LiveRamp gives advertisers a way to target users across all of their CTV interactions

LiveRamp announced Monday a new solution that will help video advertisers tie together specific users’ connected TV (CTV) experiences, whether they are accessed through over-the-top (OTT) devices or digital channels.

The solution will leverage LiveRamp’s omnichannel identity graph, providing marketers with a way to know if, for example,  a person watching a TV show on Netflix on their phone is the same person watching it later on their home TV through Roku.

“CTV allows marketers to extend the reach of their video advertising to the device that offers consumers a premium, lean-back experience – TV,” said Allison Metcalfe, general manager of TV, LiveRamp. “With a single cross-channel identifier, marketers cannot only power precise targeting and measurement, but also gain a holistic view of their consumers across devices, ultimately allowing them to create a more compelling user experience. We expect to see more advertisers, big and small, include CTV in their media mix and extend the reach and impact of their current video ad investments.”

CTV usage, advertising is on the rise. Emarketer projects that more than 60 percent of the U.S. population (204.1 million) will be accessing CTV content at least once a month by 2022. That’s a statistic that’s not lost on advertisers, who have been keeping pace with their own increase in CTV ad spend. In September, video marketing platform Innovid reported that CTV “now accounts for 27 percent of overall video volume . . . and CTV [ad] impressions have grown by 106 percent” since 2016, adding that there’s been a 30 percent increase in the number of CTV advertisers from 2016 to 2017.

A chart showing a steady increase in CTV users | eMarketer

But despite all this growth, CTV advertising is still relatively new and marketers are keen to find solutions that mirror the experience — and results — they have advertising on other platforms.

“Today, TV and digital strategies are rapidly converging,” Metcalfe aid. “Since day one, our mission has been to make marketing addressable and actionable — no matter the channel.”

A deterministic approach. Identity resolution has become increasingly important to marketers. Without it, advertisers aren’t able to control messaging to users as they progress through the customer journey on different devices.

“Our identity solution is rooted in deterministic, people-based identifiers, which means we link individuals back to the CTV devices and services they love,” Metcalfe said. “Up until now, the CTV industry has primarily relied on probabilistic identifiers and a siloed customer view, which has limited marketers’ ability to unify data for targeting and measurement strategies.”

Beyond the walled gardens. Metcalfe said that LiveRamp’s foray into CTV allows it to extend its “media- and data-agnostic highway that links together the advertising ecosystem.”

“Our coverage across the ecosystem allows us to go beyond the partial universes and walled gardens that have plagued the industry for a while,” Metcalfe said. “Best of all, our omnichannel graph means we can paint an entire picture of consumers across devices, including online and mobile too.”

Brands are on board. LiveRamp customer Phil Hruska, manager of media strategy for Honda & Acura at Honda of America, said that Honda has already been investing in CTV ads — and plans to continue to do so.

“People are interacting with video content in ever-changing and expanding ways, and CTV is a central driver of this,” Hruska said. “We are always looking for opportunities to connect with our current and future customers through dynamic content and creative messaging.”