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OTT/CTV Advertising

FAQ Page

What is connected TV advertising?

CTV Advertising FAQ

What is OTT/CTV Advertising?

OTT (over-the-top) advertising is television advertising delivered directly to viewers through internet streaming devices such as connected TVs, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, gaming consoles, smartphones and tablets, rather than through cable or satellite TV. The content consists of full-length TV shows, movies, live sports, news and events. The consumer ad viewing experience is just like traditional TV, where 0:15 or 0:30 second non-skippable ads appear during content breaks, requiring the audience to watch ads before continuing with the content, creating advertiser brand awareness.

OTT (“over-the-top”) comes from the ability to bypass traditional TV providers that control media distribution, typically via cable services, giving advertisers the ability to reach audiences directly.

CTV (“Connected TV”) refers to the primary screen on which streaming content is viewed, typically the large screen in the living room. Approximately 85% of all streaming TV viewing happens on CTV, with the other 12% on phones & tablets and 3% on laptops.

What are the benefits of OTT/CTV Advertising?

OTT/CTV advertising combines the branding power and scale of traditional TV with the targetability and measurability of digital advertising. Benefits include:

  • Power of TV Branding: Build impactful brand awareness via a full-screen, non-skippable instream TV advertising experience on premium content.
  • Pinpointed Targeting & Measurability of Digital: Leverage consumer data to reach precise audience segments…. targeting that enhances relevance and eliminates the waste of traditional broad demo-based TV buys
  • Broad Scale & Incremental Reach: Incremental reach beyond linear TV – it’s the only way to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers, which make up 27% of households in 2021, 35% by 2024
  • Low Cost of Entry: Lower cost of entry than traditional TV

What questions should buyers ask when making a OTT/CTV buy?

  • How do I best target my audience? What targeting segments should I be using?
  • How do I control and measure reach and frequency across the campaign?
  • Do I know what streaming apps I’m running on for every delivered impression? Do I have complete transparency on my placements?
  • Is the content true full-length shows & movies or is short-form content mixed in?
  • Do I know what technology platform I’m running on? Does my vendor own the platform or are they reselling someone else’s platform? Do they really understand the platform?
  • How can I make mid-campaign changes and how fast is the turnaround?
  • Do I have a direct working relationship with my campaign manager and are they responsive?
  • Is my reporting in real-time or do I have to wait until reports are created manually?
  • Do I get impression-level reporting for auditing purposes?
  • If it’s a geo-targeted campaign, do I know what zip codes I’m running in?
  • How competitive are my CPMs?
  • Is there a minimum spend?

How much scale does OTT/CTV advertising have?

Streaming TV went mainstream in 2020. With almost 70% of U.S. consumers streaming television on a regular basis (comScore – April 2020), the scale of CTV/OTT advertising is significant, and it is the only way to reach the 53 million “streaming-only” TV viewers who have already cut their cable/satellite cords. OTT is quickly becoming mainstream, as 52% of U.S. adults (18+) use at least one OTT service, while almost a third of Americans 55+ watch OTT content.

Looking for recent articles on why OTT is so hot?  You’ll find a few here:

JamLoop FAQ

What makes JamLoop different?

Deal directly with the platform, don’t deal with the middleman. Why

1, 2, 3…very simple. 

1 – JamLoop is an OTT/CTV ad platform company. Unlike most vendors that simply resell inventory purchased on another ad tech provider’s platform, we built & operate our own proprietary OTT-first DSP engine. Being so close to the platform inherently gives us advantages for insights and control over delivery. We buy inventory directly from Publishers under preferential terms, giving you unmatched transparency, control & pricing efficiencies in ways that a basic reseller can’t.

2 – Our campaign managers are platform experts who work as an extension of your team to engage in a dynamic and flexible process, saving you time and money while achieving great, measurable results.  Since we own and operate the ad platform, our campaign managers have the controls directly at their fingertips to take immediate action — from getting creative live quickly to monitoring reach and frequency to making mid-campaign zip code adjustments — resulting in timely and accurate responses to evolving campaign needs. No long turnaround times, no “I’ll get back to you on that” while contacting 3rd party ad platform providers to understand underlying issues and to reach resolution.

3 – Many vendors include non-premium, short-form content in a loosely-defined inventory mix called “OTT/CTV”, yet they don’t offer fully-transparent reporting to disclose it. As resellers, some vendors don’t even fully understand the inventory mix themselves because they don’t own & operate their own ad tech platform. By contrast, JamLoop’s platform provides impression-level detail for all campaigns via a self-service, real-time reporting dashboard.  We bring transparency to the process so that you know exactly what you are buying.

What is JamLoop’s pricing?

We generally charge a flat CPM, inclusive of demo and geo-targeting targeting.  For example, reaching A25-54 in the New York DMA costs the same as reaching F18+ in Los Angeles zip codes. We may charge a small premium for select behavioral, psychographic or interest-based audience segments, and will include these details in our proposal.

What kind of data partners does JamLoop work with?

We work with 70+ data providers (3rd party data)  to target against 14K+ unique audience segments with demographic, psychographic, behavioral and interest-based characteristics. Notable data providers include comScore, Experian, Lotame, Oracle, Polk, V12, Kantar and many more. 

We will share recommended audience segments as part of the proposal process. In addition, through our partnerships with TruOptik and LiveRamp, we support onboarding and targeting of 1st party “opt-in” CRM data, which may consist of combination email, physical address and contact information. We report on data usage at the impression level for a given campaign.

Are JamLoop’s ads clickable?

Viewers need to actively select (via remote) or click to play the video content, and then we can direct a user to click on the video to any webpage. However, the user experience for OTT/Video in general is a branding experience (lean-back, watch the video to completion) not an interactive click experience; moreover, the majority of ad impressions for OTT is viewed on a big screen and typically does not offer a click call to action, whereas video on mobile or desktop devices may offer this. 

To sum it up, enabling a click is supported and tracked on our platform but it may not be what viewers are expecting from the creative.

How does JamLoop handle fraud? Does JamLoop have an anti-fraud solution?

We only work with select premium publishers directly to access their inventory on our platform, either through direct VAST tag connections or through private Deal IDs made available to JamLoop on various exchanges; we do not do any open market exchange buying, where the majority of fraud activity occurs.  In addition, our private exchange partners employ various anti-fraud tools to insure that any suspicious activity is identified and minimized. 

We support 3rd party ad server tags for customers that want to track impression activity themselves in parallel, and we disclose impression-level log detail to support any customer auditing process.

What inventory does JamLoop have and how do you source it?

CTV/OTT Ads are placed in curated list of TV shows, movies and live events across a mix of:

  • Broadcast & Cable Networks: CBS, CNN, Discovery, NBCU, Viacom, etc.
  • AVOD Streaming Apps: Hulu, Fubo tv, Philo TV, Sling TV, etc.
  • Device OEMs: Samsung, Vizio, LG, etc.
  • OTT Native Apps: Pluto TV, Tubi, FilmRise, Newsy, Local TV stations, etc.

Our FEP (Full-Episode Player) product includes only placements within full-episode content, which means a TV show at least 20 minutes long or a full-length movie or complete live event.  Unlike some other vendors, we do not include short-form content clips as part of our premium FEP product, and we are fully transparent in placement reporting for every ad impression.

For OTT/CTV, we only buy publisher direct, we do not buy any “open exchange” inventory. We manually vet every app name/app bundle/channel/network combination prior to allowing into our universe of FEP inventory. To be part of our inventory universe, inventory must be professionally produced long form content available on cable and streaming services.

We have negotiated direct access to every major premium OTT inventory source available, covering both traditional and digital-only publisher brands.  These direct publisher relationships give us (and you!) access to preferential pricing and scale. Our direct buying relationships, managed through our proprietary DSP platform, give us maximum control over campaign delivery, quality and pricing.

For short-form pre roll, we buy on a curated list of private marketplaces (PMPs).

Does JamLoop support self-serve?

We offer self-serve, real-time reporting and automated emailed reporting. Our campaign setup & management is delivered via a managed service by our expert Ad Operations team, and our Account Management team is available to interpret campaign results, make recommendations and handle any campaign tweaks. We strive to respond same-day if possible and definitely within 24 hours. Part of our value proposition is to help you navigate the very dynamic and complex world of OTT to deliver successful results on your behalf. Our team has access to real-time data (you do too!), and we can respond quickly to any required changes…think of us as an extension of your ad operations team.

How does JamLoop address Brand Safety with their ad inventory?

JamLoop ensures brand safety and suitability through its highly-curated approach of OTT/CTV inventory supply sourcing and campaign management. For inventory sourcing, JamLoop only buys inventory directly from premium streaming app Publishers (e.g. broadcast and cable networks or AVOD provides) and other stakeholders who directly control content distribution (e.g. streaming TV or device manufacturers like Vizio, Samsung, LG); we do not buy any public exchange inventory.

For campaign management, JamLoop implements a strict and customer pre-approved “inclusion/exclusion list” that explicitly accepts or rejects placements at the individual app level, so that no inadvertent placements are made.

Further default controls are put in place by blocking any Kids or Mature Adult content placements. Finally, our streamlined campaign management with in-flight performance optimization, daily and post-campaign reporting and overall customer support enable our customers to invest in OTT/CTV media with confidence.

Targeting & Creative FAQ

What devices/screens will my ads appear on?

We reach audiences on any device where they watch streaming TV, including Smart TVs, streaming boxes like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chrome sticks, etc. and on Gaming Consoles like XBOX. The majority (80%+) of ad viewing appears on the big TV screen (aka Connected TV or “CTV”), while the remainder is on a mix of smartphones, tablets and laptops.

It is possible for us to target specific devices or screens, though we consider a best practice to reach consumers wherever they watch streaming TV. We report on the screen mix for every impression in our real-time reporting console.

What kind of targeting is possible?

JamLoop’s audience targeting solution is purpose-built for OTT/CTV, reaching over 80 million households and representing over 90% of U.S. homes . Through our data platform partners TruOptik and LiveRamp, we can activate on 14K+ unique data segments from dozens of branded 3rd-party data providers, including comScore, Experian, Lotame, Oracle, L2, i360, Polk, V12, Kantar and many more.

Targeting types include:

  • Geo (National, State, DMA, County, Zip, Political District)
    Demo (Age & Gender)
  • Income & Education
  • Behaviors & Interests / Lifestyle & Attitude / Purchase History / Content Verticals / Political Affiliation
  • Device & Screen Type

    We support onboarding and targeting against “opt-in” 1st-party CRM data, and re-targeting against IP addresses and device IDs. We provide real-time campaign reporting against any of these targeting parameters at the impression-level.

Targeting in CTV/OTT leverages online and offline data such as browsing behavior, purchase history, app usage, location history and household zip codes to target audiences based on demographics, behaviors & interests, or household addressability, which goes far beyond what is possible in traditional TV.

Since consumer ad exposure is tracked in real-time, the success of an OTT ad campaign can also be measured and optimized in real-time.

Can I choose the publisher mix? Can I block certain publishers?

We will only run ads on an approved publisher list and we share this list with you in advance during the proposal process. We allow publisher whitelisting/blacklisting at the app & domain level.

We guarantee impression/budget delivery in full across our approved publisher list, we do not guarantee impression delivery on any single publisher.

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