How To Be Successful With CTV In 2023

In 2022, something significant happened in the video advertising world. time spent on streaming and CTV surpassed that of the time spent watching broadcast or cable. But while consumer attention continues to move towards CTV, agencies continue to be slow in moving their clients’ advertising dollars to match.

The main reason agencies are hesitant to jump into streaming is because CTV is too complicated and hard to manage with the size and skill sets of their current team. But as streaming continues to grow, and as ad dollars fail to keep pace, the opportunities on CTV only get bigger. In fact, CTV should be the first format that any local advertiser buys.

Fortunately, there are ways to overcome CTV complexity and be successful. It takes four things: scalability, partners, technology and expertise, and we’ll outline each of them below.

Scalability

The first key to success with CTV is the ability to scale. One of the biggest challenges to advertising on CTV lies in its complexity. In order to successfully execute campaigns across dozens of providers and hundreds of channels, you need a big team that can execute quickly. Unfortunately, most agencies can’t afford to have a dedicated CTV activation team, which leads them to re-task existing employees.

Juggling CTV activation, along with other duties, poses quite the challenge. Firms often end up suffering from increased workloads, lack of focus, increased errors and overall low morale.

What agencies really need is an outsourced, managed service that is always ready and able to deliver results, without needing to invest in a dedicated team or sacrifice the other areas of your business.

Partners

The second key to CTV success in 2023 is a broad range of partners. If you want a complete picture of your audience, and the ability to reach them, your agency is going to need multiple partnerships that come at great cost, risk and time investments for every deal.
Every DSP and data provider has their own niche, focus and ideology. That’s why no single DSP or data provider can offer a complete picture of your audience, nor can they provide the reach or frequency to every audience segment you need. Your agency can’t deliver results with incomplete data or less-than-ideal inventory, which is why experts like Kaden strongly recommend always using multiple DSPs.

Cross Screen Media has partnered with the industry’s top inventory suppliers and has over 100 PMP deals to access premium ad inventory. Our direct partnerships with TV manufacturers allow us to create ACR audiences specific to where your audience is consuming media. And our extensive data partnerships give us access to over 60,000 pre-built audience segments and the ability to create whatever segments you need.

As a client of Cross Screen Media, your agency gets the benefits of all these partnerships, with none of the cost, risk or investments needed to go it alone.

Expertise

The third piece of the CTV puzzle is expertise. Even with a big team that can scale, there is simply no substitute for knowledge and experience. Executing a successful CTV campaign involves a lot of variables and moving pieces, which is why having years of experience placing hundreds of campaigns can be the difference between running a good campaign versus a great one.

With expertise comes not only knowledge, but also the tools, techniques and processes that ensure superior results with every campaign.

Cross Screen Media has optimized and purchased hundreds of millions of dollars in media spend and can confidently place your ad dollars across multiple DSPs, preventing scaling concerns and driving incremental reach. Additionally, our Supply Path Optimization strategies ensure your impressions are served on highly viewable, measurable inventory while proactively blocking bad actors.

Technology

The final component of a successful CTV strategy should come as no surprise, it’s technology. A great set of tools goes a long way towards tackling the complexity of today’s CTV landscape. But technology comes with two important caveats.

First, agencies must understand that technology alone is not enough. As we’ve outlined above, a team that can scale, a deep bench of partners to rely on, and years of expertise are all needed to be successful. Without all of the pieces in place, your campaign will fall short of your clients’ expectations.

The second caveat with technology is that your tools must be a complete solution, one that is made for local markets and can offer audience targeting, media planning, activation and measurement. If your tech stack lacks in any one of these areas, you won’t be able to learn and make data-driven decisions that will deliver more results for your clients.

The CTV Activation Bundle

What happens when you combine people, partners, technology and years of CTV expertise? You get the Cross Screen Media CTV Activation Bundle!

Our goal with the CTV Activation Bundle is simple… to allow any agency to capitalize on the opportunities of streaming without needing to hire specialized teams and commit millions of dollars in resources. Our bundle combines Cross Screen Media’s planning, activation and measurement solutions into a single offering, and gives agencies access to our people, partnerships, technology and expertise at every step of the CTV process.

Now you can quickly scale your CTV activation and watch your agency’s capabilities multiply by partnering with a single, experienced provider.

The CTV Activation Bundle makes it easy to bring Cross Screen Media into your existing workflows and budgets with low minimums and fast turnarounds. Best of all, you get everything Cross Screen Media has to offer, including our planning, activation and measurement solutions, all with expert support and guidance at your fingertips.

Learn more about our CTV Activation Bundle.