The rise of streaming television has changed the narrative of TV advertising. Whether it was over-the-air broadcasting or cable, the traditional advertising model was for brands to identify a channel, program, or daypart that over-indexed with their target audience, and they would then purchase airtime in those respective slots. The hope was that enough qualified potential customers would see the spot and move to a stage in the purchase cycle. The drawback to this approach is that many ad dollars are wasted on other viewers watching that programming that do not fit the brand’s consumer profile. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the target customer is even watching during the purchased time slot. The advent of DVR has further eroded advertising returns by providing viewers with an incentive to skip commercials.
With the television landscape rapidly shifting to streaming, advertisers no longer need to hope or guess if they are reaching the desired audience. Today, advertisers can now specifically target their customers at any time, regardless of what they are watching. With streaming TV advertising, brands can now have non-skippable ads served to specific viewers that are more likely to match their consumer profile.
While there is no cookie-cutter approach to reaching a target audience, below are five ways advertisers can reach potential customers through streaming:
- Specific zip codes. While there is still value in national, regional and DMA targeting, with the proper research, advertisers can serve ads in zip codes that meet specific criteria such as geographical info from first party sales data.
- Specific Audience. Through the use of audience data, advertisers can target users that meet a specific profile based on recent habits.
- Contextual Programming. There are contextual segments available on streaming based on certain genres of programming that advertisers can place where relevant, such as a grocery store advertising on cooking programming while the viewer is thinking about recipe ingredients.
- Specific Channels. While this tactic most closely resembles the now-diminishing traditional advertising model, there are still instances where channel and app-based targeting can serve as a useful compliment to another targeting strategy. For example, advertising for a sporting event on ESPN along with another tactic that targets sports fans will have enough overlap to hit the desired audience.
- Remarketing. Serving ads to past website visitors (regardless of whether they’ve already seen a brand’s streaming ad) will serve as a reminder that can push them from an investigative stage to a consideration or purchase stage.
Again, there is no standard approach to targeted TV advertising on streaming. It is in many ways an artform that must be catered to the brand’s goals and the mindset of the target customer. Advertisers should seek partners that take an intelligent, consultative approach to marketing. The team at Awarity is always open to meet for a needs assessment and provide custom campaign proposals that fit the scope of a brand’s objectives.
