Connected TV is a vehicle for consuming and advertising content. According to Insider Intelligence, 67.8% of the U.S. population will watch content on a CTV device in the next five years. Targeted advertising is enabled by a wealth of user data as marketers bet high on it. Ad spending for connected TV is expected to increase in the years to come.
The field's stability and maturity must be addressed if the market is to grow in the future. It is difficult to accurately measure and attribute ad views, conversions, and return on investment. In a survey of brand marketers and agency executives, 57 percent said that inconsistent measurement was their main obstacle.
The main issues with CTV ad measurement will be discussed in this article.
Aligning your marketing content with sales needs is smarter than you might think.
What Are Connected TV Devices?
Understanding the root cause of measurement challenges will be helped by the market overview.
There are a number of players in the market.
There are smart TVs with native operating systems, as well as streaming gadgets and media players. Content distribution platforms include Castify.ai.
Consumers have a lot of options when it comes to viewing content. Media buyers need to maximize their reach in multiple environments. It is not easy to measure audiences and report on campaigns using unique standards and methods. Obtaining data from multiple sources is complicated. The market is complicated by device and data.
CTV Measurement Challenges
It's hard to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign in a marketing environment.
Lack of common identifiers
A standard method of identifying users is needed. The CTV advertising market relies on the internet for targeting and re-targeting. The methods used to attribute ad views and conversions are not perfect. The people in the household may have the same account, but watch different things. If an address is dynamic or can be masked by a virtual private network, it's difficult to attribute.
It's not clear how long the addresses will stay in use. What's the reason? The California Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation concern privacy. The legislation was responded to by the introduction of IP Protection.
Numerous measurement metrics
Market fragmentation is one of the reasons for the variety of measurement approaches. Linear TV and programmatic metrics are used by media buyers. Many adtech vendors are not able to provide this variety of metrics.
Demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, and media buyers use third-party measurement solutions to get accurate and unbiased results. Amazon Ads and Roku use ad deduplication tools.
Advertisers can buy placements directly from the OTT platforms or use ad platforms. Audience and ad performance data are tied together by different approaches to measurement. Problems with integrating data, interpreting it, and bringing it to a unified format could be faced by advertisers.
Complex device identification
Exposure data for advertisers in this channel is usually household level. One is left to wonder if it is a single person or a group of people. It's difficult to get insights into ad viewers when advertising on CTV compared to other channels
Cross-media measurement issues
Data about the activity of viewers is in the systems of various market players. Most of these companies don't exchange audience data, so brands can't get a unified view of video content ratings.
Ad fraud
It is a perfect playground for fraudulent activity because of the lack of measurement standards. Targeted opportunities for bad actors are mainly opened by the use of an intellectual property-based system. A network of fake devices that mimic real users' actions can be created to steal ad dollars. The global IVT rate in the open programmatic ad marketplace reached 21 percent on the Amazon Fire TV device in the first quarter of the year.
How to Fix CTV Campaign Measurement
Measurement solutions and approaches for both buy and sell side businesses are introduced by advertising industry organizations and adtech vendors. We will talk about some of the best practices you can use.
You can follow a hybrid approach to cross-Channel Attribution. Do you want to experiment with ID solutions? The best approach to audience measurement is defined. Use technology that's similar to the one you're using. Software development kit or client-side measurement code is used for cross- channel measurement. Automatic content recognition can be used. Pick the best reporting option.
Follow a hybrid approach to cross-channel attribution
Attribution is complicated by limited access to audience data The industry is experimenting with different ways to determine users identities and monitor their engagement with content.
IAB Europe suggests using different methods to measure campaigns.
- Automatic content recognition (ACR) methods like audio fingerprinting or watermarking.
- Passive panel metering technologies such as people meters or portable people meters.
- Digital metering using linked mobile devices or home router-level meters.
- Third- or first-party census feeds.
By combining these signals, industry players can more easily distinguish between linear TV, broadcasters video-on-demand, or CTV app feeds.
It is possible to cross- match user IDs like i dentifiers for advertisers and device IDs with audience profiles.
Experiment with ID solutions
Advertisers can use identity solutions to understand the relationship between devices in the household.
One of them is Unified ID 2.0 A privacy-centered identity solution called Unified ID 2.0 is open-sourced. deterministic data is used to connect people to their endpoints.
It is possible for businesses to consider Epsilon's CTV offering. Customers can be identified at the personal level.
Identity solutions can be used to target and measure.
Define the optimal approach to audience measurement
Audience measurement is difficult in a cookieless environment. Media buyers have ways to work around the problem. The Media Rating Council introduced a set of standards to measure cross-media audiences. Two approaches are available.
Use pixel-based technology
To track impressions, capture video starts, learn the number of viewers who watched an ad to the end, and detect and report invalid traffic is one of the options.
Embed software development kit (SDK) or client-side measurement code for cross-channel measurement
One of them is the Open Measurement SDK. Common code and libraries are included in the OM SDK.
Use Automated content recognition
Advertisers can work with market players that use ACR to improve audience measurement.
Video and audio content can be found on smart TVs, tablets, mobiles, and computers. ACR takes a signal from playing content and compares it to a library or database to find a match.
Data points can be captured by devices that support this technology.
- Platform type — linear, MVPD, CTV, or another VOD service
- Geolocation
- IP address
- Demographics
- Viewership behaviors — average watch time, ad completion rates, channel surfing parameters, and more.
Decide on the best reporting options
Standard metrics like viewable impressions and completion rates can be unreliable. It's a good idea to take the "TV off" problem. When TV sets were turned off, DoubleVerify found that advertising and content continued to run, even though they had been stopped. Media buyers wasted parts of their ad budgets due to unrealistic ratings.
This and related measurement issues have been solved by the industry. The new signals include display connection status signalling if the TV display is off, as well as the last activity within an app to determine if a person is still watching. DoubleVerify claims it can help media buyers understand if ads play after a TV is turned off.
It is important to compare the performance of CTV ads against other formats. The cost of media isn't taken into account when comparing viewability rates. Since advertisers need to distinguish between ad exposure and completed viewability, the association suggests using the cost-per-completed viewable view metric.
The association suggests that the level of co-viewing of a non-CTV ad should be compared with the level of co-viewing of a TV ad.
How can marketers better deliver personalized content?
Refine CTV Advertising
More and more consumers are choosing streaming services to watch traditional TV. Connected TV is an important part of an advertising channel mix, as marketers couldn't ignore the channel's potential to reach an ever growing audience.
The lack of measurement and standards for ad performance is the result of market fragmentation. Practices to improve visibility into CTV ad performance are available for media buyers.
