As Connected TV (CTV) continues to gain traction, it’s become an essential channel for advertisers seeking to engage with audiences in a more personalized way. However, running a successful CTV campaign is not just about understanding the Connected TVs themselves (there are too many brands anyway ?) but also about strategic planning and execution.
This guide is based on our experience and aims to empower you with the essentials for running a successful CTV campaign, from audience targeting to platform-specific optimizations.
It could also be seen as an excellent introduction for video services publishers who want to understand the buying side better.
Understanding the CTV Landscape
Before getting into the core of the post, it’s crucial to understand the differences between CTV and traditional linear TV like Cable or Broadcast. With its combination of regular television’s high-impact, primary, and large-screen experience and Internet advertising’s precision targeting and measurement capabilities, CTV is an excellent tool for advertisers.
Let’s now get into a list of practices we recommend considering making your campaign successful!
Core Strategies for CTV Campaign Success
We tried to regroup different themes and strategies. While it is not exhaustive, the idea was to give multiple ways to influence the result of your campaign.
Audience Targeting and Frequency Control
1. Prioritize Audience Targeting
First, one advantage of CTV is that you can use its advanced targeting to reach viewers based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Keeping the Marketing Funnel in mind will help you know where to position yourself and what personas you want to target.
The best approach is to begin with well-defined audience personas. By leveraging first-party and third-party data to maximize relevance and engagement, you can tailor your CTV campaign to these personas.
2. Goal-Based Reach and Frequency Optimization
When you are set on what target audience you want to reach, write down the goals based on campaign objectives. The first essential configuration should be to choose a monthly frequency cap exposure to avoid fatigue. Then, very quickly, adapt based on the marketing funnel position, with higher frequencies for retargeting.
Doing A/B testing on frequency is a good practice and can help optimize maximum recall without oversaturation.
Quality Content and Interactive Engagement
When you are happy with your targeting and the frequency of reach, it starts to matter to optimize your content with what matters most: your message and how viewers engage with it.
3. High-Quality Creative and Engaging Content
We highly suggest investing in high-resolution and engaging advertisements to capture viewer interest, especially since many CTV ads are unskippable and CTV is still the main screen in the house. You want to avoid seeing your brand pixelized.
New technologies, like Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO), can further personalize content in real time, enhancing engagement and impact.
4. Leverage Interactive Features
CTV’s interactivity can enhance engagement and bring the world of performance Ads on TV. Features like QR codes that lead to a product page, clickable ads that direct to an e-commerce website, and overlays that provide additional information allow viewers to engage more deeply without disrupting their experience. Many publishers propose CTV interactive inventories based on technology such as Click2 from Broadpeak. It is vital because interactive elements can lead to higher conversion rates (Roku is talking about 4 times better engagement than DRTV), making them valuable for brand- and performance-focused campaigns.
Strategic Ad Placement and Specifications
You have an audience and an ad creative. It is time for them to meet, always on the right screen.
5. Strategic Placement
As mentioned, setting frequency caps is essential, but more is needed. Strategically placing ads within the content stream (e.g., pre-roll, mid-roll) is crucial for optimizing viewability and completion rates.
For example, in terms of looking viewability, pre-roll ads are a great fit. They are shown before the content begins, capturing the viewer’s full attention while they’re actively waiting for the video to start. This placement has high viewability since viewers are already focused on the screen and anticipating content.
On the other hand, mid-roll ads appear during natural breaks, often in the middle of an engaging storyline or episode. By inserting ads here, you can capitalize on viewers’ interest, increasing the likelihood they’ll stay through the ad to continue watching the content, which boosts completion rates.
Finally, good placement can allow ads to appear in contextually relevant content. For example, an advertisement about fitness during a break in a sports program or a culinary product during a cooking show enhances relevance. It can improve the effectiveness of the ad. Think about that!
6. Publishers-Specific Specs and Compatibility
CTV ad specs are still highly fragmented. They vary significantly by platform, so consult your DSP account managers to ensure compatibility across all CTV publishers if that is your target. For example, Hulu and other Walled Gardens inventory sources may require unique specs.
A good practice is regularly testing how assets render across platforms to prevent quality loss.
7. Multi-Resolution Encoding for Broader Compatibility
This one is only available when your publisher is using old Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI) solutions or Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) platforms that are not as performant as broadpeak.io ? Indeed, broadpeak.io prepares (encodes, packages) your ad on the fly to fit whatever source your creative is going to blend in. Not everyone can do that. So, it may be a good idea to prevent this by preparing your content with multiple resolutions to fit on every screen.
The Ad Format Guidelines from IAB are a good starting point; read it here.
Integrated Cross-Platform Campaigning
While CTV is a good channel, your CTV strategy must be more global, including cross-platform campaigning.
8. Cross-Platform Consistency
One key point is integrating CTV with other digital and traditional channels, such as social media and display ads, to create a cohesive campaign narrative and significantly impact your viewers.
Cross-platform campaigns reinforce your brand message across multiple touchpoints, boosting recall and engagement. Make sure you revisit the different channels and make your selection carefully.
For example, social media is a good fit with CTV. Social media platforms offer extensive reach and precise targeting capabilities, which can effectively complement CTV campaigns. Their interactive and visual formats align well with CTV content, making it easy to reinforce brand messaging and retarget users who have seen CTV ads.
One best practice is to use short video snippets or interactive ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to drive engagement. Then, retarget viewers who engage with CTV ads, allowing you to reinforce the campaign across multiple devices and touchpoints.
Another example can be taken with Digital Audio (for instance, Podcasts or Streaming Music Platforms). Audio platforms, like Spotify, Pandora, and podcasts, provide additional “lean-back” media experiences, similar to what viewers experience when watching linear channels on CTV. Audio ads reinforce brand messages in a non-intrusive way.
A good tactic is to run audio ads that echo or reinforce your CTV messaging. For example, if your CTV campaign features a new product, an audio ad can provide additional details or offer a unique promo code to drive action.
Ensuring Quality, Safety, and Brand Integrity
Your campaign is well prepared. You have checked all the cases, but check the most important ones! It would be best to ensure the brand’s safety and soundness. How?
9. Secure High-Quality Inventory
One obvious way to ensure your brand’s safety is to opt for Private Marketplaces (PMP) or programmatic guaranteed deals with reliable partners, as these can help avoid low-quality inventory. This approach ensures ads appear on premium channels, enhancing brand credibility and minimizing exposure to ad fraud. Ask if the publishers are using Client-Side Ad Tracking with an SDK certified by IAB OM (like Broadpeak Smart Lib).
10. Brand Safety and Ad Fraud Prevention
Another good way is to collaborate with partners like DoubleVerify or Integral Ad Science, which offer fraud prevention tools like blocklists, category exclusions, and invalid traffic detection.
For instance, an ad campaign for a family-friendly brand might utilize a blocklist to exclude adult content websites, violent gaming sites, or other categories that don’t align with the brand’s values. Conversely, allowlists can ensure ads only appear on verified, high-quality publishers or premium websites, reducing the risk of ads appearing on unsafe or low-quality sites.
Lately, AI-driven filters have popped up to identify low-quality environments and regularly monitor app or URL placements for added security.
11. Verification and Fraud Monitoring
Since verification standards vary, work with providers integrated with CTV platforms. As mentioned, tracking tools like OpenMeasurement SDK enhance transparency, while lift studies can help gauge campaign effectiveness beyond basic view counts. Push your publishers to integrate solutions like broadpeak.io for better transparency and visibility.
Efficient Resource Allocation and Campaign Setup
Now that your campaign is ready and your budget is approved, it is go-time, but you may not have the time and resources to set it up.
12. Outsourcing to CTV Ad-Tech Specialists
If your time or in-house expertise could be improved, consider ad-tech providers like VFR.ai, JamLoop, or Danads, which offer full-service CTV solutions. These partners can handle ad creation and distribution, allowing you to launch high-quality campaigns quickly and efficiently.
On the other hand, we see publishers working with great AdOps like OrkaTV, TViQ, AWG or TVAds to optimize on the supply side as well. When specialists meet specialists!
13. Direct Inventory vs SSP vs. DPS Partnerships
There are different ways to buy inventory, and you need to find what is good for you:
- Buying directly from premium platforms (e.g., Hulu, Peacock, or other publishers with their agency) can enhance targeting precision and quality control.
- Working with SSPs like Magnite or Freewheel offers more transparency and effective budget use, mainly targeting specific demographics.
- Use DSPs like The Trade Desk or Amazon DSP for scalable access to CTV audiences. DSPs offer advanced targeting features, demographic filters, and broader reach without the need for individual partnerships.
Continuous Performance Optimization
Finally, a campaign is running, hoorah! However, the job still needs to be done.
14. Data-Driven Optimization
It is critical to understand that CTV campaigns benefit from real-time data analysis—track metrics like view-through rates, completion rates, and click-through rates to optimize performance.
Knowing how to enable A/B testing can help refine creatives and targeting for continuous improvement. Remember to consider this!
15. Comprehensive Success Measurement
Your success will be one only if you can measure it.
For a complete view of campaign success, we recommend monitoring surface-level metrics (reach, impressions) and digging into more profound engagement indicators (viewable impressions, completion rates).
Another knowledge source could be managing brand lift studies, or audience surveys can provide additional insights, informing future strategies.
Conclusion
CTV advertising offers a unique blend of precision targeting and engaging, immersive content, making it a powerful tool in the modern marketer’s arsenal. By following these best practices—prioritizing audience targeting, creating high-quality content, leveraging interactivity, managing ad frequency, optimizing based on data, ensuring brand safety, integrating across platforms, and measuring the right metrics—you can unlock the full potential of your CTV campaigns.
By following these guidelines, your brand can engage effectively with viewers and drive meaningful results that will contribute to long-term success in the CTV space.
Remember to push for solutions like broadpeak.io with your publishers. That will ensure the best brand experience and transparency for your numbers!
