Tag: Contextual

Unwrap holiday shopping success with Connected TV

Advertising on connected TV during the holidays

‘Tis the season to stream, and CTV is a captivating channel for reaching consumers during the year’s biggest spending season. The holidays are a crucial time for advertisers, but they also bring challenges such as heightened competition and shifting consumer behavior. This moment presents advertisers with a unique year-end opportunity: transform traditional approaches to holiday advertising by investing in CTV and capitalize on increased engagement and brand awareness. Benefits of CTV for holiday advertising CTV is still an undervalued channel. Let’s consider how ad spend is spread across digital devices versus how many hours users spend with each device. For every hour of mobile use, advertisers spend $0.51 — but only $0.12 goes to CTV. This means CTV offers untapped potential to improve return on ad spend (ROAS). Household reach TVs are household devices, typically shared by several people. While this can create a targeting challenge, it also boosts ad reach. CTV viewers now spend over 2 hours watching CTV per day, a rapidly-growing figure as time spent with CTV increases faster than time spent with any other connected device. And over the holidays, this number becomes even more impressive. Last year, CTV watch time spiked two to three times over Thanksgiving and Christmas! Brand-building Santa drinking from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola. Hershey Kisses ringing the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Holiday TV commercials create some of the most memorable brand messages. According to a recent survey, 69% of CTV users remember holiday shopping ads on streaming TV (a 31% year-over-year increase). With CTV viewership surpassing that of linear TV, CTV is the new premium ad environment that serves as an ideal touchpoint for driving brand awareness.  Captivating ads Connected TVs are the biggest screen in consumers’ homes, and their size can have a big impact on ad efficacy. Typically shown during a break in main video content, many CTV ads are unskippable, ensuring that the entire message reaches the user. Unlike many digital ads on other devices, CTV ads always include sound. This provides a crucial layer for grabbing consumers’ attention.  Incorporating interactive features into a CTV holiday ad can significantly boost viewer engagement. These interactive features can include clickable links, quizzes, QR codes, and even shoppable ads — all directly accessible from the viewer’s TV screen.  Advanced targeting We already know that consumers prefer relevant ads. In fact, nearly three-quarters of consumers find contextually-relevant ads the most appealing and feel more likely to interact with them. CTV has powerful targeting capabilities that allow advertisers to not only ensure that their ads are contextually-relevant, but also targeted to the viewers’ unique interests, behaviors, and viewing patterns. Best practices for CTV holiday advertising Whether you’re trying out CTV advertising for the first time or looking to expand your current CTV budget, here are some best practices for advertising via CTV during the holidays. Go omnichannel To drive brand awareness during the holidays, CTV is the icing on the omnichannel fruitcake. When integrated into an omnichannel advertising strategy, CTV can reinforce brand messaging. This leads to better brand recall, higher ad engagement, and better holiday ad spending ROI. In a recent survey, 72% of marketers say that they use CTV in their holiday campaigns because it significantly drives incremental lift when used alongside other channels. Optimize creatives Maximize the format of your creatives to take advantage of all the capabilities of the big screen. No matter which innovative ad format you choose, CTV ads should include a consistent call-to-action, logo, and URL. Those that have all three boast a 113% higher conversion rate on average. Also, don’t forget to make the most of music and voiceover to engage the viewer! This can help capture the attention of viewers that may be looking away from the screen.  Inspire action Consumers are primed for action during the holiday season, and they appreciate when ads make holiday shopping easier. According to LG’s survey, 72% of CTV viewers would scan a QR code in a CTV ad to make a purchase, and 42% would go directly to a brand website. Interactive features like QR codes that inspire action with viewers are clearly a winning tactic for CTV holiday advertising. Get started with holiday CTV advertising CTV offers a viewing experience similar to its linear counterpart — but with much more engaging formats, along with sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities. This makes it the ideal channel for engaging holiday shoppers and building lasting brand awareness. You can easily get started by purchasing CTV inventory programmatically via an open exchange like the Brand+ Marketplace. This allows you to dynamically adjust bids and optimize ad delivery based on performance in real time.  If premium content is critical to your brand (especially during the holidays), consider buying inventory through a Private Marketplace deal (PMP). Verve offers both pre-built packages that combine targeted CTV inventory and tailored audiences as well as custom deals with targeting strategies as unique as your audience. Get in touch for more information on how to start your holiday CTV campaign today.

The in-app advertising value exchange: Who’s most willing to trade data for free content?

In the digital realm, data is money. Users can pay for digital goods and services with their personal data — be it simple things like name and email address, or more intimate information like health data. And looking at the numbers, it’s clear that today’s users are highly motivated to trade their data for free content. About 97% of mobile apps are free, and the majority of those free apps rely on in-app advertising to pay the bills. We surveyed 4,000 mobile users to find out how they felt about this value exchange — the results of which can be found in our In-app User Privacy Report. In this post, we’ll dive into one portion of those findings: Which users are the most willing to watch ads for free content? And which content motivates users to share their data? Increased willingness to share data and watch ads Today’s users are more knowledgeable than ever about the data-sharing process. Privacy laws have opened consumers’ eyes to their digital rights. Opt-ins have become more prevalent and transparent. And users are increasingly exercising the right to access their data. As a result, mobile users’ opinions on data sharing have evolved. According to our survey, 58% of respondents are more willing to share their data on apps than they were two years ago. (More on that later!) And with an improved feeling of control over their data and insight into how ads help fund app content, users are also more willing to receive ads for free content. 67% of those surveyed agreed that they are more inclined to watch in-app ads in return for free content than they were two years ago — and between those that agreed and disagreed with this statement, there were notable demographic differences. Takeaway for advertisers Consumers are particularly accepting of in-app advertising, as they are aware of the value exchange that is taking place. This makes mobile apps an ideal environment for your ads to be positively received. Takeaway for publishers Transparency leads to trust. Ensure consent requests list the exact purposes for specific kinds of data collection and benefits consumers will receive. In return, users will feel more comfortable opting in. Who’s watching ads for free content? Our survey included users from the UK and the US, and although the majority of respondents in both countries agreed that they are more willing to watch in-app ads in exchange for free content than two years ago, those in the UK seemed to have a higher level of skepticism towards in-app advertising. Overall, there was a 13% gap in willingness to view ads for free content between these two countries. Looking at respondents’ age data, it is clear that younger generations have a better understanding and acceptance of the in-app advertising value exchange.  Over 80% of those under 34 years are more willing to watch ads in exchange for free content than two years ago. However, this willingness sees a dropoff with older generations. Takeaway for advertisers Millennials will soon wield the most purchasing power of any generation — and Gen Z’s collective spending, especially in the digital realm, is growing rapidly. The high willingness of these age groups to watch ads makes in-app advertising an effective way to reach the younger generations. Takeaway for publishers To ensure a pleasant UX for users that may be more resistant to in-app ads, activate solutions that can assess anonymized on-device activity and group audiences into interest-based cohorts. This will allow for precise targeting, without personal data, that delivers contextually-relevant ads. Where are users most likely to share their data? All apps are not created equal when it comes to users’ data preferences. Shopping and social media top the list of share-worthy apps. This isn’t surprising, since the respondents to our survey also indicated an appreciation for contextually-relevant advertising and likely welcome a product or service recommendation within these types of apps. The increasingly popular category of gaming also ranked quite highly, likely due to its association with in-app perks such as an extra game life. Takeaway for advertisers To reach users where they are most receptive to receiving ads, you can set specific targeting parameters or even purchase inventory via pre-packaged deals to ensure that your ads are being shown within apps of a specific category. Takeaway for publishers Deploy robust testing to achieve the best ad fit. This includes running A/B tests to see which ad spaces and formats yield the most desired actions for your app and provide the best experience for your users. Further insights This is just a sneak peek of the data available in our In-app User Privacy Report. Download the report today for further insights into consumers’ attitudes towards data and privacy, including: Which data users are most willing to share with mobile apps How to create valuable ad experiences for app users Action items for publishers to build trust and increase first-party data

Keeping cookies won’t derail the ID-less future

This week’s big cookie news might be a bombshell for some, but it doesn’t actually change much. Yes, Google isn’t eliminating third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. But cookies’ usefulness for advertising is undeniably fading away as consumer preference for privacy is on the rise. Ad tech’s path forward is clear: keep prioritizing technologies that don’t rely on identifiers or cookies — and continue expanding capabilities across non-web channels.

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