Beyond Impressions: Excellence in CTV Audience Targeting

Your ads may be racking up thousands of impressions, but at the same time, they may not be producing much in the way of leads or sales. Tracking impressions is an important part of connected TV (CTV) advertising analytics, but that data point only tells a very small part of the story; if you want to move beyond impressions and drive meaningful results with your next connected TV campaign, it’s time to embrace CTV audience targeting.

What Is An Impression?

First and foremost, it’s important that you have a firm grasp of the concept of an impression. In the world of digital marketing, an impression occurs every time your ad is displayed.

Despite that simple definition, however, there are several downfalls to impression tracking; for one, impressions can be misleading, especially when advertising on smart TVs.

In addition, unlike reach, impressions aren’t unique displays of ad content. For instance, let’s say that a consumer is binge-watching their favorite TV show, and one of your CTV ads is displayed three different times during their viewing session. Each time your ad is displayed, it will count as one impression, but since the same person saw it all three times, it will only count as a single reach. In other words, reach represents unique views and impressions.

The bigger issue with impressions, though, is that you can have thousands of them while managing to bring in very few conversions; just because someone is seeing your ad doesn’t mean they are engaged with it.

What Is CTV Audience Targeting?

CTV audience targeting is the process of segmenting your consumer base using similar qualities or interests and then directing relevant advertisements at each subgroup. There are numerous ways to segment your audience, but the takeaway here is that — once you’ve divided them up — you can create more personalized CTV ads for each segment, which boosts engagement and conversions.

Ways to Target Your Audience

When engaging in CTV audience targeting, it’s vital that you choose the right segmentation strategy. As said, there are numerous approaches a brand can take, but the most popular of the bunch include the following:

Demographic Targeting

Demographic targeting is the most common type of audience segmentation through which a brand divides its audience along shared demographic traits, such as age, gender, marital status, and income level.

Typically, marketers will layer demographic segmentation with other targeting strategies to create a more precise audience; for instance, you could combine demographic and geographical data to target audiences of specific age ranges in your service area.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting is a more advanced tactic that analyzes consumers’ past online activities. You may consider things like the items someone has purchased, the websites they frequent, and any shows they have watched.

Behavioral targeting requires advanced data collection and analytics tools, which work to help accumulate and analyze digital behavioral history and access actionable insights.

Geographic Targeting

Geographic targeting is particularly useful for local and regional service providers, but big brands are no strangers to the strategy as well; for instance, a big box retailer might use geographic variables to target consumers who are located near a new store the brand is opening.

The best CTV audience targeting solutions allow you to get especially granular with geographic targeting; they’ll offer street or neighborhood-level targeting, enabling you to connect with audiences who have the highest likelihood of making a purchase.

Benefits of CTV Audience Targeting 

CTV audience targeting takes the guesswork of marketing on CTV platforms, and through the technique, you’ll be able to do the following:

Drive Better Engagement

Everybody wants to see ads that are relevant to their interests and needs. Through CTV audience targeting, you’ll be able to connect with ideal audiences, thereby increasing engagement and intrigue. You can even follow up on your initial campaigns in order to nurture leads and increase your odds of earning conversions.

Reduce Waste

The old-school approach to TV advertising required blanket campaigns, meaning you would have to market to an entire region or city, an approach that is incredibly expensive and inefficient. Through CTV audience targeting, though, you can run ads to specific markets, drastically cutting down on advertising waste.

Convert More Leads

In the grand scheme of things, impressions don’t matter much, but conversions do. CTV audience targeting, therefore, allows you to measure what matters and prioritize meaningful results, such as leads and sales. A well-run CTV campaign may garner far fewer impressions than a traditional ad, but it will enjoy a much better conversion rate overall.

Ready to Segment Your Audience?

If you’re ready to tap into the power of CTV audience targeting, now is the time to start gathering data and segmenting your audience into core subgroups. Once you know who you are trying to reach, you’ll be able to deliver ads with laser-like precision and watch the sales roll in.