The spread and popularity of Connected TV (CTV) continues to grow rapidly. Linear TV broadcasts via cable or satellite connections are being supplemented by digital and mobile platforms. At the same time, CTV is establishing itself as a permanent fixture in the TV market. A guest article by Mario Neumann, Director Business Development at marketer Goldbach.

The boom around CTV by no means means the end of traditional linear TV, but rather represents an enriching collaboration of both systems, symbiotically leveraging their strengths.

Here's an overview of how campaigns are measured on CTV.

CTVs are televisions connected to the Internet via additional devices such as streaming boxes or sticks, as well as smart TVs that already have an integrated Internet function. This gives viewers access to a wide range of paid and ad-supported content via apps and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, waipu.tv and many more.

CTV ushers in new era of personalized TV advertising

Compared to the past, CTV offers much more precise targeting and measurability of TV campaign success, which has myriad benefits for advertisers. Thanks to the wealth of data on viewer behavior and interests, advertisers can target their messages to those most likely to interact with their brand and be interested in their products or services.

Another major benefit for advertisers is the comprehensive measurability of CTV campaigns. Using CTV-specific metrics, advertisers can monitor and analyze the success of their campaigns in real time. This gives them detailed insights into the performance of their advertising. As an advertising medium, CTV offers, among other things, two attractive advertising systems: firstly, video advertising known as CTV Spots, i.e. digital (TV) commercials in video streams or linear advertising placements. And secondly, native advertising via so-called CTV ads. These are advertising spaces in the user interface of the streaming provider/device.

What indicators are available to advertisers to evaluate and optimize their digital TV campaigns? Here are eight metrics that focus primarily on CTV Spots and CTV Ads.

Reach

Media reach can be measured in CTV gross, net, as well as incremental.

Gross reach refers to the number of ad impressions, i.e. how often an ad was delivered in total. Here, all contacts are counted, regardless of whether they come from the same or different devices. It is important to note that gross reach does not reflect the actual number of viewers, as contacts are made on a device level and there may be multiple contacts.

The net reach is determined on the basis of the "unique devices". The individual devices on which the advertising was delivered are counted. This is not the number of individual persons, as several viewers can use the same device. Net reach gives a more accurate idea of how many different CTV devices the ad reached. Incremental reach shows the additional number of contacts reached by extending the TV campaign on CTV. It therefore takes into account the extension of the target audience and the additional impact of the CTV campaign on overall reach.

In one scenario, for example, an automotive brand might decide to run a large-scale TV campaign to present its latest models to a broad target group. For this purpose, the classic TV advertising is broadcast on well-known linear TV stations.

Since, as described at the beginning, TV usage is also shifting to digital environments, the campaign is extended through CTV to address more specific target groups and achieve additional visibility. Through CTV, the brand can deliver its advertising messages to those viewers who are interested in cars and mobility, resulting in increased relevance.

While traditional TV advertising has achieved significant reach, analysis of net reach on CTV shows that it has reached many unique devices that had no contact with the ad via linear TV. These are viewers:inside who use CTV platforms and consume their content via apps and streaming services. Thanks to the CTV campaign, the automotive brand can additionally reach these viewers and deliver its advertising messages to a new audience.

The incremental reach thus shows the actual expansion of the audience through the CTV campaign. It becomes clear that by integrating CTV into the overall strategy of the TV advertising campaign, an expanded target group is addressed that was not reached via classic linear TV. As a result, the two channels complement each other perfectly, and the automotive brand can increase the overall impact of its campaign by combining the strengths of both media. The three reach KPIs thus enable advertisers to evaluate the scope of their CTV campaigns and understand the potential visibility of their advertising in the target group. By combining gross, net and incremental reach, they get a comprehensive picture of the reach of their advertising messages and can optimize their campaigns accordingly.

Viewability

In online advertising, viewability measurement classically involves checking whether the advertising message is displayed on a user's screen and whether it is visible for a sufficiently long time. In the context of CTV spots, the basic assumption is that viewability is 100 percent. This assumption results from the technical functioning and advertising system of CTV spots, since the spots appear in "full screen mode" on the viewer's TV screen and are not "skippable".

In addition to viewability rate, there are two other KPIs that can provide additional insight into viewers' actual viewability and engagement with the commercials:

View Through Rate (VTR) and Video Completion Rate (VCR).

The VTR and VCR are important KPIs, especially for CTV spots. They provide information on whether and for how long the commercial was actually broadcast to the viewers. The VTR indicates the percentage of delivered spots that were played in full to the end. It therefore shows the percentage of complete views compared to the total number of ad impressions. The formula is VTR = (Complete Views / Ad Impressions) * 100.

VCR, on the other hand, indicates the proportion of spots played out to different levels of video views. It is calculated separately for each of these stages and expressed as a percentage of ad impressions. In summary, the viewability rate measures the visibility of the commercials, while the view through rate indicates how many of the delivered commercials were actually aired in full to the end, and the video completion rate, on the other hand, measures the airing of the delivered commercials up to certain quartiles.

Ad Engagement

The issue of ad engagement is also important in the context of CTV KPIs. Ad engagement refers to the interaction behavior of viewers:inside with the advertising medium and shows how well the target group reacts to and interacts with the advertising.

In CTV, there are several KPIs that can measure ad engagement, including:

Interaction rate, for example, in the form of click-through rate (CTR): CTR measures the ratio between clicks on, for example, the CTV ad and the ad impressions delivered. It shows how many viewers clicked on the ad space and thus carried out further actions such as playing a full-screen video, calling up an app or landing page.

CTR is less relevant for CTV spots, as they are usually not clickable. Instead, the following other ad engagement KPIs such as "Social Sharing," "Time Spent," and "Brand Lift" are more valuable:.

Social Sharing: The number of social shares shows how often the commercials were shared by viewers on social media. This is an indication of how engaging and shareable the ads are for the target audience.

Time Spent: The Time Spent or average viewing time indicates how much time viewers spent watching the ads on average.

Brand Lift: Brand Lift measures the change in brand awareness or attitudes towards the brand after watching the commercials. This KPI shows how effective the ads are in helping to increase brand awareness and brand loyalty.

Conversion tracking

A fifth, final method is tracking specific actions that occur after the commercials are viewed. Specifically, conversion tracking makes it measurable how many viewers take a desired action after watching the ad, such as actually buying a product (purchase completions), signing up for an advertiser's newsletter or services (sign-ups), downloading an app or specific content (downloads), or contacting the company and requesting more information (contact requests).

Even hours later, the viewer:s can be analyzed in terms of their behavior after the so-called "matching", i.e. the attribution of an action to a CTV spot. Basics are the number of contacts, the environment, the motive, the day of the week, but also timelines. They all allow a pinpoint assessment of the media success as well as a solid evaluation of the efficiency of the advertising playout in CTV.

In summary, CTV offers advertisers an exciting new dimension in TV advertising, with impressive benefits from personalized targeting and comprehensive measurability.

The ability to create customized ad campaigns and monitor performance in real time enables greater effectiveness and efficiency of advertising investments.

Coupled with a stronger bond between brand and target audience, CTV opens up a promising and powerful advertising medium for advertisers, taking marketing strategies to a new level.