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CTV ads allow for unprecedented amounts of interactivity, and that engagement translates into a real boost to your ROI. In this blog post, we explain the basics of this game-changing technology.
Sean Kelly | Senior Content Writer
March 15, 2024
In the days of linear TV, getting customers to take action on your ads was a difficult and often murky process. After all, nobody was going to take a break in the middle of “Seinfeld” to go shop at a store, right that minute. In order to coax consumers into action, you had to implant ideas that they’d remember and act on at a more opportune time, like during business hours or over the weekend. And if you were successfully able to get customers to remember your promotional offer or catchy jingle for long enough, tracing that customer behavior back to the ads you’d placed was mostly circumstantial.
Now, thanks to Connected TVs, a slew of interactive solutions means that customers can act on your ad messaging without ever moving from their seats, in ways that are easier to track than ever.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the basics of this exciting new innovation, and why you should consider implementing it in your next round of CTV ads (you are running CTV ads, right?)
Case Study: find out how OKO was able to boost Loop Media’s revenue by 500% — on the first day.
What is Interactive CTV?
In the olden days, the closest most of us got to an “interactive” commercial were the ones that came with an 800 number and four easy payments of $19.95 — along with the promise that, if you called before the end of the commercial break, you’d receive an additional free gift. These commercials, for “As Seen On TV”-branded products (like “The Clapper”), compilation CDs (like “Pure Moods”), and specialty medical equipment (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”), were a mainstay during daytime TV commercial breaks and middle-of-the-night infomercials.
They came with a lot of downsides, however. Traditional broadcast commercials tended to be pricey airtime, so the ads could only air during those wonky hours when people with the most disposable income were either at work or asleep. They were also poorly-targeted: an ad running during “Judge Judy” could be viewed by retirees, people with night jobs, or kids who were home sick from school. And in the days of corded phones, expecting someone to go through all the steps of leaving the couch, grabbing a wallet, and going to get the phone in the kitchen was a pretty high barrier to activation.
Interactive CTV is a specialty form of Connected TV advertising that allows viewers to interface directly with the ad content on their screens, through a variety of methods like clickable links, QR codes, and more. Similar to the interactivity of online banner ads, interactive CTV ads take what we’ve learned in that space and combine it with what we’ve learned from decades of linear broadcast advertising, resulting in creatives that are easy to interact with, better targeting, and less-expensive airtime.
Types of Interactive CTV Ads
There are new types of Interactive CTV ads being created all the time, but some are emerging as particularly successful while others are still in their infancy. Some prime examples include:
- Choose Your Ad Experience: likely you’ve seen these ads on some streaming services, which allow you to select which commercial you want to watch from two or three options, typically all for the same brand.
- QR Codes: a “shoppable” ad experience, QR codes allow viewers to use their cellphones to jump straight to the landing page of your choosing, often with an add-to-cart option. They can also be used to direct people to social media accounts, sign-up sheets — anything with a URL on the Internet.
- Clickable Ads: some ads can be clicked on directly, just like on a web browser, by clicking “OK” on your Roku remote, cellphone, or other connected device. Initially less-common on actual TV sets due to the lack of a mouse, these are becoming more feasible.
- Second-Screen Ads: some ads can pop into frame without interrupting the content itself, through “picture-in-picture” formatting that allows the ad and content to exist side-by-side. These second-screen ads can grab viewers during lulls in the on-screen action, and feature many of the other interactive features on this list.
- Connected Devices: CTVs, as web-enabled devices, are often connected to a shared Wi-Fi network. As such, the set can often detect other devices on the network, giving advertisers the option of sending supplemental advertisements to a viewer’s phone at their request, so that they can take more time with content later.
There are more — and, like we said, new forms are being created every day. Whether you’re prompting viewers with your nearest store location or hitting them up with simple poll questions, there are a lot of ways to activate viewers that were formerly passive “couch potatoes.”
But do these technologically-advanced ad types actually benefit advertisers over their less-interactive counterparts?
The Benefits of Interactive CTV
CTV ads have high-viewability, can’t be skipped, and provide better tracking and demographic data than their linear brethren — and Interactive CTV ads take every advantage of CTV and turn it up a couple of notches. Some of those benefits include:
- A/B Testing Content: By allowing users to select the ad experience they prefer, advertisers can discover which of their ad concepts are more compelling. That’s valuable, actionable, first-party data.
- Immediate Effects: Interactive content can nab a conversion from viewers immediately, while your messaging is still in front of them and before it’s had a chance to fade. You no longer have to worry about whether they’ll remember what product went with your clever ad, or enter the 800 number correctly.
- Superior Tracking: Thanks to the tracking afforded by interactive creatives, you’ll be able to tell exactly which ad activated your viewers, at which point in the broadcast, during what program, etc. This is all data you can use to hone your messaging and further focus your targeting efforts.
- Viewer Choice: Allowing your viewers to take actions and make choices gets them further invested in your sales funnel, providing buy-in that could make them more likely to follow through with a purchase.
- Choosing Viewers: The targeting options for CTV are far more surgical than linear broadcast – using the interaction data from your interactive creatives will allow you to further hone your targeting around viewers most-likely to interact with your creatives, saving money and producing more-qualified leads.
- Measuring Attention: One of the problems with linear TV is that it could very often be playing to an empty room. Interactive creatives mean you’ll know for sure that your ads are being seen by human eyes, and you’ll know which programs produce the most-attentive audiences.
In addition to the conversions and ROI — which can be substantial — interactive CTV ads can provide further value-adds to your data, tracking, and testing.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, interactive CTV advertising provides a rare best-of-both-worlds opportunity for advertisers, allowing them to provide a better ad experience for viewers that also benefits them by almost every metric.
If you’re looking to up your CTV game, OKO Digital is a solution that demands a look. You can get started today by reaching out to our team. With years of experience with Google ads, monetization, and driving client results, OKO Digital is a leading solution in the ever-shifting world of adtech. Reach out today for more information.
