In recent years, the use of connected TV (CTV) has grown due to the increasing use of over-the-top (OTT) platforms as an alternative to traditional cable and satellite services. In this context, Connected TV (CTV) emerges as a performing channel that can positively influence mobile user acquisition campaigns.
What is CTV
CTV, which stands for Connected TV, refers to a device that can connect to the Internet and stream content via streaming platforms, web browsers or social media. CTV devices include smart TVs, gaming consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation, as well as devices dedicated to streaming such as Fire Stick, Apple TV, and similar others.
Compared to traditional TV, CTV enables advertisers to accurately track viewing habits, clicks and conversion rates, while providing users with the comfort of enjoying their favorite shows across multiple devices.
Moreover, unlike linear TV, CTV offers advertisers the possibility to choose from different ad formats, many of which can be tailored to optimize user acquisition strategies. The main ones are:
- In-stream video ads: the most popular advertising formats on CTV. They appear during content watching and typically last between 15 and 30 seconds. They can be played before the show starts (pre-roll), in the middle (mid-roll) or at the end (post-roll). However, a potential drawback is that they can be intrusive, especially when they interrupt the content at a critical moment, possibly impacting user acquisition in a negative way.
- Display ads: appear on the home screen as an overlay, at the bottom, or on the side of the video content.
- Interactive video ads: allow viewers to engage with the content through a clickable button, a carousel, or a QR code on the screen, offering a creative way to enhance user acquisition outcomes.
Powerful targeting capabilities
CTV advertising uses data analytics to divide audiences into segments based on demographic characteristics, interest, behaviors, and viewing habits, enabling advertisers to create targeted and personalized messages for each group. This step is essential if you want your user acquisition campaign to be successful.
- Demographic targeting: by focusing on characteristics like age, gender, income, marital status, education, and household size, you can ensure that your streaming TV ads reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
- Geographic targeting: allows you to boost local engagement and increase regional sales since it focuses on specific areas, that could be a single ZIP code or even the whole country.
- Behavioral targeting: analyzes users’ past activities, such as web visits, search and purchase history, to predict which TV ads may be most effective for each viewer. This approach creates a personalized advertising experience that is tailored to each user’s individual habits and preferences.
- Interest-based targeting: customizes ads based on viewers’ passions, making them more engaging in order to improve user acquisition results.
- Retargeting: aims to re-engage customers who visited your site without making a purchase, reminding them of what they left behind and allowing you to bring them back into the sales funnel.
- First Party Data Targeting: uses the information collected to reach those people who have already shown interest in your brand. This strategy is ideal for increasing quality leads, as well as re-engaging consumers who have not interacted with the brand in a while.
- Contextual targeting: involves delivering ads based on the content that viewers are consuming. This method not only makes advertising more relevant and attractive to viewers but also increases the effectiveness of user acquisition campaigns.
Bear in mind that these approaches can also be combined in order to achieve an even more precise and personalized targeting strategy, ensuring that user acquisition campaigns on CTV platforms deliver the desired results.
Cross-device campaigns
Nowadays, users no longer use a single device, but navigate between smartphones, tablets and connected TVs (CTVs), often interacting with multiple screens at the same time. This shift highlights the need to develop marketing strategies that are both flexible and able to adapt to the variety of devices and digital environments in which content is delivered, playing a crucial role in user acquisition.
In addition to the 7 methods of targeting that we discussed in the previous section, there is one more: cross-device targeting. This method is one of the most important ones for improving user acquisition strategies, as consumers rarely make a purchase after a single interaction.
Cross-device targeting enables users to be reached on any device, whether a smartphone, tablet, or a Connected TV, ensuring that user acquisition efforts remain consistent across platforms. In this way, combining performance marketing strategies and connecting with consumers across multiple devices creates a continuous interaction that promotes greater engagement.
- Tablets, phones, desktops: cross-device targeting on tablets, phones or desktops creates a consistent ad experience that supports user acquisition regardless of the device being used or how the audience consumes the content.
- CTV Devices: provide access to streaming platforms where targeted ads can be shown, allowing you to reach a wide audience. Also, Smart TVs, featuring built-in apps and internet connection, are one of the most important platforms for CTV targeting for user acquisition.
Use of dynamic creatives
Dynamic creatives allow ads to be customized in real time, tailoring them to the unique characteristics of each viewer and making every impression more relevant for user acquisition.
Specifically, Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) uses a mix of behavioral, geographic, and demographic data to personalize the message, enabling advertisers to deliver customized content (images, text, and offers) based on real-time information.
For a successful DCO strategy, here are some tips:
- Define your goal
- Work with your partners (DCO teams, creative teams, publishers, and/or demand-side platforms)
- Get to know your audience
- Build a creative template
- Monitor your performance
- Test more creatives by changing format, Call to Action (CTA) or design.
Now, thanks to Mapendo, you can easily use dynamic creatives for your user acquisition campaigns. See how at this link.
Conclusion
To sum up, Connected TV (CTV) is becoming an effective tool for user acquisition campaigns as it allows precise tracking of viewing habits and other key factors, while offering a variety of ad formats and reaching specific segments with tailored messages. Moreover, the ability to run cross-device campaigns and use dynamic creatives make CTV advertising highly flexible and interactive, increasing engagement and optimizing user acquisition results.
