Advertisers want to follow the eyeballs, and CTV ad spending is expected to grow by 14.4% this year. While brands are more likely to invest in CTV than linear, advertisers want to know that there is a transparent and assured way of demonstrating a return on investment on the channel. And while CTV might be the hot new thing, clarity around metrics, insights and brand-safe, quality content is critical. For CTV to truly gain buyer confidence and mature, there are several goals that marketing teams are working to achieve.

Thorough and transparent post-campaign reporting gives advertisers insights into CTV performance

Linear TV advertising essentially works one way. Media buyers make upfront deals with networks, guaranteeing their ads will run alongside the shows that attract their audience. Things have shifted recently as shrewd brands leverage the scatter market — all of the advertising inventory not bought at upfronts — and detailed analysis beyond basic gross rating points (GRPs). The old model persists for one big reason: brands know what they are buying against. This transparency provides the confidence to be happy with being associated with any networks or content.

This exists in some areas of the CTV market, but it’s hardly standard across the ecosystem, especially in the broader programmatic CTV landscape. Streaming is an on-demand format, so media buys aren’t the same as purchasing an NFL game Sundays at 1 p.m. Sellers have also been slow to pass back details around programming because of technical reasons, business decisions or, maybe, not realizing how critical this data is for the market.

Regardless, post-campaign reporting is the only way brands can really see what programs they run against. The problem is that a detailed breakdown with content, genre or even show-level data is not the norm right now. Brands know which streaming channel their ads run against, but more detail than that is hard to come by consistently. Without this, brands have little understanding about the kinds of programming that are suitable, drive performance and help reach their target audience. For brands to continue to spend on CTV, knowing where they are running to assess quality, suitability and performance is a top priority.

Developing and implementing suitability controls to help brands find quality content

CTV is widely regarded as a safe environment for advertisers, but the need for suitability controls has been challenging to scale. On paper, CTV combines TV’s engagement power with digital media’s targeting strategies. Brands adopt suitability in their display campaigns to ensure that ads don’t appear alongside objectionable or offensive content. CTV is different because brands need to apply broader suitability and quality controls that will not materially impact scale.

For example, ‘Squid Game’ was …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron