If there is a prevalent theme while navigating advertising and marketing tasks right now, it is that most entities are on the move rapidly finding ways to accomplish more with fewer resources. With millions of viewers now sheltering in place, the pandemic has delivered a major blow to linear TV viewing and has added a significant boost to Connected TV. 80% of homes in the US now own at least one connected TV device, and Nielsen Ratings have recorded an 81% yoy increase of CTV viewing.
This viewing behavior has reached a definitive enough point that many TV networks are now giving priority to streaming content far ahead of linear TV. During this year’s virtual Upfronts, the TV advertising industry as a whole had seemed to finally come to terms with the fact that streaming is not just a place to put updated content, it is where people go to view in the current moment. The local Watch Report concluded that right here in St Louis, consumers between the age of 25 and 54 view TV more than people in any other major city.
Effectively Incorporating Connected TV Measurement
Any attempt to measure the viewing share of CTV in a similar way to linear TV will see flaws right from the beginning. Since broadcast TV has many limitations, measurement is a bit abstract, and all the technology created for linear TV measurement still can not deliver analytics with any precision. In the end, it ultimately amounts to what is still a guessing game.
When measuring viewership accurately for CTV, there needs to be a snapshot of the entire customer journey, 3rd party analytics, and conversion tracking. The ways that you can measure CTV are similar to linear TV in some ways, but you are not dealing directly with as many limitations. It is a great help in gauging conversion rates since linear TV’s premise is based on digital measurement.
The Basics of Connected TV Measurement
A clear edge CTV provides a level of insight into watching patterns that allow advertisers to run ads and keep data on exactly how many people viewed them, to the very last digit. It also provides a new abundance of information on completion rates, measuring who stayed on board and viewed the entire spot without dropping off.
Those who are incorporating performance marketing always expect more in the results department, and there is technology such as cross-device Verified Visits that monitors the traffic on the advertisers’ website after ads are viewed. Since the ability also exists to see if other devices from the same household have other devices visiting the site, it is possible to hone in and really gain some insight into how your ad is performing and if it is holding users’ attention.
When Everything Aligns, Progress in Profit is Notable
Because of the CTV cross device’s capability to offer a focused look at viewing habits, vendors in businesses such as fine wine retailing have been able to closely track the customer journey. This painted a detailed picture of how to understand the value of an in-depth campaign and establish a finish line to the much-coveted rising conversion rate. One thing to keep in mind here is that if a customer is lurking on your URL for a week or two and then they convert, they may have just been waiting for a paycheck to snag up your goods that attracted them!
Cross-device measurement allows marketers to have a deeper understanding of the value their campaigns are delivering, the metrics that drive those results and how hyper-focused media results in revenue growth. Linear TV simply cannot offer that sort of data. At Farfetched Studios of St Louis, we build your traditional and digital media plan based on a snapshot of your target demographic and reach of each media type in your market. After having us, as media planning professionals, formulate a cohesive marketing plan, with the addition of TV and/or CTV media to create the ideal media mix, and powerfully delivering your branding message with a solid measurement to back it up.
Netflix and Amazon Prime have seen massive success, and they are running hard with the torch where “DVR” technology fell short. The days of relying on the honesty of TV viewing through a phone or mail-in survey about television are now over, and the connected TV medium offers precision, accuracy, and a dedicated stream of results to help make sense of streaming TV strategy.