Advertisers want to make sure their connected TV ads perform. Enter “performance TV.”
But the role of CTV in campaign performance doesn’t mean streaming will become a pure-play performance marketing channel like search, social media and display. No matter how digitized CTV becomes, it’s still a different beast.
“Advertisers see streaming TV as a performance multiplier,” said Erin Firneno, SVP of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. In other words, Firneno said, marketers “understand that a streaming TV campaign can support outcomes over time.”
Streaming TV is a lean-back environment for viewers, and people don’t click around or shop on TV screens the way they do on mobile or desktop devices. CTV conversions typically happen on a second screen, which is why CTV campaigns have longer attribution windows, Firneno said. For these reasons – and the higher cost of CTV ads compared to other channels – “marketers are absolutely still seeing streaming TV as best suited for branding and upper-funnel goals, primarily,” she said.
This perception (pun intended) would explain why, according to Advertiser Perceptions surveys, roughly 24% of streaming TV campaigns have lower-funnel business goals. As CTV performance becomes more of a focus for buyers, Firneno believes that number will grow. Although the Advertiser Perceptions survey says that number has been “stable” for the past three years.
“Advertisers have a healthy skepticism regarding TV’s ability to prove lower-funnel outcomes,” Firneno said. Instead, advertisers should spend more time on incrementality testing, she said, which might look like a heightened focus on mid-funnel metrics, such as brand lift.
Regardless of the language advertisers use to describe CTV, what matters is ascertaining whether CTV is actually making a positive difference in a brand’s long-term growth, Firneno said.
Also in this episode: Why “performance TV” is limited to connected TV, where QR codes do and don’t belong in streaming, the rise of conversion APIs in CTV and whether the walled gardens will become better team players.
For more articles featuring Erin Firneno, click here.
