Performance marketing comes to television

There’s no denying that when it comes to user experience, television advertising is king. It’s hard to beat reaching your audience when they’re relaxing at home on the couch, ready to watch their favorite shows. 

The only problem is that for performance marketers, television has never been great. The term “broadcast” sums it all up — because of a lack of precise audience targeting capabilities, advertisers are forced into casting a pretty broad net. That’s great for branding and raising awareness, but it’s pretty useless when it comes to performance marketing. If you want viewers to take a specific action, like visit a website or drive them to convert, traditional television advertising has never been first choice. 

That’s a shame, because TV ads stick with viewers. Ad recall on television screens is 32% better than with the next closest device. Compare that with display advertising (I bet you can’t even remember the ad you saw on this very page), and there’s little debate on how effective TV ads can be. 

That all begs the question — what if advertisers were able to launch performance campaigns on TV right alongside their other tried and true channels like paid search and social? Well, good news — Connected TV advertising makes that a reality. 

See how to integrate Connected TV into your performance marketing mix with our E-commerce Campaign Starter Pack. 

Connected TV becomes performance TV

Connected TV is content accessed by apps and streamed over smart TVs, mobile, or over-the-top (OTT) devices. With over 190 million Americans streaming in 2019, it’s the new way of watching television. And while advertisers are still feeling out this new channel, we can tell you that it’s clearly an enormous opportunity for performance marketers.

Here at SteelHouse, we’ve served millions of Connected TV ad impressions through our Performance TV ad platform. Our origins as a business are in digital performance marketing, and we recognize Connected TV has many of the same strengths as other tried and true performance marketing channels like search and social. Its ability to leverage targeting and analytics elevate it from a pure branding play to one where performance can be attributed and tied to specific ads. Connected TV has unlocked television’s performance potential. 

Digital precision transforms TV into a performance machine

Connected TV advertising combines the experience of television with the precision targeting and analytics of digital advertising. With technical capabilities like that, it’s more than able to transform television into a performance machine. Advertisers can target specific audiences by leveraging third- or first-party data (just like social or display), and then track the actions viewers take on other household devices (desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, etc.) after seeing those ads.

Digital advertising’s targeting capabilities are fully available on Connected TV. 

• Intent
• Geography
• Income
• Demographic
• Age & gender
• And more

Advertisers can also track vital metrics that show exactly how ads perform. 

• Site & page visits
• First-time site visitors
• Conversions
• Performance by device
• And more

By melding digital advertising capabilities with television, advertisers have a chance to utilize TV in a way that’s never been done before. They can drive lower-funnel action that directly results in sales and conversions — and track it all so they have confidence that their ads are making an impact. That’s huge news for all performance-oriented advertisers. 

Results on par with performance mainstays

Based on an analysis of SteelHouse Performance TV campaigns, we have seen compelling reasons to rate Connected TV right alongside other performance ad channels. We’ve found it’s especially effective at driving three principle metrics that marketers need to embrace — Cost Per Visit, Visit Rate, and Cost Per Completed View. Why are those so important?

• Cost Per Visit. If you’re trying to prompt users to visit your site, then you need to keep an eye on this one. You want to be sure you’re spending budget efficiently when driving traffic, and our Performance TV campaigns have shown that Connected TV ads are comparable to non-branded search and social when it comes to this valuable metric. 
• Visit Rate. Connected TV ads are excellent at convincing a high percentage of viewers to visit an advertiser’s website. Performance TV campaigns have driven a rate that’s 2-4X higher than display prospecting or YouTube ads. 
• Cost Per Completed View. One of Connected TV’s strengths is the fact the ads are unskippable. They average a 97% completion rate, which means its Cost Per Completed View is tiny. Advertisers’ entire message gets delivered, and it only costs pennies. 

Retargeting is a reality on connected TV

Retargeting has been a huge differentiator for channels like display and social, but that’s no longer the case with Connected TV. Retargeting has come to television, with all the same capabilities and metrics that performance marketers are already familiar with. 

It’s been a dream for advertisers to be able to connect the entire household in a single ad experience. With Connected TV, they can. If a consumer visits an advertiser’s website, Connected TV enables them to retarget them with ads while they stream their favorite shows. That means they can keep the user experience consistent, and drive users back to their site to convert. 

At SteelHouse, we’ve taken this a step further with Audience Extension. Once a viewer sees an ad on Connected TV, they are then automatically served related ads across display and mobile, keeping the advertiser’s message top of mind. So, when that viewer is ready to convert, there will be an ad waiting for them. 

Add connected TV to your performance campaigns

With measurable performance and an impact that’s aligned with other performance channels, it’s a no brainer to add Connected TV to your performance marketing mix. Whether the goal is to reach new users or retarget site visitors to drive conversions, it can accomplish both efficiently and effectively. 

Want to learn how to integrate it into your performance marketing mix? Check out our E-commerce Campaign Starter Pack to get a better understanding of the basics of Connected TV advertising, and why it should be considered right alongside display, search, and social. Want to learn more about SteelHouse Performance TV? Check it out here. 

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

John Blanchard