What to Expect from the Best Local OTT/CTV Advertising Services

As we all know, over-the-top (OTT) advertising services have become a necessity in the marketing world, since people are increasingly dropping their traditional cable and satellite television subscriptions in favor of the convenience of streaming services.

Local broadcast television and cable viewership has been declining in popularity over the last few years, negatively impacting the audience reach of local advertising that goes along with it.  Taking advantage of OTT advertising with geo-targeting parameters is an increasingly viable way to guarantee you are still reaching your local audience, building brand awareness and staying top of mind in the process. OTT ads are the ads that you see when you are watching TV through a streaming service, like Hulu, Tubi TV, Crackle or Sling TV; a subset of OTT ads that are viewed specifically on a big TV screen, where the majority of viewing occurs, are called CTV (Connected TV) ads.

Using OTT Advertising Platforms

When you first decide to start buying space through OTT advertising, it can be challenging to navigate. How do you buy OTT ads? What streaming apps are a good fit and perform well? What targeting options are available and which ones should you use? What price should you be paying? What kind of reporting data is available and how timely is it?

While you can certainly buy ad placements directly from well-known publishers, like CBS or  Pluto TV or your local TV station app, it is challenging, limiting and impractical to buy each publisher placement individually. Imagine trying to negotiate rates, manage campaign delivery and interpreting results across multiple inventory partners…it would be a complexity and fragmentation nightmare! The best way to efficiently purchase OTT advertising space is through OTT/CTV advertising buying platforms. These platforms, often referred to as DSPs (demand side platforms) allow you to buy across hundreds of publisher apps simultaneously, employing data-driven targeting tactics to better reach specific audience segments with a level of granularity that is simply not available with traditional television.

Targeting

The best OTT advertising platforms offer targeting capabilities specifically designed for reaching OTT audiences. For geo-targeting, this means employing anything as broad as state, DMA, and county targeting, all the way down to zip code or individual household IP address targeting. In addition, robust demo targeting and interest/lifestyle/behavioral targeting can further narrow down target audiences to those that are truly most relevant to the advertiser’s offering. Employing such tactics means your ads are reaching more of the people you want to instead of just casting a wide net, crossing your fingers and hoping that your target audience happens to see your ad (as is the case in traditional linear TV advertising). If done correctly, you will end up getting more for your money with OTT advertising than you will with traditional TV advertising, and have the data to prove it.

Low Cost of Entry

Some local businesses are priced out of the traditional local TV advertising market due to high cost of entry. With OTT ad buying platforms like JamLoop, there are low to no minimums to encourage you to run a test campaign. This low cost of entry, coupled with the targeting efficiencies, means it’s easy to get going and prove your return on your investment with OTT.

Analytics

The best OTT advertising platforms offer you excellent analytics options to show you exactly where your ads are running and how your ads have been performing, all in real-time. For local advertisers, zip code reporting in real-time is particularly useful, as it let’s advertisers know how much exposure they are generating with specific local audiences. Having the ability to measure hyper-local results and making mid-campaign tweaks is the key to getting solid results.

Optimization

Delivery in local markets can be challenging. The complexities associated with optimizing campaign delivery while fulfilling multiple campaign goals simultaneously are significant: Imagine trying to deliver smoothly against specific demos and audience segments, with consistent CVR performance, a good (and fully transparent) mix of streaming apps, with reasonable frequency exposure, across multiple ad creatives — all in very specific zip codes? You can only optimize against all of these parameters simultaneously if you are measuring these parameters, recognizing any deviating from the ideal path, and making the necessary adjustments, all in real-time. This requires not only technology, but also expertise and resources to manage the process. The best solutions will provide capabilities in all three areas to get the job done — OTT-first technology, local expertise and, where needed, responsive human resources.

Is OTT Advertising Just a Fad?

Absolutely not! People have been cord-cutting at a much higher rate in the last few years, and the pandemic only accelerated this trend. Streaming services are simply a more convenient and flexible way for people to enjoy their TV shows on demand…and people seem to love binge-watching shows! Many local businesses have not yet adopted OTT advertising, so moving early can give local businesses a higher “share of voice” with local consumers and an edge over the competition. Are you ready to get started? Contact JamLoop today!