Ads APIs aren’t just for social media networks anymore.
Tuesday marked the launch of Roku’s Ads API, which feeds directly into the company’s self-serve Ads Manager. The new free-to-use toolkit will allow developers to create new integrations between Roku and other kinds of advertising applications.
Essentially, the API will give developers the ability to do everything that’s possible within Roku Ads Manager API in other CRM and CDP platforms as well, Head of Ad Innovation Peter Hamilton told AdExchanger.
Only reporting, audience targeting and conversion capabilities are available at launch. However, campaign and creative management capabilities, which will let users launch campaigns directly through the API, will be added in the coming months.
The move complements Roku’s stated goal of being, in the words of President Charlie Collier at last week’s Q3 earnings call, as “open and interoperable” as possible with DSPs and other ad tech partners.
Additionally, the API launch also reflects CTV’s evolution toward becoming a performance-based channel, particularly by drawing from the social media ad buying experience that many digital marketers are already familiar with.
Data for developers
The Roku Ads API is intended to serve two different kinds of developers, said Hamilton.
First, there are the ad tech partners that want to build on top of Roku’s technology to create new CRM and CDP tools for advertisers. Then, there are the advertisers and brands themselves, which can incorporate Roku’s tech directly into their own systems for measurement, reporting and campaign management.
The API allows both types of developers to consolidate signals from all kinds of different sources into one place. For example, Roku’s data can now appear alongside other data sets from social media and search channels, many of which have offered Ads APIs to their advertising customers for over a decade.
“This is just something that hasn’t existed in CTV,” said Hamilton. “At the same time, it’s absolutely table stakes in social media advertising.”
Because ads APIs are such a relatively new concept within the CTV industry compared to other digital advertising channels, Roku wanted to make sure the platform was as intuitive and simple to use as possible, Hamilton added.
To that end, the API website offers interactive documentation that allows developers to generate requests (which are messages that ask an API to perform a specific service) and build code in real time. Code samples can also be developed in multiple programming languages, including JavaScript, Node and Python.
The last thing Hamilton wanted was API documentation that functions as “just a bunch of PDFs with endpoints and API keys that you slap around,” he said.
Instead, Hamilton said he hopes to foster a developer community around the Roku Ads API, complete with a Slack channel where devs can work together, ask each other questions and show off different types of integrations they’ve built.
Conversions for advertisers
For the beta test, Roku took care to prioritize measurement and signal partners. These types of companies would be most likely to serve as early adopters anyway, said Hamilton, because APIs are often fundamental to the way they operate.
For example, Tealium is a customer data platform company that works with large enterprise companies, often in highly regulated categories like financial services, insurance and health care. Four years ago, Tealium started partnering with major advertising platforms to develop conversion APIs (or CAPIs), said Stephen Smith, regional VP of partnerships.
Since becoming part of Roku’s API beta test six months ago, Tealium now has a handful of advertisers testing the API through their own platform. It’s too early to see whether the integration is translating to better outcomes, said Smith, but their past work with CAPIs has led to “dramatic improvement on measurement,” with more browser- and pixel-based performance channels.
Tealium has also worked with companies that have connectivity to Roku, such as The Trade Desk. But a direct connection to Roku makes the feedback loop more efficient.
“We’re able to ensure that the data we’re sending directly to them is the right data,” said Smith.
Roku isn’t the first CTV company to experiment with ads APIs. Comcast introduced similar tools into its newly launched Universal Ads platform, which ad tech partners like SearchKings and Brand Networks are already capitalizing on in their own software.
Not surprisingly, Hamilton expects that this will be more of a trend going forward, particularly as performance marketing becomes a larger trend within CTV.
“For any platform that wants to provide performance to advertisers, an API suite is foundational,” he said.
