Solving the Identity Crisis: The Next Frontier for CTV Advertising

Driven by viewer demand for variety and convenience in content, Connected TV (CTV) has become one of the fastest-growing major advertising channels globally. A recent report in eMarketer stated that in the US alone, CTV advertising spend is projected to grow by 22.4% and reach $30.10 billion in 2024.

Presenting a plethora of opportunities to reach high-value and engaged audiences with attention-grabbing quality and relevant campaigns, there are, nevertheless, lingering questions over CTV advertising development. In particular, transparency and control, especially when it comes to addressability, are still nascent on the channel.

Without comprehensive reporting, on where ads are going and who is seeing what, advertisers can’t effectively measure reach and performance. It also hinders their ability to scale campaigns and maintain cross-channel consistency across the funnel – increasingly a must in today’s ad ecosystem.

This is unfortunate given its advantages in delivering strong engagement, and it needs to be addressed if the industry is to see sustained success for CTV as part of an omnichannel strategy.

Thankfully, progress is being made. Through advancing technology, the identity barrier on CTV is being addressed, and promises to crown the channel as the undisputed lynchpin of a cross platform advertising strategy.

Omnichannel Opens up More Doors for Advertisers

Indeed, CTV advertising today can bring significant results to those who embrace it. Offering the unique ability to speak to various target audiences with creative and contextually relevant campaigns, especially when it comes to reaching those with distinct viewing habits.

As content consumption on CTV tends to be toward watching films or TV shows on premium environments, which lend themselves to more cinematic and engaging ad experiences, it promotes attentive, lean-in viewing in contrast to those watching on other devices. This leads to overall better performance and effectiveness of ads when compared to other channels, which presents CTV as an essential channel for impactful branding – if leveraged correctly.

For one, it is extremely difficult to identify users engaging with CTV ads across multiple devices, let alone ensure seamless integration of relevant messaging while managing ad frequency across channels. Furthermore, with the lack of measurement, this has led to fears of disconnected attribution. For instance, if an ad campaign includes both linear and connected TV, it can be hard to discern where the audiences overlap. This is a problem in today’s ecosystem when consumers expect consistent messaging and every dollar of budget needs to be tied to discernible outcomes.

While CTV may command high attention, this lack of transparency and ability to control cross-channel consistency, measurement and attribution has previously hampered its ability to definitively drive customers down the full funnel. Nevertheless, with the increasing accessibly of advanced technology, this is changing.

Identity: The Final Frontier

There are now solutions that can connect IDs across different channels as well as discover the single user behind them. This means that audiences that have seen CTV advertising can be effectively retargeted, whether through a display ad or online video to boost clicks and conversions, or even through a sophisticated CTV ad creative incorporating a scannable QR code – improving campaign effectiveness.

This is alongside managing ad frequency and maintaining and optimising precise audience segmentation. Reach and frequency solutions in CTV are also evolving and offering a greater degree of granularity to reporting, through integration of information including geo, IP and device ID as metrics.

Thanks to considerable investment on the adtech side, the industry could be very close to having universal identifier options that can really help to transform cross-channel strategies through CTV. However, there is still work to be done. In the meantime, advertisers need to prepare their media plans for leveraging this next evolution in CTV’s development, engaging with the technology and expertise required. Those who work with the right partners and embrace the most advanced solutions will enjoy game-changing results.