Home CTV Roku’s Clean Room Evolves Into Its New Form: The Roku Data Cloud

Roku’s Clean Room Evolves Into Its New Form: The Roku Data Cloud

SHARE:

Three years after launching its own data clean room, Roku is trying to bring something new to the table.

On Monday, the company announced the launch of a new offering, the Roku Data Cloud, which allows marketers access to more granular streaming TV data via ad tech and agency API partners.

More specifically, the Data Cloud will be available via agency analytics services from Omnicom (Omni) and PMG (Alli), as well as measurement companies Innovid and iSpot. There will also be an integration with Yahoo DSP on an advertiser-specific basis, though that’s expected in the back half of this year.

Miles Fisher, senior director of strategic advertising partnerships at Roku, told AdExchanger that the company has no plans to charge a SaaS-like subscription fee for the data, as many vendors in the space do.

“We’re in the media business. We’re not in the data business,” said Fisher. “We don’t want to be selling data for CPMs.”

No more yelling at clouds

The data cloud info itself comes directly from Roku’s automatic content recognition (ACR) and opt-in first-party signals, including those from customer sign-ups and purchases across the OS. The ACR data feed, for instance, allows for audience segmentation based on viewing patterns, while the OS data can identify potential demographic information for targeting.

The Data Cloud feed and services are partly self-serve, depending on the advertiser’s need. Roku’s data science team works closely with partners like PMG, Omnicom and Yahoo, for example, but allows for measurement partners “to do the analytics themselves,” said Fisher.

For PMG in particular, the Data Cloud is built into the agency’s proprietary analytics and insights solution, Alli, so clients will be able to act on the Roku data directly.

PMG’s prior relationship with Roku goes back at least a decade, including PMG’s recent acquisition of independent agency Camelot, said Head of Partnerships (and former Camelot CEO) Sam Bloom.

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily

Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Working with the new Data Cloud, Bloom said, has been particularly helpful for clients in financial services, QSR, retail and travel categories, who seem “to bet more” – buying more ad inventory, in other words.

“When we bring the Roku data in, we see clients leaning in more and feeling more confident about the results, because it’s more like the data they’re used to,” Bloom noted.

What peak performance looks like

Despite gaining traction over linear TV, CTV is famously difficult to measure compared to other digital ad channels. (“Attribution is a last-click world, and there aren’t really clicks on the television,” said Fisher.)

Ideally, the Roku Data Cloud will improve addressability for CTV audiences at a larger scale, especially considering that one out of every three new televisions sold in North America comes with Roku’s software built in, according to the company’s estimates.

Clients with mid-funnel and upper-funnel campaigns “want them to be performative,” said Bloom. Where CTV is concerned, “we now have the data to go do those things.”

Must Read

The Trade Desk’s Auction Evolutions Bring High Drama To The Prebid Summit

TTD shared new details about OpenAds features that let publishers see for themselves whether it’s running a fair auction. But tension between TTD and Prebid hung over the event.

Monopoly Man looks on at the DOJ vs. Google ad tech antitrust trial (comic).

How Google Stands In The DOJ’s Ad Tech Antitrust Suit, According To Those Who Tracked The Trial

The remedies phase of the Google antitrust trial concluded last week. And after 11 days in the courtroom, there is a clearer sense of where Judge Leonie Brinkema is focused on, and how that might influence what remedies she put in place.

The Ad Context Protocol Aims To Make Sense Of Agentic Ad Demand

The AI advertising agents will need their own trade group eventually. For now though, a bunch of companies are forming the Ad Context Protocol, or AdCP.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

OUTFRONT Is Using Agencies’ AI Enthusiasm To Spur Wider Programmatic OOH Adoption

The desire for a data-driven reinvention of OOH inspired OUTFRONT to create agentic AI tools for executing and measuring OOH campaigns and comparing OOH to other channels.

Inside PubDesk, The Trade Desk’s New Dashboard That Shows What Buyers Actually Care About

A peek inside PubDesk, The Trade Desk’s new dashboard that gives sellers detailed info on how buyers value their inventory.

(Photo credit: Samsung Ads on Linkedin)

How To Advertise To Advertisers At Ad Industry Events (Like Advertising Week)

New Yorkers are bombarded by ads at every turn. But targeted ads? For your industry? While you’re on your way to an event for that industry? The surreality of that experience can still pack a punch.