The Key to CTV’s Future Remains Access for All Advertisers
Since the 2020s began, CTV has captivated advertiser attention and, as a result, investment. Walled gardens like Meta are eying CTV as their next road to revenue growth, while huge retailers like Walmart have read the writing on the wall and bought up CTV companies to build closed-loop attribution models for their brand partners.
Digitally native advertisers who have long relied on efficient audience and targeting capabilities are naturally enthralled with the potential of CTV. Meanwhile, performance-based advertisers who have seen their results plateau on channels like Facebook and Instagram are hungry for new ways to expand their audience and find new prospects.
These hopes are pinned on a CTV market that operates exactly the same way that brands buy display, video, and social across the open web and walled gardens. Unfortunately, this is in contrast to how a majority of the CTV ad market still operates.
While there has certainly been a flood of FAST inventory available at efficient pricing, the kind of large audience, deeply-engaging content that brands want is still largely confined to the top half dozen or so premium ad-supported streaming platforms. And these platforms, to date, still favor a direct sales model.
The result is that the scrappy, performance-driven brands that have grown their companies through social and programmatic can’t bring the same playbook to the CTV space. To make matters worse, there are hurdles in place that further slow down their CTV adoption.
They lack capacity to manage ad buys
Most growth-driven brands are working with lean marketing teams that are getting the most they can out of every dollar. While the CTV and premium streaming space has appeal, these teams may not have the time or resources needed to negotiate, manage and execute direct buys across several streaming platforms. The time and staffing needed is a big roadblock.
Costs are prohibitive
Even if performance and growth oriented brands have the resources to manage direct buys, they will run into different problems. Brands optimizing campaigns towards audiences don’t always want to purchase inefficient media that is most oriented towards broad reach. Unfortunately, this may be in contrast to the selling practices of the big streamers, which often have spending minimums in order to buy direct campaigns with audience targeting. Rather than hit a minimum investment that won’t drive ROI, these brands are more likely to sit out streaming.
Digital agencies lack the capacity
The final challenge is that CTV has arrived so fast that even newer digitally focused agencies have not been able to keep pace. Even if performance brands are using an agency to manage their campaign buying, the agency itself may lack the capacity and technology to execute CTV buys seamlessly.
What’s needed to drive CTV growth
The hype around CTV and streaming is warranted. This is where consumers are spending more of their time, and the major media companies need advertising investment to continue operating their streaming properties and providing a means to reach consumers.
What the advertising community needs is a way for smaller advertisers to overcome the major hurdles and access inventory across the premium streaming properties in a way that is both cost-effective and performance-oriented.
Whereas Meta and Google have developed their own self-serve platforms for ease of access, this just isn’t the case in streaming. Even with self-serve tools owned and operated by the streamers, the market would still be too fractured for most brands to navigate on their own. The most effective way in may be the arrival of third-party self-serve access points that can unite inventory from the major platforms and make it more accessible to smaller brands and agencies.
These can be operated by agencies themselves, or by pure-play tech providers, but the result will be the same: collective buying power, pre-negotiated rates, and ease of access. All of this will spur greater brand investment in the streaming ecosystem, ensuring that advertisers, media companies, and consumers all remain happy going forward.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from Chief Media. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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