Top Trends To Watch In CTV For 2022
The buzz around connected TV and streaming video has been the same for a few years now – high adoption rates, strong engagement. For 2022, one expert believes combining contextual advertising strategies with CTV could be a game changer. Here’s how.
The Strength Of CTV
“The [CTV] industry has continued to innovate new ways in which advertisers can reach their target audiences, wherever they are – and right now, many of them are on CTV. Free ad supported streaming TV is increasingly taking its rightful place at the core of brand’s media mix,” said Mel Bahassa, SVP of Demand, Connatix. “As advertisers look to buy inventory on streaming platforms, they have begun implementing more interactive and performance-capable advertisements to capture consumer attention. As engagement and ad spend continue to surge, we’ve seen improvements and expansions in these strategies.”
Bahassa notes that the rise of shoppable TV is showcasing new ways to simply convert consumers and generate more revenue. Advertisers are also beginning to leverage CTV’s capabilities to transform drive action based goals like conversions and downloads while providing seamless and convenient shopping experiences through services like Amazon Prime, YouTube and others.
Combining Contextual And CTV Strategies Can Reduce Fragmentation Effects
One issue, however, is the fragmentation of the CTV space. According to Bahassa, fragmentation is making it more difficult for marketers to reach and measure audiences in a holistic manner. At the same time, CTV doesn’t have a one-to-one audience targeting method, and more streaming services are entering the space daily. For this reason, Bahassa believe CTV strategies and contextual ad strategies should begin to merge.
“However, thanks to contextual, brands can leverage its capabilities to target via the content streaming on CTV. This makes sense when you think about why advertisers are even buying CTV? They’re buying channels, shows, and the names behind an episode. It’s just a matter of getting alignment across the industry to use contextual in CTV,” said Bahassa. “The spike in CTV and video viewership coupled with the capabilities of contextual advertising pose significant opportunities for advertisers to boost brand awareness and engagement. However, contextual providers must look beyond video metadata, and further into video content in order to properly support their advertising partners. If managed and executed as such, CTV and contextual provide an opportunity for advertisers to target, reach, engage, and ultimately convert audiences.”
Top 3 Tips For A Stronger CTV/Contextual Ad Strategy
First, plan for content analysis
“As the industry turns to contextual targeting, it must ensure that such solutions are scalable and sustainable alternatives. Thankfully, today’s machine learning-driven contextual and automation technologies make content analysis easier and more useful. Successful contextual partners will continue to develop these data driven solutions, prepared to react and adapt to the dynamic nature of digital advertising,” said Bahassa. “To that notion, contextual strategies must also evolve – moving beyond segmentation to content analysis in order to best support brands as they aim to target audiences in an ever-changing news cycle.”
Second, focus on scalability
“The rise of CTV has incentivized increased fragmentation across apps, devices, and platforms as additional players enter the space. In turn, we will see increased competition in the environment, resulting in decreased prices. Strategic marketers will prepare for this change and capitalize on the opportunity to scale fast and cheap on CTV in the new year. And, as marketers continue to invest in CTV, DSPs and SSPs will be necessary in order to meet growing demand,” said Bahassa.
