Can CTV tech crack full funnel performance marketing for brands?
Connected television is projected to reach 45 million households with a year-on-year increase of 21%, and in an increasingly digitized media environment, it is becoming the centerpiece of advertisers’ ad spends strategy, according to GroupM India’s TYNY 2024.
With dynamic targeting and greater transparency in measurement compared to traditional linear TV, ad spending on CTV is on the rise. Also, digital media buying tools can help minimize wasteful targeting between mobile and CTV, enhancing omnichannel buying.
“However, measuring bottom-funnel impact on larger screens has remained a challenge. Interestingly, CTV is now in its nascent stages of evolving into a performance channel as well. For app advertisers, IP-based impression-to-install attribution is becoming feasible even on CTV, enabling the measurement of impact on deeper funnel goals,” says Shalin Bhatt, Senior Director, Moloco, adding that third-party attribution platforms are enabling tracking of actual outcomes driven by each channel to gauge channel efficiency.
Rajiv Rajagopal, Head – Advanced TV, GroupM Nexus India, says that currently, CTV is widely deployed for generating awareness and attention. However, with the integration of IP tagging and re-targeting capabilities, alongside engaging ads, CTV is poised to emerge as the primary medium for addressing all three marketing funnels with unparalleled effectiveness.
“Performance measurement always focuses on results, like conversions, lead gen, or sales. While CTV remains a top-of-funnel medium, its potential is growing. Consumers are gradually opening up to shoppable ads on TV. As technology advances and consumer habits shift, the opportunity for shoppable ads on CTV is evolving,” adds Rajgopal.
In this media environment, retail media data will become crucial for CTV, as it gets more geo spatial and has catchment area data signals to target ads efficiently and effectively. We’ve previously covered how CTV has become especially attractive to ecommerce and D2C brands, given its increasing penetration, and more engaged audiences.
According to Nikhil Kumar, Chief Growth Officer at mediasmart by Affle, media planners can optimize reach and engagement by integrating CTV campaigns across diverse screens such as mobile and DOOH, ensuring a potent brand impact. CTV’s Household Sync technology, offered by mediasmart for instance, empowers advertisers with the right tools to target users within a single household.
“Further, within the CTV & DOOH space, we can also use location intelligence to select specific stores and target the phones of the people who are within the proximity to drive purchases. A multi-screen approach by combining real-word targeting can drive measurable results,” says Kumar.
That being said, Gavin Buxton, Managing Director, Asia, Magnite, notes that “In the streaming TV environment in particular, measurement is still a moving target as most streaming services have their own proprietary methods of measurement and there are many third-party vendors offering ad verification and measurement services.”
Magnite research shows that nearly two thirds of India’s streamers (64%) are more responsive to advertising on streaming platforms, with many stating they often search for the product (48%) and make a purchase (33%) after the fact.
“The range of measurement and attribution providers available means that progress here will likely take time and will require collaboration across the industry to establish more interoperable frameworks and a more universal form of measurement. However, there is still a huge opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience on streaming TV that brands should be actively exploring,” adds Buxton.
Streaming TV advertising offers the ability to tailor a message to a specific audience and creates valuable opportunities to reach the right viewer at the right time, making it a channel that brands shouldn’t overlook. And, today brands on CTV can measure incremental lift in sales, analyze data for attribution modeling, to see what traffic and conversions come from CTV.
According to Santosh R, Co-Founder and CMO, Elever, CTV can also be a game-changer if TV OEMs come together to enable data gathering from their native boxes. This can be instrumental in gaining insights outside walled gardens of OTT platforms, significantly improving the targeting and measurement.
“Also, ACRs along with interoperability between native boxes in particular can improve measurement by providing a granular view of content consumption at a household level. Innovations here such as Universal IDs can help in creating a reliable customer journey map across multiple devices - which currently is a big strain even in digital channels with increasing privacy norms,” says Santosh.
Advancements in data integration, machine learning algorithms, industry standards, and the promise of Gen AI hold promise for bridging the gaps between devices and channels. “As CTV continues to grow and becomes the first screen of choice for both viewers and brands, we expect to see more technological advancements that can integrate multiple screens, channels, formats and help advertisers get a more holistic view of their campaigns,” says Kumar.