The average American consumer’s daily routine might look something like this: Wake up, scroll through social media and news feeds, play a podcast during the commute to work, peruse industry news throughout the day, and stream a TV show at night to wind down before bed.
This isn’t just an anecdote. Research shows that in North America the average number of devices and connections per person increased from 8.2 in 2018 to 13.4 in 2023.
The number of touchpoints consumers have with the digital world creates tremendous opportunities for advertisers to reach them with relevant and personalized content. Unfortunately, few advertisers – only 11% – believe they are leveraging an effective omnichannel strategy.
Every advertiser will have a different approach based on the brand and business goals, but there is one element they should all use if they want to succeed: connected TV (CTV).
CTV is considered premium content – professionally developed and curated where consumers choose what they want to be watching. Not only does it deliver a superior user experience, but it yields better results for advertisers. In fact, we’ve seen the highest quality channels can drive a 50% higher likelihood of website visits from consumers.
When leveraging the following best practices, advertisers will realize a number of additional benefits to their campaigns.
Resist the Temptation to Measure Against Click-through Conversions
When it comes to media measurement, marketers typically put more emphasis on click-through conversions, because a click can feel like a more intentional action by consumers.
CTV, by contrast, relies on view-through conversion – meaning a user goes to an advertisers’ site organically without clicking the ad. Since this metric doesn’t allow for active viewer engagement, CTV might seem like a passive medium that isn’t worth the investment. However, we found that after seeing a CTV ad, target audiences needed 50% fewer impressions before they visited an advertiser’s website. Fewer impressions can quickly amount to media savings, which can then be reinvested in reaching new consumers.
Leverage Tracking Tags to Evaluate Programmatic Plan Efficacy
A tracking tag, or a pixel, is a piece of HTML or JavaScript code that is placed on a webpage to track visitor activity on the page for the reporting and attribution purposes. When coupled with UTM – a piece of code placed at the end of a URL designed to identify website traffic sources – advertisers can easily evaluate the efficacy of their programmatic plan in driving paid search conversions.
The search ad market overall remains a dominant channel in advertising,accounting for over 40 percent of the U.S. digital ad spending in 2022. As such, it’s important that advertisers leverage strategies that maximize the efficiency of their spend on the channel. CTV can deliver on this. In fact, we found that when a user saw a CTV ad, there was a 232% increase in the likelihood that they would search for the brand and click on its paid search ad.
Optimize Frequency Capping to Reach New Users
98% of Americans expect the same experience from a brand online as they switch between devices on any given day, and they will not hesitate to shop elsewhere if transitions between touchpoints are not seamless.
With frequency capping, advertisers can improve the ad experience by limiting the number of impressions a user can see within a given time period in a frequency cycle.
This practice is most effective when advertisers allocate most or all of their spend towards the same platform, allowing them to cap across all channels and campaigns. In addition to maximizing the consumer experience, consolidated ad spend on one platform also allows advertisers to reinvest dollars to find new audiences, instead of just reaching the same ones over and over again. Across Q2, we saw that this reinvestment resulted in brands reaching over 8 million new users on The Trade Desk’s platform.
Pair A Multi-Device Approach With Cross-Channel Technology
Taking a multi-device approach solves for the new consumer trend of hyperconnectivity across channels and devices. This enables advertisers to target a distinct, but privacy-conscious, identifier, delivering content at the moments and on the channels that will have the greatest impact.
Advertisers should leverage analytical tools to make this process iterative. By analyzing these interactions, they can better identify and understand the most effective means of engagement throughout the customer journey.
With this approach, we have seenmain conversions take only four days, while a single channel strategy takes as long as 19 days. The multi-device approach also allows advertisers using the platform to attain conversions in 80% less time.
As consumers become more hyper connected across devices, it is crucial that advertisers leverage the power of CTV with these best practices to reach consumers when and where it matters most in the most efficient way possible.
For more such updates, follow us on Google News Martech News
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sairaj Uddin, SVP of Technology at The Trade Desk
With over 25 years of experience in software development and distributed systems, Sairaj is the SVP Technology at The Trade Desk, a global leader in programmatic advertising. Leading a Technology organization of 900+ Sairaj oversees the technology innovation and operations of the company, ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of its platforms and products. As a software development expert, Sairaj has led multiple teams and projects, delivering high-quality solutions that meet the needs and expectations of clients and partners. He is passionate about leveraging agile methodologies, cutting-edge technologies and data-driven insights to create value and impact for our industry and society. He is driven by the mission of empowering the open internet and fostering a culture of collaboration, diversity, and excellence at The Trade Desk.