Connected TV (CTV) ad spend growth outpaces most other channels, increasing nationwide at a rate of 33.1%.
Marketers love CTV ads for their robust targeting capabilities and the ability to measure performance in real-time.
Still, achieving a positive ROI from a CTV campaign involves more than just placing an ad — it requires planning, tracking, and optimization.
This article will help you get the most out of connected TV marketing by showing you five strategies for taking your CTV campaigns to the next level.
Calculating ROI From Your CTV Campaigns
Calculating the return you get on each advertising dollar spent is fairly straightforward. All you have to do is subtract your initial investment from its final value, then divide the result by your initial investment. Once you have that number, you only need to multiply it by 100 to get the figure as a percentage.
For example, if your initial investment is $10,000, and the value of that investment rises to $15,000 by the end of your campaign period, then your ROI is 50%. ($15,000 – 10,000)/$10,000 x 100 = 50%.
This formula works for all kinds of investments, including CTV campaigns. The key is to make sure you track the right metrics and optimize accordingly. Here are five tips to help you maximize your CTV ad ROI.
5 Ways to Maximize ROI From CTV Advertising
Of course, the main goal of any CTV ad campaign is to maximize its return. Here are five key strategies to help you do just that.
1. Use CTV targeting to your advantage.
The most significant benefit of CTV over traditional television advertising is its ability to target viewers.
Granular targeting capabilities like geography, demographics, and interests allow you to reach the right audience with your message.
For example, a marketer promoting a luxury car brand could target affluent viewers in high-income zip codes with a higher likelihood of owning expensive vehicles. This way, they can increase their odds of converting viewers into customers and maximize their ROI.
As they continue the campaign, they could use data analytics to optimize their campaign, identifying which demographics respond best to their ads, and honing in on those types of viewers.
2. Centralize your data and analytics.
Effective advertising is next to impossible without a unified analytics strategy. Without it, you risk leaving money on the table.
With the average brand using 18 different data sources, it can be challenging to create a cohesive story that informs decision-making. Only 14% of marketing organizations claim to have a complete 360-degree view of their customer base, leaving them susceptible to operational and legal issues.
Operating through disconnected silos wastes valuable resources, with media planners struggling to make sense of disparate data sources.
By gaining unfiltered visibility into your data at scale, you can create a truly transformative consumer-centric advertising experience that drives better ROI.
3. Lean heavily on your data.
Once you’ve aligned your data sources and have a cohesive view of your customer base, it’s time to use your analytics to develop strategic hypotheses that inform your campaign execution. Take the time to learn as much as you can about your target audience, and experiment with different scenarios to identify what works best for your brand.
Programmatic advertising allows you to quickly test and improve your campaigns—even while they’re running. If your data shows that certain groups of customers benefit from your brand in different ways, use that information to create customized messages that speak to their specific interests and needs.
By playing with different concepts and experimenting with copy, visuals, and links, you can narrow down your audience’s response and refine your strategy accordingly. And if you’re ever in doubt about the effectiveness of a particular approach, simply turn it off and observe the impact on your campaign’s performance.
4. Create processes, then automate them.
You can’t automate a part of your marketing operations without first developing the system that will be automated.
Start by mapping out your customer journey and identifying what processes you can streamline, then start building the automation framework around it. Automation helps optimize operations while freeing up resources for messaging refinement and other creative tasks.
At the campaign level, consider automating certain activities like bid optimization and keyword targeting so you can focus on more impactful marketing tasks.
5. Keep a continuous flow of new data.
Increasingly stringent regulations on consumer data are gradually shifting CTV trends to become more privacy-friendly. As a result, businesses must leverage anonymized data to target their audience without putting them at risk of breach or misuse.
You need to thoroughly understand who has access to consumer data throughout the bid stream to ensure compliance with new privacy laws.
Violations around data can have serious repercussions, as seen with recent cases (like that of Sephora). Regularly auditing your supply path and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations can protect your brand’s reputation and avoid costly legal issues.
Final Thoughts
Connected TV advertising presents a unique opportunity to drive ROI. But without the right data and processes to get the most out of it, you’ll be stuck spending money on uninformed campaigns that waste valuable resources.
By leveraging data-driven strategies and applying automation to the mix, you can ensure your CTV advertising is as effective as possible.
