As the marketplace becomes more saturated and competitive, direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers are under an increased amount of pressure to prove the effectiveness of their campaigns – leaving them to explore new media channels to drive results for their brands and reach new audiences.
David Zapletal, Chief Operating Officer, was featured in The Drum discussing the benefits of connected TV (CTV) as a new media channel for DTC brands to improve campaign performance. Here’s a look at what he shared:
Many of the reasons why DTCs are increasingly upping their CTV investments are straightforward—even intuitive. DTCs, from already doing so much business digitally, have access to the first-party data that enables efficient CTV targeting.
CTV is high-quality media, with low levels of fraud relative to many other digital channels and with 100% viewable inventory. They can use similar KPIs in CTV that they use in online campaigns – online conversions, site visits, and the like. And they can target very specifically, allowing them all the benefits of consumers’ engagement with the TV screen without dealing with the cost of reaching all viewers of a program via linear. DTCs are seeing the value of developing compelling creative for CTV and shifting spend to maximize their budget.
CTV allows marketers to define outcomes and choose a sophisticated attribution model – a custom attribution window allows brands to define their conversion window, methodology (for example, first- and last-touch, and more advanced methods like linear and time decay), and KPIs. From there, they can optimize towards the interactions that drive performance – and effectively measure real-world actions that were driven by the campaign.
When making a push into CTV, DTC marketers need to consider the metrics and outcomes that are important to them and understand where and how to get insights on those metrics and outcomes. CTV offers exceptionally broad insights to help meet DTC marketers’ unique goals. Impressions and video completion rates (VCR) don’t tell the whole story of a campaign. Marketers need to track user actions throughout the entire marketing funnel. CTV advanced reporting measures valuable bottom-funnel actions, including site visits, online purchases, in-store visits, app downloads, and more – not just brand lift and awareness.
CTV isn’t simply the next emerging channel for DTC marketers to explore—it’s a powerful channel that can drive performance metrics where previously “tried and true” channels aren’t cutting it and can inform cross-platform campaign optimization.
Whether you’re a DTC marketer just getting started in the CTV/OTT space or looking to take your current campaigns to the next level, Digital Remedy is here to help. Speak to a member of our team to learn more.
Check out the full article on The Drum, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest Digital Remedy updates.
With its precise targeting and direct attribution capabilities, OTT/CTV advertising has become a powerful new performance-based opportunity for marketers. As more and more brands have discovered the potential to effectively reach high-value audiences and measure return on ad spend (ROAS), spending on OTT/CTV advertising has skyrocketed and is expected to surge 40% this year to over $14.4b—more than doubling by 2024 to nearly $30b.
With precision targeting and deterministic measurement, performance CTV provides a unique opportunity for marketers to reach highly-engaged audiences. But for marketers who are new to the channel, especially those who are more familiar with linear TV, OTT/CTV might feel a bit disorienting. Our own, Ben Brenner, VP of Business Development & Strategy, was recently featured in Street Fight Magazine, where he discussed some tips for getting started and how to fully maximize your performance CTV strategy. Here’s an overview of what he had to say:
Unlike linear TV, where an ad buy will stay in rotation for a fixed period of time, CTV buys can (and should be) much more dynamic, fluid, and iterative. With CTV, it’s much easier to launch, adjust, and optimize targeting throughout your campaign’s flight.
With CTV, you can use first-party data to target both existing and prospective customers in a variety of ways, including using your CRM list to target existing customers with new product launches, excluding existing users to reach only new audiences for prospecting campaigns, and using known user data to surface look-a-like consumers to connect with new high-value prospects.
There is a huge variety of third-party data sources available that can help to target ads on CTV, including data on purchases, viewership, search and browser history, location, in-store visits, and more.
With CTV, you can get full attribution visibility—when someone makes a purchase, you can look back to see which ad they saw on what platform, during which program, and at what time of day. By understanding this sequence and the attributes of every ad exposure, not just the last one, marketers can fine-tune ad targeting and delivery to maximize conversions and identify new users who are most likely to convert.
Look for a partner who can offer both first- and third-party data integrations, directly access a wide variety of streaming publishers, and provide both attribution tracking and real-time optimization, with complete transparency into the process so there are no surprises.
Check out the full article on Street Fight and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest Digital Remedy updates. Interested in learning more about performance CTV? Watch our on-demand webinar or speak to a member of our team.
While U.S. ad spend on CTV is expected to reach $18.29b by 2024, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have been much slower to make the move—with most continuing to allocate the majority of their budget to social and search, their longtime go-to channels for customer acquisition.
Product Insights Marketing Manager, Brittany Paril, recently discussed why there’s never been a better time for DTC marketers to invest in the CTV/OTT space—and why working with a trusted, experienced media partner is crucial. Here’s a look at the top reasons CTV/OTT is a beneficial part of the media mix and the unique opportunities it provides DTC marketers:
CTV/OTT doesn’t suffer the same trust issues as social, making it more likely that viewers will interact with ads given the high-quality, lean-in format of these channels.
While the social and search spaces have become saturated, CTV/OTT provides a much broader selection of devices, platforms, and channels for DTC brands to reach audiences on.
Just as DTC customers want the curated, personalized experience they get from their favorite DTC brands, CTV/OTT advertising provides advertisers the same capability for reaching the right audience—offering various targeting levers that they can activate based on their specific goals.
With the right data partner, DTC brands can measure the specific actions (site visits/purchases, store visits, app downloads, etc.) users take as a result of being exposed to the brand’s OTT ad.
CTV/OTT gives them an opportunity to differentiate their brand in a relatively untapped market. Because this channel is still relatively undiscovered by most DTC brands, it’s a prime opportunity to grab the attention of this valuable audience before your competitors do.
You can check out the full article on Street Fight. Whether you’re a DTC marketer just getting started in the CTV/OTT space or looking to take your campaigns to the next level, Digital Remedy is here to help. To learn more, speak with a member of our team—and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest updates.
