About half of holiday shoppers begin hunting for presents before Halloween — that means it’s time for us to work on our holiday marketing mix early. If we wait until it’s time to close the sale, we’re too late, and our competitors with stronger market presence will rake in customers.
Holiday marketing is crucial. A multi-channel, full-funnel approach ensures you reach customers across all potential touchpoints year-round. Holiday campaigns help close the gap.
One of the most promising channels to consider this year is Connected TV (CTV). CTV is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels, accounting for about one-third of total video ad spending.
But there’s a lot of uncertainty about investing in a new channel. Where do you start? Is it right for your marketing strategy? Let’s go over why CTV is a powerful tool for holiday marketing — it can reach more diverse audiences than you might expect.
The holiday commercials of Christmas TV are some of the most beloved brand messages. Companies use them to build rapport with American households, sometimes reusing ads for years to come.
For instance, remember the Hershey’s Kisses commercial? It debuted in 1989 and has been a household staple ever since. Simple, sweet, and playful:
Brands haven’t lost the chance to reach customers over the holidays just because traditional TV advertising has declined! Here’s why it’s more important than ever to invest in CTV for this holiday season.
CTV targeting is broader than many other forms of digital targeting. While other forms typically reach one individual, CTV can reach an entire household of viewers in one sitting. Multiple people can receive targeted ads from CTV based on an ecosystem of third- and first-party data.
CTV is an opportunity to create impactful ads that connect users to your brand. These ads are an opportunity to associate your brand with emotions, environments, and lifestyles that relate to your viewer.
At a time where attention is difficult to garner and most ads take up less than a second of the viewers’ time, CTV ads are an opportunity to leave a bigger mark.
A staggering 47% of marketers who are increasing their CTV ad spend cite improved audience targeting as a key reason. CTV allows you to target holiday shoppers from within your target audience based on a range of preference — based on first- and third-party data.
So, you want to make standout CTV ads for the holiday season. This advertising channel requires strategic messaging to drive awareness and leave an impact on the audience. Let’s go over the key aspects of a standout CTV ad.
Effective advertising requires visual appeal. But unlike many other digital channels, CTV requires creative investment to stand out.
Thankfully, many companies specialize in creating video ads. AdRoll has creative partners that help clients create CTV promotions that shine. For instance, Limelight can create stunning video creative for AdRoll customers.
If you have an in-house creative team up to the task, these are some essential specs for a good CTV ad:
Length: 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 second duration
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (1920 x 1080)
File Type: MP4
Bitrate: Typically 15,000-30,000 Kbps / 15-30 Mbps
Some have minimums of 2,100 Kbps
Publishing a CTV ad doesn’t have to be expensive, but there are a few techniques to ensure your ad goes the extra mile for a holiday campaign and drive conversions.
Try an inclusive ad that encompasses the entire holiday season and its breadth of celebrations. Also consider opting for a timeless ad you can play year after year, like the Hershey’s bell commercial.
Highlight special sales or discounts, as 62% of U.S. consumers actively search for promo codes or coupons while shopping online. Offering holiday-specific bundles or limited edition items can also entice consumers and prompt immediate action.
In addition to using CTV as a touchpoint for brand awareness, integrating it with other marketing channels—like social media and email—can create a cohesive strategy that amplifies your message and increases your reach.
If you’d like to opt for an ad to drive direct response, CTV is a good space to highlight sales or discounts. 62% of US consumers actively search and use promo codes or coupons when making online purchases, and a promotion can be the push that drives a consumer to complete a sale.
You can also use CTV as a space to promote holiday-specific bundles or limited edition items.
CTV is a good touchpoint for driving brand awareness, which is essential to full-funnel marketing. If you incorporate a CTV strategy with your strategies across other channels, these ads can attract new viewers to your brand and gather a whole new audience. More on that in the next section.
Running CTV through a partner like AdRoll allows for better efficiencies with an omni-channel approach. AdRoll runs programmatic ad strategies across many platforms, giving you flexibility.
Since you're combining your display efforts like branding and retargeting with CTV, it allows you to optimize budget towards the best-performing channel easily, see reporting in one dashboard, and discuss optimizations for multiple channels with a single dedicated account manager.
As we move closer to the holidays, CTV is an effective channel for capturing the attention of holiday shoppers. Its capabilities for audience targeting and interactive engagement make it a good solution for businesses looking to try a new channel for holiday marketing strategies.
At AdRoll, we specialize in helping businesses run effective CTV campaigns tailored to their needs. Let us help you navigate the exciting world of CTV advertising this holiday season and make your brand shine.
Last updated on September 27th, 2024.
