Learn how to fill CTV ad inventory! In this article we go over CTV advertising and how 42matters can help you find targeted CTV app developers and CTV publishers from across the CTV landscape to optimize the performance of your CTV ad placements!
There aren’t as many water-cooler TV shows these days, and a quick glance at the most watched TV finales of all time provides some clues as to why. Of the top 15, exactly three aired in the post-Y2K era, with the latest (Everybody Loves Raymond) signing off in 2005. Put another way, while shows like Game of Thrones (2011), Breaking Bad (2008), and Succession (2018) dominated the culture during their respective runs, their finales boasted viewership numbers of just 19.3 million, 10.3 million, and 2.9 million. By comparison M*A*S*H (1972), Cheers (1982), and Seinfeld (1989) attracted 105 million, 80.4 million, and 76.3 million viewers each. Today, only the Super Bowl can still match these numbers in the United States.
So, what’s causing these declines? Well, the simple fact of the matter is that global TV viewership has become drastically more fragmented than in the past. Competition has led networks to focus their energy on increasingly segmented demographics, ranging from political interests to particular age groups, gender affiliations, genre preferences, hobbies, and more. Indeed, streaming has taken these trends even further, empowering consumers to curate their own viewing experiences in a way that was simply unimaginable in the Seinfeld era.
This takes us to advertising. Lamentations over increasingly fragmented TV viewership are understandable. Think about it this way. In 1956, aided by the fact that there were just four available TV networks, 82.6% of all US viewers tuned in to watch Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. Shortly thereafter, Variety reported that, for the first time in the history of the record business, a single record had achieved one million sales before being released to the public. That is to say, when everyone is watching the same thing, advertising decisions are pretty easy to make.
The problem is, when everyone is watching the same thing, ad placements are also more expensive — and not just at the level of total dollar amount. The benefit of fragmentation is that it enables brands to reach more relevant audiences at a better Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM). So, while trends like cord-cutting may make advertisers uncomfortable, it’s not as if those viewers are adopting monastic lifestyles and abstaining from media consumption entirely. Rather, they’re training their eyeballs elsewhere — on smartphones, streaming platforms, live streaming services, connected TV (CTV) platforms, and other offerings that cater to ultra-specific consumer segments. For savvy advertisers equipped with the right tools, today’s media landscape offers far more bang for the buck than the old linear TV model.
That’s a good segue for the topic at hand. To help ad networks, brands, and advertisers convert today’s fragmented media environment into high-value audience segments, we wrote about the CTV landscape. In this article, we discuss the benefits and challenges of advertising on CTV platforms, what ad networks and advertisers ought to know about CTV ad optimization, and how they can fill CTV ad inventory with best fit CTV publishers and CTV app developers.
Here’s what we cover (click the links to jump to the corresponding section):
- What Is CTV? An Overview of the CTV Landscape
- Advertising on CTV Platforms: Benefits, Challenges, and Optimization
- How to Fill CTV Ad Inventory Using 42matters
- Tracking CTV: CTV Analytics, CTV Statistics, and CTV Data
Want to learn more? Download our report on the state of CTV app stores in 2023.
What Is CTV? An Overview of the CTV Landscape
To kick things off, let’s quickly touch on the fundamentals. A connected TV, or CTV, is any television that can stream videos or enable access to digital content using the Internet. TVs can be ‘connected’ via built-in streaming and media platforms, like Roku OS, or via external streaming devices, like ISP-provided set-top boxes (STB), over-the-top (OTT) media players, etc. The most popular CTV offerings are Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Google TV.
However, not all CTV devices work the same. While some facilitate access to content from popular streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, others, like Google’s Chromecast, simply allow you to cast other devices onto your TV. Nevertheless, taken altogether, they open up a vast array of content options by enabling on-demand viewing, personalization, interactivity, and access to web browsing.
More to the point — at least as far as advertisers and ad networks are concerned — CTV has helped brands regain audiences lost to cord-cutting. Since the CTV landscape works a lot like the mobile app market, it enables high-precision audience targeting by empowering demand-side businesses (DSPs, ad networks, advertisers, ad agencies, etc.) to buy ads on CTV apps that align with their brand values and target demographics.
Let’s follow this thread a little deeper, shall we?
Advertising on CTV Platforms: Benefits, Challenges, and Optimization
CTV advertising refers to the placement of ads on connected TV (CTV) platforms and apps. As more viewers shift from traditional television to streaming content on CTVs, this form of advertising has gained significant traction. It offers more precise targeting, easily measurable outcomes, and more engaging ad experiences.
In this section, we begin by outlining the benefits and challenges of CTV advertising. Then, we go over what you need to create high-ROI CTV ad experiences.
Let’s discuss these topics one at a time:
- The Benefits of CTV Advertising
- The Challenges of CTV Advertising
- What You Need to Optimize CTV Advertising
The Benefits of CTV Advertising
CTV advertising offers a modern approach to reaching audiences in their living rooms. It combines the best aspects of traditional TV advertising with app-based targeting techniques that helped turn the mobile ad industry into a $300 billion per year behemoth.
While the CTV landscape continues to evolve, the primary benefits it offers demand-side businesses are as follows:
1.Platform Diversity, Broader Reach, and Growing Audiences
2. Unified Cross-Device Campaigns
3. Targeted Advertising and Brand Safety
4. Programmatic Buying
5. Interactive Ads and Engaging Ad Formats
6. Measurable Results and Analytics
7. Flexibility
8. Cost-Effective Advertising
1. Platform Diversity, Broader Reach, and Growing Audiences
CTV advertising can appear on various platforms, apps, and channels, this includes streaming services like Hulu, Roku, and other apps available on smart TVs.
In addition, it allows brands to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers. These are people who have either discontinued traditional cable or satellite TV services or never subscribed to them in the first place. This audience is often younger and more tech-savvy, making them a valuable demographic for many advertisers.
It’s also worth pointing out that as cord-cutting accelerates the CTV ranks are growing rapidly, with more households adopting smart TVs and streaming devices every year. This shift presents a significant opportunity for ad networks to tap into a growing and engaged audience, rather than one that’s contracting and increasingly unengaged, as is the case with linear TV.
2. Unified Cross-Device Campaigns
Along the same lines, many CTV platforms, apps, and offerings can be accessed via multiple devices and device types. With the right strategy, demand-side companies can integrate CTV advertising with other digital campaigns, ensuring a consistent message across devices, from mobile to desktop to TV.
3. Targeted Advertising and Brand Safety
Perhaps the biggest advantage that CTV advertising has over traditional TV advertising is its ability to target specific audiences. Using data from CTV apps, games, and channels, ad networks can improve their targeting capabilities to serve ads to ultra-specific demographics that match the ideal customer profiles of their advertisers. In other words, they can serve more relevant ads with higher engagement rates.
Likewise, these targeting features help ad networks and demand-side platforms (DSPs) guarantee brand safety for their advertisers. By filtering out apps with potentially unsavory content, they can assure that they’re not putting brand reputations at risk. For example, ad networks can leverage app content ratings, parental advisories, and age recommendations to help inform ad placement.
4. Programmatic Buying
Many CTV ad slots can be purchased programmatically through real-time bidding (RTB) platforms, meaning they are bought and placed through automated systems and platforms. Ad networks can integrate these into their own programmatic capabilities to facilitate easy CTV ad buying. This creates a streamlined ad buying process allowing for real-time optimization and more efficient ad spending.
5. Interactive Ads and Engaging Ad Formats
While interactive ads aren’t always CTV’s strong suit due to their reliance on TV remotes, they nevertheless support some interesting interactive elements and unique ad formats.
For example, some CTV ads allow viewers to click on calls-to-action to access more information about the product being advertised. In some instances, these CTAs can even allow users to make a purchase directly from their TV.
CTV ads can also leverage the medium’s high-quality video and sound elements to create more immersive and engaging experiences.
6. Measurable Results and Analytics
Unlike traditional TV advertising, which often relies on broad ratings and estimates, CTV advertising provides detailed metrics on views, impressions, engagements, clicks, and conversions. This data-driven approach to KPI measurement allows advertisers to measure ROI more accurately.
7. Flexibility
CTV ads are also extremely flexible, enabling advertisers to quickly change or update their CTV ads based on performance data, current events, or inventory availability. This is in contrast to traditional TV ads, which often require longer lead times and are less flexible once they're aired.
8. Cost-Effective Advertising
With the ability to target specific audiences and avoid wasted impressions, CTV advertising can offer a better return on investment. DSPs and ad networks can optimize their campaigns based on performance data, ensuring that their budget is spent efficiently. However, for cost-efficiency, targeting is essential.
The Challenges of CTV Advertising
While CTV advertising offers a promising avenue for reaching audiences in a targeted and engaging manner, advertisers need to be aware of its challenges. For example, fragmentation across platforms can make it harder for advertisers to reach their entire target audience without advertising on multiple services. Additionally, as with all digital platforms, there's a concern about ad fraud and viewability.
By understanding these challenges, advertisers can develop strategies to mitigate risks and maximize the effectiveness of their CTV campaigns.
The primary challenges of CTV advertising are as follows:
1.Platform Fragmentation
2. Ad Fraud Concerns
3. Viewability Concerns
4. Standardization Issues
5. Higher Costs
6. Limited Inventory
7. Data Privacy Concerns
8. Brand Safety
9. Creative Challenges
1. Platform Fragmentation
With a multitude of CTV platforms and devices available, from Roku to Apple TV to Amazon Fire TV, advertisers may find it challenging to create campaigns that reach their entire target audience without advertising across multiple services.
2. Ad Fraud Concerns
As with other digital advertising mediums, CTV is not immune to ad fraud. Fraudsters can generate fake impressions or use bots to mimic human activity, leading to wasted ad spend. Ad networks and DSPs must therefore be aware of best practices for fighting ad fraud in the CTV space.
3. Viewability Concerns
Ensuring that ads are fully viewed and not skipped or played in the background is a challenge. While CTV ads are generally less skippable than other digital formats, there's still a concern about how engaged viewers are with the content.
4. Standardization Issues
The CTV industry lacks a universal set of standards for ad formats, measurement, and reporting. This can make it difficult for advertisers to compare performance across platforms or integrate CTV metrics with other digital advertising data.
5. Higher Costs
While CTV advertising can be more targeted and efficient, the cost-per-impression (CPM) can sometimes be higher than other digital advertising formats due to the premium nature of the content and the environment. To avoid these issues, it's essential that demand-side companies acquaint themselves with CTV ad targeting best practices.
6. Limited Inventory
Popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video don't offer traditional advertising opportunities, limiting the available inventory for advertisers. Even on ad-supported platforms, there's competition for prime ad slots. Nevertheless, ad inventory isn’t nearly as scarce as it is on linear TV.
7. Data Privacy Concerns
With regulations like GDPR and CCPA, ad networks must ensure that CTV advertising practices are compliant with data privacy laws. This includes obtaining user consent and providing transparency about data collection and usage.
8. Brand Safety
Along the same lines, ensuring that ads appear alongside appropriate content is crucial. Ad networks should have access to brand safety tools and solutions to ensure that advertisers' messages are not placed next to controversial or inappropriate content.
9. Creative Challenges
Another under-appreciated challenge is that advertisers may need to create different versions of their ads to fit various CTV platforms, apps, and screen sizes, leading to increased production costs and complexity.
What You Need to Optimize CTV Advertising
Success in CTV advertising for companies on the demand-side of things hinges on a combination of technology integration, strategic partnerships, and a deep understanding of the medium's nuances. By addressing these areas, these companies can position themselves as valuable partners for advertisers looking to tap into the growing CTV audience.
Here are some elements that ad networks, DSPs, and advertisers may need for a successful CTV strategy:
1.Understanding of the CTV Landscape
2. Advanced Targeting Capabilities
3. High-Quality Ad Inventory
4. Programmatic Integration
5. Robust Analytics and Reporting
6. Ad Fraud Prevention
7. Brand Safety Measures
8. Optimized Ad Creatives
9. Data Privacy Compliance
1. Understanding of the CTV Landscape
Before you get started with CTV advertising, it’s important that you familiarize yourself with the CTV landscape. A deep knowledge of the CTV ecosystem, including the various devices, platforms, and apps, is essential. This includes understanding the differences between OTT (Over-The-Top) services, STBs (set-top boxes), smart TVs, and streaming devices; as well as the top CTV apps, CTV app developers, and CTV publishers.
To learn more about the state of the CTV landscape, download our latest report.
2. Advanced Targeting Capabilities
As noted previously, CTV’s advanced targeting capabilities are among its greatest strengths. However, that doesn’t mean targeting is easy. You’ll need to find a solution, such as our suite of CTV file dumps or Roku Explorer, that enables you to home in on target audiences.
3. High-Quality Ad Inventory
Along the same lines, if you run an ad network looking to expand in the CTV market, you should build high-quality ad inventories using CTV app and publisher metadata, content ratings, audience insights, and more. This will help you deliver high visibility and engaging ad placements. More on this in a moment…
4. Programmatic Integration
To make things easier for advertisers, you should look into developing or integrating with programmatic platforms that support real-time bidding (RTB) for CTV ad slots. Doing so will allow for automated and efficient ad buying.
5. Robust Analytics and Reporting
Provide advertisers with comprehensive metrics and insights specific to CTV, such as view-through rates, engagement metrics, and conversion tracking.
6. Ad Fraud Prevention
Implement advanced fraud detection and prevention tools to combat potential ad fraud in the CTV space, ensuring advertisers get genuine impressions. Again, familiarizing yourself with best practices for fighting ad fraud is key.
7. Brand Safety Measures
Get your hands on brand safety tools and solutions. These will help ensure that the ads you place appear only next to appropriate content, maintaining the integrity and reputation of the brands involved.
8. Optimized Ad Creatives
Familiarize yourself with the various requirements for ad creatives. Guide advertisers on creating high-quality, engaging ad content that's tailored for the CTV experience and larger screen formats.
9. Data Privacy Compliance
Ensure all advertising practices align with data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and others. This includes transparent data collection practices and obtaining necessary user consents.
How to Fill CTV Ad Inventory Using 42matters
Now let’s turn to something a little more actionable. We’d like to walk you through our Roku Explorer and show you how it can be used to fill your CTV ad inventory. While we also offer the same data outlined below for six other CTV platforms, including Fire TV, Google TV, Apple TV, Samsung, Vizio, and LG, that data is currently available in raw file dumps only. The Roku Explorer, meanwhile, is both easier on the eyes and a little more beginner friendly.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- What Is the Roku Explorer?
- Find Targeted CTV Publishers
- Download Your CTV Publisher Leads
What Is the Roku Explorer?
The 42matters Explorer is our flagship app market research platform. It offers insight into millions of apps from millions of publishers all over the world. This includes in-depth insight into three leading app stores: Google Play, the Apple App Store, and the Roku Channel Store.
On the Roku side of things, the Explorer offers intelligence on all 38k+ published and unpublished Roku apps from all 10k+ Roku publishers. For each app, you’ll have access to developer details, app identifiers like Channel ID and Bundle ID; taxonomical insights like Category and IAB Category; performance metrics like Rating Counts; app-ads.txt and other compliance insights; and much, much more.
Check it out, here’s the Roku Explorer’s Netflix profile:
Find Targeted CTV Publishers
Great. So how can you use the platform to find targeted CTV app publishers? Let’s start with a hypothetical. Let’s say you run an Ad Network that works with a lot of sports betting platforms and you want to identify Roku apps on which to place advertisements.
Obviously, your search begins with companies that develop and publish Roku apps and games. However, from there things get a little trickier since you want to identify which of these offerings are catered towards your advertisers' ideal customer profiles.
With the 42matters Roku Explorer, you can filter all apps based on a variety of relevant factors. For instance, let’s begin by filtering based on app content:
In this case, let’s zero in on all Roku apps in the “Sports” Category:
To add a little more granularity, you can even use the IAB Category filter to focus on specific sports, like American Football, Boxing, or Horse Racing.
In any case, since sports betting is illegal for minors, let’s use the Parental Hint filter to make sure that we’re targeting Adult-oriented apps only:
Now, let’s run the query. You should see something like this:
In this case, 25 Roku apps match our specific query. However, you can use the Explorer’s 20+ filters to expand and narrow your query as you see fit.
Download Your CTV Publisher Leads
Once you’ve added all your filters, you can then download the results of your query as a CSV file. To make sure you download the necessary information (i.e. publisher name, contact information, web address, physical address, etc.), double check your Configured Columns:
The columns you select will appear in the Explorer’s results. These are the same ones that will be downloaded in your CSV file. So, if a column is not checked, it will not appear in the results and it will not be included in your CSV. To configure your columns, click the Configure Columns button (outlined above) and check the boxes next to the ones you’re interested in:
When you have everything set, it’s time to download! To do this, click Export Apps at the top of the page:
Adjust the corresponding pop-up to optimize your CSV, then click EXPORT:
Afterwards, your data will arrive to you via email. Depending on the size of your data, this could take five to ten minutes.
However, once you receive your data, your sales team can then use it for anything — to cold call publishers, add new leads into your CRM system, enrich existing leads with new data, etc.
And there you have it! By following the steps above, you’ll be able to fill your CTV ad inventory with best fit CTV publishers and CTV app developers from around the CTV landscape.
Tracking CTV: CTV Analytics, CTV Statistics, and CTV Data
42matters is a leading provider of mobile and connected TV (CTV) app data and app store intelligence. Our APIs, file dumps, and Roku Explorer offer insight into tens of millions of apps from millions of publishers. This includes data, statistics, and analytics from leading CTV app stores like the Roku Channel Store, Apple TV tvOS App Store, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung Smart TV Apps, LG Content Store, and Vizio SmartCast Apps.
To learn more about tracking CTV apps and the CTV landscape, be sure to set up a meeting with our team!
