OTT (over-the-top) advertising promotes a brand’s products or services via video streaming platforms. It allows brands to reach audiences on devices like televisions, smartphones, and tablets.
OTT ads can offer some of the benefits of advertising technology found in online marketing, such as audience targeting, dynamic ad insertion, and advanced analytics. However, some challenges must be worked out to ensure a strong return on investment.
Cost
OTT advertising is less expensive than traditional TV ads, so it’s an excellent choice for marketers on a budget. As a result, they can stretch ad spending further and increase their reach and brand awareness.
Moreover, what is OTT video ads have better-targeting abilities than other forms of media, which means you’ll be able to reach more people with the right message. This type of advertising can also help you track your campaigns and optimize them for success.
There are two types of OTT advertising: direct publisher partnerships and programmatic buys. In the former, advertisers work directly with a walled garden.
In the latter, ad inventory is pooled across publishers, and advertisers bid on it in real time. It is a more efficient way to buy OTT ads and offer lower prices than direct partnerships. Ultimately, it’s up to you, but you can be confident that your ad dollars are being used wisely.
Streaming platforms
Streaming platforms are online video services that offer users access to various films and TV shows. They are available on multiple devices, including smart TVs, streaming media receivers, tablets, and smartphones.
OTT platforms vary in terms of how they monetize their content. Some are free, while others require a subscription. So whether you’re a professional streaming service or a social media platform, choosing the suitable ad model for your business is essential.
OTT advertising offers more data-driven targeting than television ads, allowing companies to reach their target audiences effectively. They also enable advertisers to track user engagement and show how many viewers skipped an ad, clicked on it, or responded to it.
Audience targeting
Audience targeting is a way to target people based on demographics or interests. It helps marketers target their ads to the right people, saving them time and money and ensuring they are only being shown to those interested in the brand.
There are different types of audience targeting that you can use to reach your OTT audiences. Some are based on first-party data that your brand has collected, while others are based on third-party data.
Another type of OTT audience targeting is lookalike audience targeting, which looks for more people who resemble your ideal customer. It can be helpful for e-commerce campaigns, as it can help you reach more potential customers and increase the likelihood of them becoming actual customers.
Contextual OTT targeting can also send contextually relevant ad messages to viewers watching video content related to your campaign. As a result, it can significantly expand your advertising reach and engage users with targeted, highly relevant content.
Tracking
Tracking is an essential part of any digital campaign. It enables marketers to see their ads’ impact and measure their efforts’ results.
There are a few reasons why tracking is essential in OTT advertising: It gives advertisers the ability to identify viewers by their subscription data and program environment information, which can then be used to target specific audiences.
It makes it easier to target and retarget viewers across devices and platforms. It also allows brands to track ad-side metrics.
However, OTT is still fragmented, with no industry-wide standards or guidelines. Unlike web browsers, OTT devices lack features like cookies and flash support, which limits marketers’ ability to target viewers and attribute conversations appropriately. Moreover, tags on different OTT platforms are often incompatible with each other, leading to measurement discrepancies.
