Marketers’ top 10 burning CTV questions (answered)

Connected TV (CTV) continues to grow as an advertising channel. Just last month, Adjust data reported that the impression volume for CTV to mobile grew 31.5% from the month before. And yet many app marketers hesitate to use it, feeling uncertain about adding CTV to their marketing mix. In the latest Smadex mobile masterminds webinar hit—Get Connected: Leveraging CTV for Growth—industry leaders answered the most common questions surrounding CTV, measurement, partners, and more.

The following CTV experts shared their advice:

• Gijsbert Pols, Ph.D., Director of Connected TV and New Channels, Adjust
• Marta Masachs, Head of Growth, FunPlus
• Alfons Schwartz, Senior Product Manager. Smadex

For full details, watch the recording of the webinar, excellently hosted by Júlia Planas, Chief Operating Officer of Smadex. But, to get immediate answers to your burning CTV questions, read on!

Answered by: Alfons Schwartz, Senior Product Manager. Smadex

“Yes. In our experience, we’ve found in many cases, we’ve been able to reach similar performance compared to other channels with CTV. But it’s important to remember that CTV campaigns can also significantly help the performance of your other mobile campaigns.”

Answered by: Gijsbert Pols, Ph.D., Director of Connected TV and New Channels, Adjust

“Ideally, CTV combines the best features of television and the digital world. The newer aspect, digital, brings measurement and targeting capabilities. But don’t forget the qualities that television brings either! With TV, viewers tend to be captivated for longer periods of time; they’re watching on a larger screen. TV is a laid-back device as users typically sit back to consume. Therefore, the ad tolerance on it is much higher than, say, social media.

Most of us grew up watching TV, readily accepting we would need to sit through commercials before the actual content came on. Today is the same; most of us don’t mind ads on TV. So, if you invest in the creative potential of CTV—of its ability to captivate people—by creating a high-quality, attention-grabbing ad with excellent placement on CTV, then you will likely see a nice interplay between CTV and your other user acquisition channels.”

Answered by: Alfons Schwartz, Senior Product Manager. Smadex

In short, yes, we’ve seen gains in running a CTV campaign in tandem with a mobile campaign.

Considerations when syncing a CTV campaign with a mobile campaign:

1. Have a way to connect these two channels, likely via IP retargeting.

2. Focus on your creative strategy.

3. Play around and test depending on your attribution waterfall.

For example, let’s say you run a mobile campaign using a playable video, and you have some users who interacted with the playable ad, but they didn’t end up installing the game. So, you can retarget those interested users with a home IP address, showing them a new creative via CTV. Perhaps this CTV ad is a longer, non-skippable video, and reveals new features that weren’t in the previous ad.

Vice versa, you could first impact many users with a CTV ad and then retarget them in a mobile campaign. As a bonus, when users see the second ad on mobile, they’ll be able to install the ad directly as they’ll already be on their smartphone.”

Answered by: Marta Masachs, Head of Growth, FunPlus

“I’d say our biggest problem at the beginning of advertising with CTV was figuring out our creatives. We were hesitant to invest in creatives for a channel that we were initially uncertain about regarding its potential. Now, I would advise marketers who are just starting in the CTV realm to reuse creatives that have been successful in other UA channels. When it came to testing CTV for us, we decided to use our budget for ad placement rather than creative creation.”

Marta’s tips for creatives for CTV:

1. Make sure it has a voice-over.

2. Create 30-second and 15-second versions to see which works best.

3. Consider adding a QR code at the end for more direct tracking.

Answered by: Alfons Schwartz, Senior Product Manager. Smadex

“Right, advertisers are concerned about but continue to stick to last-touch attribution. Last-touch attribution doesn’t work for CTV, where the ad may impact conversion, but users (for now) can’t click via CTV. However, I think we can all agree that there are more insights to be had outside of last-touch attribution, which is more obvious for a connected TV campaign.

For example, maybe a user sees an incredible CTV ad that is non-clickable but on a high-definition TV and is motivated to install the app. Today, marketers have access to proper measurement tools to see if that CTV ad impacted the install, complementing the information they already have on their other campaigns.”

Curious about how last-touch differs from multi-touch attribution? Check out our article: What is multi-touch attribution? Exploring the models and their benefits.

Also answered by: Gijsbert Pols, PhD, Director of Connected TV and New Channels, Adjust

“When examining a CTV campaign, you need to have a full-funnel mindset.

If you’re wondering, “Was there a direct performance of CTV, as in the last touch?” That’s not going to be very high. So instead, the main question should be, “Is CTV driving audiences to lower funnels? Particularly search and social, and do they convert then?’

You then need to zoom out and see if your overall performance is growing. For example, you have 1000 users coming in via paid search on Google on a monthly basis. Then you start a CTV campaign. See if CTV pushes up the number of users coming via Google. If so, great. But then, you’ll also need to examine the quality of the users. Are they staying longer in the app and do they spend more money than users acquired via other channels, etc.?

Answered by: Marta Masachs, Head of Growth, FunPlus

“It’s pivotal marketers find the right partner to help them test their CTV campaigns. Where linear TV is slow in terms of optimization, CTV is much faster. So, you need someone who can help you act faster and provide a good service. In the same way, be aware that analytics differ between linear and CTV. CTV allows you to view attributed or “assisted” installs, which are relevant analytics to act on. Note also that the device platform isn’t split between iOS and Android.

Oh, and if your team is wondering where to run your CTV campaigns, I’d recommend the U.S. due to the high CTV penetration.”

Answered by: Gijsbert Pols, PhD, Director of Connected TV and New Channels, Adjust

“Yes, but not in the way most people think. We need to see how it develops over time. What we’re seeing now is that creatives with QR codes perform better. But—shocker—not because people scan the QR code. So, you won’t see much traction there unless you gamify or incentivize the ad. However, I’d still heavily recommend marketers utilize a QR code in their CTV ads—not because viewers will scan it but because they will realize they are watching an ad for a mobile app. We hypothesize that the QR code helps viewers connect that they are watching an ad for mobile apps. They think, “Oh I need to use my phone to interact with this ad.” Naturally, we’ll need to see how this develops over time. If you have the budget, I would suggest to gamify or incentivize your QR codes, but you’ll need the appropriate context for that.”

Check out a specific use case for QR codes from Gijsbert here: QR codes - the key to scaling Connected TV ads on YouTube or our latest guide: Play to win: Using gamification to give your app an unbeatable edge.

Answered by: Alfons Schwartz, Senior Product Manager. Smadex

“You need another source of measurement. You’ll need to be able to measure assists. You’ll need to see if CTV brings in any added value to another campaign you’re running.”

Answered by: Gijsbert Pols, PhD, Director of Connected TV and New Channels, Adjust

“With Adjust’s CTV AdVision solution, marketers can monitor assisted installs and events in a CTV-specific dashboard. They receive an intuitive overview of how their CTV campaigns are performing individually and also see the impact of their CTV campaigns on metrics like retention, installs, ROI, and revenue.

For instance, a marketer can track how many users who converted via social media first saw a specific CTV ad. Then, the marketer can monitor if those users spend more or less money than other users.”

To wrap up, each expert shared an important takeaway from the webinar.

Are you ready to start CTV advertising? If so, request your demo now from the industry leader with the first comprehensive CTV solution for app marketers.