The growing number of households that are hooking up their televisions to the internet is producing vast amounts of data about what kinds of programming and advertising is being delivered to viewers. As marketers face greater pressure to produce measurable results and business outcomes from their campaigns, connected television (CTV) is adding a new dimension to their media strategies.
“That ability to align with and ultimately reach a specific audience or a specific individual and ultimately have an outcome be driven by that engagement — that’s really what an advertiser is looking for,” Alex Gardner, chief revenue officer at ad-tech company Index Exchange, said in this interview with Beet.TV.
“That could be the purchase of a vehicle, it could be entering into a brick-and-mortar store. It can be the sale of shampoo or deodorant or a pair of shoes,” he said of the outcomes that are meaningful to advertisers. “At the end of the day, you ultimately want to have that specific outcome that leads to some type of transaction, for the most part.”
It’s crucial to define the qualities of CTV and what makes it different from other kinds of video, such as user-generated content of varying quality on streaming platforms such as YouTube or social video apps such as TikTok.
“We’re really talking about the highest-quality inventory — broadcast long-form, living-room, lean-back inventory. That’s really what we’re talking about when we reference CTV,” Gardner said. “It’s the broadcasters and programmers that we’re all familiar with. The NBCs and the ABCs and the Disneys and the Paramounts and these organizations that really put a level of investment in creating content that is of the most premium and the highest quality.”
While CTV resembles traditional linear television with its high-quality, brand-safe programming, it differs by offering more precise audience targeting and advanced performance metrics.
“For an advertiser, their marketing spend is ultimately aligned to an expectation or an outcome, a return on ad spend,” Gardner said, “That is certainly true in the context of CTV: that level of investment, that ability to align with and ultimately reach a specific audience or a specific individual and ultimately have an outcome be driven by that engagement.”
You are watching “Driving Audience Strategies with CTV Performance Data,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series Presented by MNTN. For more videos, please visit this page.
