Streaming videos are becoming more popular and successful in reaching modern viewers. They are one of the best options for businesses looking to engage new customers at the discovery stage of the customer journey.
Streaming video advertising creates a compelling connection between a business and an interested consumer through the trinity of image, sound, and motion. In addition, brands can leverage advanced machine learning to optimize their advertising and future-proof it with first-hand data.
Innovative technologies allow marketers to accurately measure the customer’s response path. In addition, application-specific machine learning approaches have evolved to solve a very data-intensive problem with maximum rigor. As a result, the more data software and algorithms ingest, the stronger their predictive power becomes. Here is an overview of over-the-top (OTT) video advertising and its many benefits.
What Is OTT Advertising?
OTT advertising is a non-skippable, immersive, internet-based video-on-demand content format that allows marketers to reach a specific audience focused on the material they are watching. Over-the-top TV refers to devices beyond a cable box and will enable users to access content from TVs, such as Roku or AppleTV.
OTT channels distribute material over the Internet rather than through a typical cable or broadcast provider. A connected TV, also known as CTV, is a TV or connected device with an internet connection and a user interface that allows users to access OTT content through apps.
How Does OTT Advertising Work?
Many criteria, such as programmatic TV distribution, home audience targeting, and performance optimization, serve OTT advertising. To deliver real-time impressions and targeted reports, programmatic TV distribution uses machine and artificial intelligence as a technique for buying and placing ads.
Household audience targeting enables OTT and CTV consumers to have a personalized TV experience by choosing what and when they watch. Viewers are identified based on their internet activity. This method allows marketers to target audiences based on their behavior rather than the genre they are most likely to watch.
When OTT analysts monitor and interact with campaigns daily, performance is optimized. Your OTT advertising analyst will modify application inventory, video completion rates (VCR), and ad frequency to achieve the best possible performance results.
As an extension of traditional television, OTT marketing combines the performance of television with the accuracy of digital marketing. The best way to do this would be to tailor advertising to local audiences, using advanced targeting strategies to optimize and evaluate relevance.
Why is OTT Growing so Rapidly?
In 2021, 83.7 percent of users had at least one subscription to over-the-top television, and that number is expected to reach 88.1 percent by 2025. That’s a whopping 278.5 million people! Why is OTT evolving so quickly, you may ask?
As with most things, there is no one deciding factor. While the pandemic was undoubtedly a factor in the 2020 surge, the use of streaming services was rising long before that. There are a few more aspects to consider, which we will get to now.
It’s Easy
In today’s hyper-connected environment, we expect instant satisfaction and fast access. OTT succeeds on both counts. You no longer have to search for a TV program guide or mark a date on your calendar to watch your favorite movie or show; you can stream it in your living room with just one click.
Moreover, your entertainment possibilities are endless when you combine gadgets like Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and even Xbox with your regular smart TV.
You are not just tied to your home screen, either. For example, if you are flying at 30,000 feet, you can start your movie on your laptop and finish it on your phone on the way to your hotel. With streaming, you can watch your favorite movies and TV episodes on multiple devices while maintaining a consistent viewing experience.
Reach Mass Audiences
Cable boxes are a thing of the past. Instead, many viewers have shifted their viewing habits to internet-connected devices. For advertisers, this means there’s a treasure mine of customers waiting on the OTT side, and they will stay there.
Micro-Target Viewers
TV Ads are a “long-range” marketing tactic compared to OTT advertising. Sure, your ad campaign will be seen by a large portion of the population. Still, most TV channels have a wide range of viewers for a single ad to capture everyone’s attention.
With OTT advertising, on the other hand, marketers can take advantage of addressable content, where different ads are tailored and played to individual viewers based on their demographics and interests.
OTT allows you to target users to maximize engagement. For example, a 17-year-old boy and a 32-year-old woman can watch the same episode but see completely different ads: Advertisers can target a teenager with a video game console and a woman with a cruise package.
Advertisers can target specific demographics with OTT advertising, such as
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Income
- Education
- Device usage over time
More Consumer Interactivity & Action
The concept of interactivity is one of the most significant advantages of OTT advertising. Viewers of TV ads can watch a commercial and turn the TV on and off!
With OTT advertising, on the other hand, viewers can click on links, fill out surveys within the ad, and open a new tab to search for a specific product or service. The high level of engagement that OTT advertising offers means a more precise and faster path to consumer action for advertisers.
Data Analytics
Not only is the viewer’s personality important, but also their behavior. On average, how much time does a viewer spend watching a 30-minute comedy show? What time of day do they prefer to watch romantic comedies? What device do they prefer to use? All of these analytics and more are stored on OTT advertising platforms.
And for marketers, that’s a veritable treasure trove of information about their target audience. So you are more likely to put the right ads in front of a target audience at the right time if you know more about their behavior. This information includes:
Total views: How many people viewed all or part of the ad.
Video completion rate: What percentage of people watched the entire ad.
Attribution tracking: Measuring consumers’ product-related actions following an ad, e.g., click-through rates, subsequent web searches, etc.
Demographic responses: How different consumer groups responded to the ad based on their age, ethnicity, and other characteristics.
Final Word
In summary, OTT advertising is more than just a fad in today’s entertainment industry. It is an extremely effective marketing approach. Thanks to improved segmentation, it is more cost-effective than traditional advertising and television.
But how will you incorporate this marketing approach into your business operations? A reliable and experienced infomercial production company like GoDRTV is the answer. Contact us today.
