As television evolves into a more interconnected and digital space, advertisers must continue to find ways to reach their audience and keep up with consumer trends. According to 2023 statistics, 56.8 million millennials watch connected TVs in the United States alone.

With more people watching connected TV than ever, advertisers have capitalized on the shift away from traditional cable and satellite TV to deliver ads to viewers while they stream content on their smart TVs, gaming consoles and other devices.

Emodo is on a mission to achieve the best possible results for our clients by moving CTV advertising innovation forward. Learn about CTV advertising, its advantages and how it can help you reach your target audience, increase engagement rates, enhance your return on investment and more.

What is CTV advertising?

If you’ve ever watched a movie or show on a smart TV or streaming device like Fire TV via an internet connection, you’ve probably noticed ads appear during your stream. These are examples of connected TV advertisements, which are usually more targeted and personalized than traditional TV ads. Advertisers can use CTV advertising to engage their ideal audiences with relevant messages, reaching them when they are most captive and receptive.

Other CTV advertising benefits include more accurate metrics to measure ad campaigns’ effectiveness, enhancing the viewer experience in the future. As with Facebook ads, you can create audience segments to show ads to potential and current customers.

8 benefits of CTV advertising

As of 2023, 88% of American households own at least one connected TV. In other words, this technology’s user base is now the vast majority of U.S. citizens, forcing advertisers who still believe in the benefits of television advertising to adapt their strategies.

Once you shift focus to include CTV advertising, you can target your intended audience more precisely and accurately assess your marketing efforts.

1. Targeted reach

The nature of internet-connected devices lets advertisers segment audiences based on variables like their behavior, demographics and geographic location. You can then create tailored advertising campaigns to address these niche audiences, selling the same product to various groups by ensuring the advertised message resonates with selected viewers.

2. Higher engagement rates

CTV viewers have actively selected the content they consume, rather than turning on the TV and watching whatever happens to be on at that time. If you expose them to a highly relevant ad, they are more likely to engage with it than traditional passive advertising.

As an advertiser, you can capture the attention of an already invested audience, potentially increasing your campaign’s effectiveness.

For example, consider a viewer who regularly watches extreme sports. If they see an ad for a fitness tracker while viewing a documentary about climbing Mount Everest, they are likely to be more attentive and appreciate the ad instead of being annoyed and tuning it out.

3. Improved measurement and analytics

While marketers can use metrics to track their success with traditional linear television advertising, CTV advertising offers far more robust measurement capabilities. These include events such as views, impressions, QR code scans and attention — and you can see all this in real time to adjust strategies during the campaign. You can also measure offline metrics like foot traffic and sales while these campaigns are live.

Using this data allows you to enhance campaign optimization and provides valuable insights for future advertising strategies.

4. Flexibility and control

CTV advertising gives marketers more granular control. You can choose the specific platforms or streaming services where you want your ads to appear, ensuring alignment with your target audience. You can also customize the ad experience by using enhanced creative elements that enable more relevant, dynamic experiences based on factors like the viewer’s location or the weather. In addition, adding a QR code with a clear CTA offers the opportunity to drive further engagement.

5. Ad fraud mitigation

Ad fraud is a continuing concern for advertisers and ad agencies. CTV advertising poses a lower risk, particularly compared to more traditional digital channels. No platform is totally exempt from ad fraud. However, CTV platforms typically offer a more controlled environment that preserves the viewing experience and reduces the likelihood of issues such as fake impressions, ad stacking and app spoofing.

Ultimately, these restrictions protect advertisers’ investments and maintain digital marketing ecosystems’ integrity, giving you accurate data about your ad performance.

6. Efficient ad spend

Cost-effectiveness is another advantage of CTV advertising. Unlike traditional TV advertising, which casts a wide net, CTV ads are more precise and effective in reaching younger and harder-to-reach demographics.

You can now target your desired audience with granular insights and optimize your ad spend to minimize wasted impressions. By selecting avenues that provide a more calculated approach to advertising, you can ensure your budget allocation sees a higher potential return on investment.

7. Seamless cross-device delivery

Consumers no longer only engage with entertainment and other content on a single device — instead, the same person might watch their favorite show on their laptop one day, switching to their tablet or smartphone the next.

This tendency simultaneously poses a challenge and immense opportunity for advertisers. You can reach your audience and keep them engaged, even if they switch devices. With seamless cross-device delivery, you can control the frequency and types of ads a single user sees, avoiding ad fatigue or overexposure. Reaching consumers across multiple touchpoints maximizes your marketing efforts’ impact and effectiveness.

Advertisers must ensure a consistent ad experience across all devices. Smartphones, tablets and laptops have varying screen sizes, resolutions and technical capabilities. Synchronizing user data accurately and in real time can be challenging and may result in inconsistencies if one user streams the same ad from multiple devices.

Regardless, CTV is an excellent way to drive awareness for a brand or product. Implementing a retargeting strategy off a CTV campaign can help drive those exposed viewers to further engage or take action while they are using their mobile or desktop devices.

8. Detailed audience insights

One difference between traditional linear television and CTV is that there are far fewer assumptions and less guesswork involved. Instead, advertisers can gain more accurate insights to target their intended viewers with access to their demographic information, geolocation, interests, preferences, behaviors, patterns, device usage and more.

This in-depth knowledge allows you to refine your targeting strategies and tailor content to better resonate with the particular audience segments you wish to target.

Unlock the benefits of connected TV advertising with Emodo

Connected TV advertising lets marketers precisely target their desired audiences, engage those viewers with dynamic, personalized ad experiences and measure the impact of their campaigns’ performance. These benefits, combined with flexibility, cost-effectiveness and cross-channel integration possibilities, make connected TV advertising appealing for advertisers looking to enhance their strategies.

As consumers increasingly switch to CTV, agencies and advertisers looking to stay relevant with the digital advertising revolution must embrace the changes or risk missing out.

If you want to take advantage of CTV advertising’s unparalleled enhanced engagement, audience targeting, analytics and flexibility, speak to us at Emodo. Let us help you craft memorable and engaging CTV advertising that ignites genuine connections — our team is ready to innovate alongside you!