In this article…
Artificial intelligence (AI) and connected TV (CTV) have a perfect synergy that’s revolutionizing how advertisers connect with their audiences. CTV serves as a medium for streaming content, while AI acts as a sophisticated technology that improves the performance of CTV advertising campaigns. The integration of these two technologies has paved the way for advertisers to reach their target audience more effectively, making CTV advertising a powerful and efficient tool.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into how these technologies work together — and why you should jump on board with AI for CTV advertising if you haven’t already.
Why AI and CTV are a great match
CTV and AI are transforming how advertisers connect with their audiences and improving the performance of their advertising campaigns in the CTV space. They work together to make advertising smarter and more enjoyable for everyone involved. AI uses sophisticated computer programs to analyze and understand data, while CTV refers to the streaming services that consumers use at home. But what makes them a great match in advertising?
AI uses data to determine which TV ads are most exciting and relevant to certain people, and it can even adjust ads in real time to ensure viewers are always getting the most personalized experience. AI can provide suggestions to viewers based on previously watched content to help them find what they’d enjoy watching next. To sum it up, AI allows for:
- Precise targeting: AI uses data to determine which TV ads are most exciting and relevant to certain people.
- Personalization: AI can adjust ads in real time to ensure viewers are always getting the most personalized experience.
- Effective ad insertion: AI can provide suggestions to viewers based on previously watched content to help them find what they’d enjoy watching next.
CTV facilitates these AI-driven strategies for enhanced user engagement and satisfaction.
The rising popularity of CTV
CTV has become increasingly popular as people change the way they watch TV. Instead of the traditional approach, more viewers are now choosing CTV platforms for their entertainment. One of the main reasons for this shift is that CTV offers greater flexibility and lets viewers watch content at their convenience. The ability to skip ads on many CTV platforms also improves the experience.
CTV offers a great opportunity to interact with your target audience in a more engaging way. CTV allows for highly targeted advertising capabilities so you can reach specific demographics and households with tailored messages. Additionally, CTV provides valuable data insights that enable you to measure campaign effectiveness accurately.
If you haven’t embraced this advertising channel yet, you may be missing out on a growing and engaged audience. Here are three reasons you should add CTV to your advertising strategy.
Global video ad impressions
As a global platform, CTV has the unique ability to reach audiences worldwide. Unlike traditional TV, CTV transcends geographical boundaries and brings marketers a global audience, which makes it an ideal channel for global ad campaigns. No matter your target audience, they’re consuming content on CTV. In fact, a recent study showed that 51% of global video ad impressions came from CTV in 2022.
This abundance of global video ad impressions generates vast amounts of data, which AI can process in real time to help you make data-driven decisions and optimize your campaigns for diverse international audiences. AI can analyze viewer data from various regions, identify audience preferences and behaviors across borders, and tailor ad content accordingly. These data analysis capabilities ensure your ads get in front of the right viewers.
Viewers prefer ad-supported CTV
In 2020, the viewing time of ad-supported CTV surged by 55% while subscription video on demand decreased by 30%, according to TVision Insights. Viewers have a well-established preference for ad-supported CTV due, in part, to cost-effective access to premium content. Viewers are more engaged and less resistant to ads, as AI tailors ad content to viewer preferences and behavior to enhance ad relevance.
AI-powered insights can also aid in viewer retention and help you optimize your CTV campaigns. By accommodating viewers’ preference for ad-supported CTV and harnessing AI to improve the ad experience, you’re more likely to be successful in your marketing efforts.
CTV outpaces mobile and desktop for digital video viewing
eMarketer recently reported that U.S. adults spend 7.5+ hours each day on CTV — more than half of their digital video viewing time. Comparatively, they only spend 37.5% of their viewing time on mobile and 10% on desktops and laptops. These statistics demonstrate that CTV has become the preferred platform for digital video consumption, as viewers enjoy larger screens with superior quality for an immersive experience.
It’s important to note that AI is an essential CTV marketing tool, as it allows for precise targeting and content optimization. By utilizing AI on CTV, you can take advantage of this trend and deliver more engaging and effective campaigns to a growing and engaged audience.
How is AI already being used in CTV?
CTV has been integrated with AI across various facets and has revolutionized the television landscape. Here’s a look at how AI is already shaping the CTV experience:
Generative AI ads
Generative AI ads are taking CTV personalization to a whole new level. These innovative ads are customized versions of the same CTV ad to suit individual viewers. Some AI tools can generate several versions of the same CTV ad — swapping the actor’s clothing and voiceover elements like store locations, local deals, promo codes, and more — and can create up to thousands of personalized iterations in just a few seconds. Such capabilities are a game-changing approach to connecting with your audience.
Next, we dive into the advantages and impact of generative AI ads, and explore their transformative role in CTV advertising.
Contextual ads vs personal data
Generative AI ads use personal data, such as viewing history and demographics, to create highly personalized ad experiences. This sets them apart from contextual ads, which rely solely on the content being viewed. Using AI to harness this data, you can move beyond traditional contextual targeting and ensure your ads connect with viewers on a more individualized level.
Generative AI ads can be used to A/B test
Generative AI ads are not just about personalization; they also open the door to A/B testing. Being able to create several versions of one ad quickly allows you to experiment with various ad elements, such as messaging, visuals, and calls to action, to identify what works best for different segments of your audience and drives the best performance. This flexibility is especially valuable for refining ad campaigns and maximizing their impact.
What’s next for AI-generated ads like this?
The potential of AI-generated ads is exciting. As AI technologies constantly advance, we can expect even more personalized and automated CTV advertising. It’s a good idea to keep up with the latest AI-driven innovations to create more effective ad campaigns in the fast-evolving CTV space. The possibilities are endless, and you’ll likely find the most success when you embrace AI in CTV advertising.
Optimize streaming quality
AI helps viewers enjoy more seamless CTV experiences. By assessing network speed and user preferences, AI optimizes video quality in real time to reduce buffering interruptions. For instance, streaming platforms use AI to adjust video settings based on a user’s connection speed. This guarantees an uninterrupted and enjoyable viewing experience.
Review content for compliance
AI also has a part to play in quality assurance and compliance management. It assesses content alignment with technical parameters and moderates compliance with local age restrictions and privacy regulations. This means AI can identify and filter out unsuitable content to provide a safer and more enjoyable viewing environment for audiences while safeguarding brands from association with undesirable material.
Voice command
AI-powered voice command technology is increasingly used to control CTV viewing. This technology is embedded in streaming devices and smart TVs and allows viewers to interact with their CTV content through voice-activated commands. This personalizes the viewing experience and improves convenience, as it eliminates the need for remote controls.
CTV-integrated voice assistants like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby offer a more human-like interaction with the television, allowing users to give commands and receive tailored responses.
Content recommendations
AI can offer content recommendations that provide viewers a more personalized and engaging experience. Major over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime use AI-driven data analysis to deliver tailored content suggestions to their audiences. By analyzing user habits in detail, AI can recommend content based on factors such as actors, genres, reviews, and countries of origin. This personalized approach helps viewers discover content that matches their preferences and enhances their viewing experience.
Advertising
Programmatic ad buying, driven by AI, automatically matches ad placements to specific audience segments based on behavioral patterns. It improves ad delivery by moving away from gross rating points (GRP) to more intelligent and targeted placements. This benefits marketers by ensuring ads are seen by the right people at the right time. It’s also cost-effective for publishers, as it maximizes the sale of ad spots to suitable buyers.
Automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, which AI powers, is integrated into smart TVs and streaming devices to improve ad relevance. It provides contextual targeting and extends the reach of ads across multiple devices. For example, platforms like Roku use ACR data to display ads to viewers who haven’t seen them on traditional TV. Similarly, Samba TV retargets mobile users based on IP address and aligns their viewing habits with their smart TVs.
Demand-side platforms
CTV advertising relies heavily on demand-side platforms (DSPs) to efficiently manage and optimize ad campaigns. These platforms use machine learning and AI in several important ways:
Using machine learning and AI to address data fragmentation
Data is abundant but fragmented when it comes to CTV advertising. DSPs are flooded with a massive amount of data, including information about households, viewer behavior, and viewing patterns. This data is far too much for manual analysis to handle effectively, which is where AI comes in.
By integrating machine learning algorithms into DSPs, AI can harmonize this fragmented data and provide valuable insights and a holistic view of your audience. AI can process zettabytes of data in real time, which streamlines the decision-making process and empowers you to compete quickly for limited CTV impression opportunities.
Predicting advertising outcomes with AI
AI is quickly changing the way we predict and optimize advertising outcomes. TV buying and optimization platforms are now using AI to improve ad performance. With machine learning, these platforms can anticipate which ad creatives will produce the best results based on various non-creative factors. These include the context of the ad, the audience’s profiles, the time of day it is displayed, and the frequency of the ad display.
By relying on AI to make these predictions, you can make sure your campaigns are highly optimized for success and deliver more relevant, compelling ads to viewers.
Optimizing generative ads
AI is also driving optimization in generative ads. These personalized versions of the same CTV ad can be tailored to suit individual viewers. By utilizing AI-driven analytics, DSPs can process extensive amounts of data in real time and optimize generative ads to ensure they align with viewers’ preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization is a game-changer in CTV advertising that boosts engagement and delivers content that truly resonates with the audience.
Add AI to your CTV strategy today
Integrating AI into your CTV strategy can help you stay competitive and ensure your ad campaigns are effective and engaging.
At Experian, we’re ready to help you elevate your CTV advertising and implement AI as part of your strategy. Our solutions, such as Consumer View and Consumer Sync, provide valuable audience insights, enhance targeting capabilities, and optimize engagement on TV. Plus, our partnerships with leading media marketing solutions can help you achieve greater success through effective advanced television advertising.
As you incorporate AI into your CTV strategy, you’ll be able to make more data-driven decisions, deliver more relevant content, and reach the right audience at the right time. Explore Experian’s TV solutions and empower your CTV advertising with AI today.
Latest posts
Distribution via LiveRamp enables seamless cross-device customer experiences through more platforms NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, now part of Experian and the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing technology solutions, today announced an expanded partnership with LiveRamp™, an Acxiom® company and leading provider of omnichannel identity resolution, to make the proprietary Tapad Device Graph™ accessible beyond Tapad-hosted direct integrations. Through LiveRamp, Tapad's Device Graph Access now extends to more than 400 ad tech and mar tech platforms. Tapad's Device Graph™ enables marketers to understand, monetize and measure consumer engagement across all digital channels, and Tapad's unified consumer view is recognized as one of the most accurate, scalable cross-device solutions in the market today. Through the expanded partnership with LiveRamp, the Tapad Device Graph can be distributed to the hundreds of platforms used to reach consumers on digital channels and measure campaign performance – even as devices are added daily to Tapad's extensive graph. "Increasingly, marketers want access to cross-device targeting and measurement capabilities within their preferred platforms," said Anneka Gupta, chief product officer of LiveRamp. "Our expanded partnership makes it easy for marketers to access Tapad's graph through the rapidly growing set of integrations available in our partner ecosystem." This is the latest of several initiatives between the two technology platforms designed to make the integration of cross-screen platforms seamless, privacy-safe and easy to use for dynamic and engaging marketing efforts. "During the past year, Tapad has expanded its global presence and rapidly grown its data business – Tapad Coral – doubling the number of companies integrating our device graph into their platforms and growing our annualized run rate by 210%," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad Coral and APAC. "Our expanded partnership with LiveRamp positions us to meet the increased demand for Tapad Device Graph Access and enable new platforms to apply our graph with unprecedented speed." Connect with us today to get started
Every organization has first-party data — and first-party data is every organization’s golden goose. But not all organizations understand how to capitalize on its potential. Part of the challenge: With data growing at such an exponential rate, many marketers struggle to sift through the attributes that can inform their next customer interaction. While the abundance of available data can have tremendous value, it can be rendered useless without the know-how to activate it properly. I recently participated in a panel at the AdExchanger Programmatic I/O Conference, where we discussed the nuances of first-party data, as well as how we’ve seen it evolve over the years. One of the many discussion points we came to a consensus on: All marketers need to develop a true data-driven marketing approach. Take stock of all available data Too many marketers lack sufficient knowledge about all the data housed by their organizations. With the sheer volume of data available, marketers need to determine which data points are most useful to their campaigns. Unfortunately, many organizations have decentralized first-party data sets — causing marketers to ask, “Who owns the data?” By breaking down departmental silos, marketers can connect the “data dots” and gain a true view of their evolving customer base. This single customer view leads to more thoughtful customer interactions. Make first-party data scalable The drawback to first-party data is that it is only representative of a brand’s current customer base. But how can brands expand their reach? One trend that has picked up momentum is more marketers are pooling their resources. By engaging in cooperative programs or leveraging third-party data sources, marketers are able to augment what they know about their customers with what other brands and publishers have on file. Now marketers can interact with their customers with relevant messages across more channels and devices. Track the return on investment Marketers leverage their first-party data to inform customer interactions across all channels, including websites, email, customer care centers, mobile apps, etc. But marketers have been challenged in quantifying the return on investment in their marketing efforts. Sure, marketers can rely on low-hanging fruit, such as clicks and impressions, but they need to think beyond these metrics. If marketers can properly activate their first-party data and create personalized communications, they will be able to measure the sales impact — both offline and online — for all campaigns. The power of first-party data knows no bounds. It truly is the gold standard of assets that most organizations carry. It just needs to be developed. If marketers can refine their approach and develop a true data-driven marketing strategy, they can realize the potential of first-party data. And that realization is the first step in the process to marketing success.
Cross-Screen Pioneer Explores the Power of Connected Cars as a Vehicle for Customer Engagement LAS VEGAS, NV — (October 26, 2016) –Kate O’Loughlin, GM of Media for Tapad, addressed the J.D. Power Automotive conference audience today in Las Vegas, NV. With more than 1,400 participants representing every facet of the automotive marketing profession, the conference has become the industry's leading marketing event. Bringing the unified, cross-screen perspective to the stage, O’Loughlin discussed the vital role of connected cars in the consumer engagement process. She is a founding member of Tapad which launched the world’s first cross-screen marketing technology in 2010. Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group early in 2016. Key points from O’Loughlin’s J.D. Power 2016 address included: The marketers who deliver relevant and engaging content in a privacy-safe setting will be in the strongest position to navigate the proliferation of connected devices, including the connected points in cars. As automakers innovate the technology in cars, marketers need to be prepared for the size and diversity of data available for understanding consumers. It’s going to be increasingly difficult to wade through the data, so now is the time to build a solid framework for understanding the person behind the data. Marketers who evolve — and take a holistic approach — to their campaign measurements will achieve marked improvements in efficiency and an enhanced understanding of their core audiences. Actionable brand engagement metrics like Viewable Exposure Time (VET) will continue to overtake traditional advertising performance metrics. VET evaluates the optimal amount of time an ad is present on a screen to incite consumer action. In early testing by Tapad, campaigns that employ VET see conversion rate performance improvements from 13 to 60%. The consumer-centric technology solutions of the future need to be as scalable as they are affordable. Learn more about Tapads’ recommended Viewable Exposure Time metric contact us today! Contact us