CTV) is a performance marketing channel, right alongside paid search and social media. Those digital roots mean marketers can use the skills and strategies they’ve been using across other platforms to find success on CTV. 

Recently, Severin Nesselhauf, Director of Marketing Strategy at MNTN, joined the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to discuss how a digital mindset can improve CTV campaigns. Let’s explore some highlights from their conversation:

Applying Digital Strategies to CTV 

There are a lot of similarities between your favorite digital marketing channels and CTV. This means you don’t have to start from square one, even if you’re prepping for your first CTV campaign. 

So how exactly does this work? Let’s explore a few of the ways CTV can feel familiar for digital marketers: 

Overall Campaign Structure 

Thanks to those digital roots we mentioned above, television advertising can now be used as a tool for each stage of the sales funnel. From awareness to retargeting your most loyal customers, CTV’s campaign structure options allow you to connect with different audiences (but we’ll get into the audience part more in a minute). 

Since many advertisers have been running and testing their campaigns over the last few years, you don’t have to start from scratch. What we’ve seen so far is that the highest performing digital campaigns are the ones with complex structures. Often, these have multiple campaign types, ad groups, and (of course) relevant ads within those groups to drive performance. 

For example, MNTN Research found that MNTN advertisers who launched both prospecting and retargeting at the same time delivered 27% more site traffic and about two times more ROAS than those who launched with prospecting alone.

Precision Targeting 

Precision targeting is one of the key elements that make digital marketing so valuable for teams across the globe. No matter where your audience is or what they’re interested in, digital targeting can help you reach them effectively with relevant ads. 

And as digital marketers dig into their CTV campaigns, they’ll find their skills and strategies are especially applicable when it comes to audience targeting. In addition to creating an incredible starting point, the insights they’re getting from their CTV campaigns are helping them discover new audience insights to help them optimize their marketing channels across platforms. 

MNTN’s targeting allows brands to connect with current and potential customers through first and third party audiences. By combining the prestige of television with the power of precision audience targeting, brands can deliver results at a massive scale.

Effective Creative 

Just like social media, CTV demands effective ad creative to drive performance. But you don’t have to completely start over. By repurposing existing assets, you can make the most of your creative and connect with your audience through omnichannel marketing campaigns. 

With some simple swaps — for example, the voiceover, video size, or background music — video ads can be used across platforms. And once you get the swing of things, you’ll be able to use a single video production to craft videos for both social media and CTV campaigns. 

MNTN advertisers can access certain creative solutions, including Creative-as-a-Subscription™ and QuickFrame, to make custom video for their campaigns. With the right video, advertisers can make the most of their marketing budgets — and successfully connect with their audience. 

Making the Most of Your CTV Budget in 2024 

From campaign goals to strategically using creative, digital marketers have lots of blueprints to help them effectively get started on CTV. If you’re ready to learn more about making the most of your CTV campaigns with the right tools, explore our webinars and events here.