CTV Advertising Guide: Powering Growth Through Change

Few areas of the media landscape have been in focus over the past year as streaming video content has. With a growing wealth of platform and program choice, the options for consumers continue to expand and diversify. The rise in streaming usage has currently fueled a concurrent rise in connected TV (CTV) access, which facilitates users’ ability to tap into the wealth of online streaming video content. In fact, 77% of U.S. homes now have at least one connected device, and CTV usage has increased by 123% since 2018.

Given that CTV advertising combines the scale and influence of linear TV with the precision and personalization of digital, it’s no surprise that eMarketer expects it to reach over $13 billion this year, up 48.6% from 2020. In essence, CTV is bringing linear and digital media buyers onto the same playing field for the first time. Importantly, these buyers have different approaches and knowledge when it comes to ad buying, which can be challenging to reconcile. But with the right perspective, those challenges can be easily navigated to everyone’s benefit.

With consumers rapidly adapting to a new way of consuming content, the key to success is capitalizing on the unique opportunities that CTV offers and coupling this lucrative medium within your omnichannel media plan combined with linear TV and digital. However, the relative newness of ad buying for CTV, coupled with the nuanced nature of the CTV landscape, presents a unique hurdle for marketers with experience in other mediums. Internal knowledge gaps are one of the top three challenges marketers struggle with when it comes to CTV adoption, followed by organizational buy-in and measurement capabilities, as discussed in the recently published Nielsen Annual Marketing Report. The hesitance and uncertainty isn’t surprising, given the myriad of buying options and uncertainty about how to measure it within the context of other buys.

Internal knowledge gaps are one of the top three challenges marketers struggle with when it comes to CTV adoption, followed by organizational buy-in and measurement capabilities

To sum it all up, marketers across industries know that CTV presents a wealth of new opportunities, but it is new territory for many and with so many ways to execute it’s no wonder marketers are left with so many unanswered questions. Download the guide to learn best practices and common pitfalls for a successful CTV advertising strategy, including how to approach audience buying and measuring how effectively your ads reached your target audiences.