CTV: It’s Not Black and White

Ever feel like the answers to your questions about CTV are more gray than black and white? You may find yourself asking questions like: 

Where will my ads run? Are they running on Chromecast or Apple TVs? Did any of the ads run on [insert popular streaming app here]? Why is this CTV more expensive than what another vendor quoted me? 

And the unsatisfying truth is that, oftentimes, the answer to these kinds of questions is going to be, “well, it’s a little more complicated than that...” Let’s talk about why that is. 

CTV can mean different things to different agencies and vendors.

Depending on how they place CTV, agencies and vendors can be referring to different things when they mention CTV. They could be talking about: 

• Pure, private CTV: CTV in its purest form refers to streaming video delivered in a living room environment through Connected TV devices. (Think: Apple TV, smart TVs, Chromecast, etc.) Psst… this is what Datafy means when we say “CTV”! 

• Open Exchange CTV: A diluted version of pure CTV that allows for ads to appear on uncontrolled content, apps, or networks, placed on re-sold inventory, or run on public TVs. (Think about those muted TVs in your dentist’s waiting room.) This kind of uncurated inventory is generally less selective, and therefore less premium… which is why Datafy avoids placing anything outside of our custom, curated placements. 

• Over the Top (OTT), including CTV: Big screens through Connected TVs, plus smaller screens such as tablets, laptops, desktops, and/or smartphones. 

It’s important to remember that you may be targeting undesirable placements if your CTV inventory is not curated. And while buying non-curated Open Exchange CTV can keep costs down, it will definitely dilute some of the key benefits of a solid CTV strategy. 

Everyone wants a piece of the advertising pie.

CTV inventory is bought and sold through complex pathways, and vendors can usually buy the same ad space through several different channels: 

• Directly from the content owner: The owner controls programming on their specific channel (for example: Fox, NBC Universal, etc.) and sells the ad space through a traditional sales funnel on a full contract commitment. (As opposed to programmatically on an impression-by-impression basis.) 

• Through premium distributors: Content is aggregated across distributors like Hulu, xfinity, Sling, etc. 

• Working with aggregated publisher content from larger cable or telecomm providers: (i.e. Comcast, AT&T, etc.) This often offers additional targeting, based on the provider’s subscriber data and their ability to bundle CTV inventory with traditional TV space. 

• Through private deals or Open Exchange CTV supply aggregators: Allowing for more refined and specific first-party and third-party targeting across broader and more diverse content like Roku, SpotX, etc. 

Why does this matter to the general media buyer? Because you can be buying similar inventory in different ways, depending on how your audience is watching their shows, and who has the best price for the same inventory. This can lead to self-competition or unexpected reporting on KPIs or capabilities. 

Some reporting is less transparent than you'd think.

CTV comes with amazing measurement and targeting benefits - but, depending on who you bought the ad from, reporting can get a bit sticky as some content owners like to keep pieces of information for themselves. Oftentimes, we’ll see a drop in content-level transparency (where was the ad placed?), but increased transparency on the audience / household-specific metrics (who saw the ad?). Or, vice versa, we’ll see a decrease in audience transparency paired with an increase in content-level transparency. 

While we all want the most transparent content reporting AND the most refined targeting options, getting both can be pretty unrealistic when it comes to CTV. Instead, placement options with the most refined audience targeting will tend to favor audience or household-specific metrics, whereas placement options with the most transparent content reporting will generally favor content-level metrics. 

So with that, we'll leave you with some final questions to ask yourself and your CTV vendor if you're ever feeling like you need additional clarity on the topic:

Ask Yourself

Is content reporting (where I am placing my ad) more important or is the audience (who sees my ad) more important to me?

What reporting metrics do I want?

How much am I willing to pay per targeted household?

Ask Your Vendors

Is your CTV running in exclusively big-screen, private living room environments? How do you know?

Have you curated your premium content placements? Do you know if these deals exclude re-sold inventory?

Are you limiting your delivery by content category, network, app, etc? Can you?

Who are you buying your inventory from?

Can you report genre, network, app and/or channel-level reporting to show where my ads appeared? If not, what exactly can you share?

What device types do you target to hit that CPM? Are you targeting premium content only?