From Connected TV to Checkout: Make Haste for the Holidays

5 Min Read

Perhaps Q4 is the furthest thing from your mind right now…especially when it’s hot outside and the only thing you want to do is turn on the AC to the max or make a beeline to the nearest beach (or tropical island, if you’re super lucky). Unfortunately, all summer vacations must come to an end, but we’re making those ‘Sunday scaries’ more manageable for you. This year, we’re unveiling our annual holiday guide at a much earlier time of year, and for good reason. Continue reading as we share some must-know tips to get your campaigns ready from launch all the way through to those much-coveted website conversions.

Spread the Holiday Cheer on Connected TV

If you’ve chosen Connected TV to promote your brand these holidays, you’ve made the right first step. Today, 80% of CTV viewers regularly watch ad-supported content, so consider the television screen to be prime real estate for your brand. However, to really maximize your efforts, you’ll want to make sure that your creative and messaging are buttoned up:

• Audibly Astute: Your brand is on the big-screen, so make every frame count. Include music to draw attention to your ad, or in lieu of this, a voiceover is a must. Remember, advertising on Connected TV isn’t as complicated as it looks. If you have existing assets at your disposal, simply repurpose this creative by adding some sound effects or a music track, which can make a world of difference. 

• Color Theory: Think of some of the world’s most recognizable brands, like Coca-Cola and Nike. Likely, the first thing you remember (apart from their distinguishable logos) is the color associated with these brands, which stays along  with you long afterward. Understanding the psychology behind color can take your ad from good to great, so keep this in mind when designing your ad. Refer to the color wheel below for some tips:

• Evoke Emotion: Studies show that an emotional approach can be almost twice as effective as a rational one, where there is a positive correlation between a viewer’s attitude (driven in part by the emotional message) and an ad’s memorability. So, prioritize this in your ad creative but make sure to add facts to support your story where applicable.

• Did you know that taking an emotional approach in advertising is nearly twice as effective as a rational approach? Studies show a positive correlation between a viewer’s attitude (driven in part by the emotional message) and an ad’s memorability, which is likely to engage consumers and develop a stronger attitudinal and behavioral response and ultimately drive purchase intent and overall advertising effectiveness. These are the seven triggers of emotion specifically related to advertising:
  • Creativity
  • Power
  • Alarm
  • Passion
  • Intrigue
  • Prestige
  • Reassurance

Most ads have one or two dominant triggers, so determine which ones best make sense for your brand when developing your ad.

…All the Way Through to Checkout

Your Connected TV ad will get people engaged with your ad on television, but what’s going to get them to your website and through to checkout? By making that same CTV experience go omnichannel. Performance solutions like MNTN do this by serving ads on premium CTV inventory via 150+ TV Networks, no matter where audiences are in the funnel. You can enhance your campaign’s memorability through some of these best practices on your creative:

• Matching the look, message and CTA of your ads as your TV creative
• Add a countdown timer to reinforce urgency and limited time offers
• Use shipping dates in your messaging to make customers feel like they’ve already made the purchase, for e.g. “Visit X for free expedited shipping if you order by December 10”
• Feature product carousels in your creative that feature items added to shoppers’ carts, or even complementary items that they may not have considered

Now that you’ve gotten the user to your home page, it’s time to seal the deal with a conversion. Consider adding these elements to your site to drive home that purchase:

• Time is money: Combine a call-to-action and drive urgency by activating a limited-time offer, displaying stock levels, or a countdown ticker on your check-out page. 

• Remove barriers to purchase: Reducing your bounce rate is the name of the game here, so consider enabling guest check out and downplaying coupon fields in the checkout process.

• Make it easy to undo a step: That dreaded ‘back’ button is enough to put off any user, as it can wipe out all of the data entered when they’re at the point of conversion. Make the button fully functional on your site, so that it preserves all of their information if they want to make any revisions/edits.

• Add ‘Add to Cart’ on every page: A low hanging fruit but an essential – utilize a progress bar to show the steps needed to complete checkout, and don’t forget to add an ‘Add to Cart’ button on every product detail page.

There’s plenty more where that came from, but for now patience is a virtue. However, don’t be a stranger – check back here on Tuesday for the much anticipated launch of our holiday guide.