Buying ads on broadcast TV used to mean making an expensive, and often imprecise, branding play. Because advertising on broadcast TV focused almost exclusively on the top of the funnel, it was difficult to tie specific business results to campaigns.
But with the emergence of CTV, buyers can now pair the storytelling power of TV with the targeting and measurement capabilities of digital. Let’s break down how to plan a CTV campaign, how to effectively measure growth with KPIs, and what you should do with your campaign findings.
How To Plan a CTV Campaign
The first step to planning a CTV campaign is to define your target audience. While broadcast TV is limited to targeting specific channels, programs, or Nielsen demos (such as adults 25-54), with CTV, you can use data like IP addresses or first-party information on audience interests and characteristics to target very specific segments, such as an audience in a specific age range with an interest in basketball.
Once you’ve defined your target audience, establish the goals for your campaign. While broadcast TV has been traditionally confined to general awareness goals, with CTV campaigns, you can also move viewers further down the funnel with mechanisms like QR codes that direct viewers to product listings.
Next, choose where you’d like to reach your audience, which may mean targeting a streaming platform, a cable channel, or a broadcast network, to name a few examples. Each platform or channel reaches a different audience, and how (and how often) they show ads also varies widely. Understanding which viewers you want to reach and the goals you want to achieve will help you narrow your list.
From there, it’s time to create the ads themselves and distribute them across your platforms of choice.
I’ve Launched My CTV Campaign…
Now What?
Now that you’ve launched your CTV campaign, it’s time to compare the results against your goals. Below are some core key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help you measure your progress towards those goals.
CTV Campaign Measurement and KPIs
CTV lends itself to granular, highly impactful measurement. Here are some common KPIs for evaluating your campaign’s performance.
- Reach: the number of unique households that have seen your ad
- Frequency: the number of times your ad has been seen by each household
- Conversion rate: the percentage of households that took a desired action after seeing your ad, such as going to your website or completing a purchase
What to Do with Your Campaign Findings
By collecting your results and comparing them against your business goals, you’ll be able to find ways to optimize your CTV campaign for maximum performance. Optimizing your campaign can entail, for example, reassessing which platforms to distribute your ads on or tinkering with the ads themselves.
Reach out to FreeWheel today to learn more about how to drive results for your CTV advertising campaigns. We bring streaming expertise and the most direct possible access to premium CTV inventory to help you succeed no matter where you are in your CTV journey.
