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What should be the big goal to set in the next year?

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What is one goal that comes to mind when establishing a digital goal set? I would say, increasing video. In the next few posts, I will be going over some ways we could possibly increase video through social media. But first let’s do some homework.

How do we get there?

Going from 0 to 100 is pretty hard when we aren’t assessing ourselves. This is something you should be taking into consideration when building a foundation for your goals.
Let’s start by assessing your current social media reach and engagement. We need to first audit what you post presently vs. what you have posted in the past which will tell you what you should be doing in the future.

Facebook First:

In your Facebook (Meta) business suite, you will want to look for the insights tab. This will show you everything you need to know to get started.
 

The audit:

At the top right corner, you can click your date range. Go back 90 days then click on content. This is where you can see your most engaged posts. Click on sort descending to see which posts had the most reach, you can also find out the posts that had the most likes and reactions.

Quality:

Take the 10 posts with the highest reach, likes, and comments. What were they? What was the subject matter? Did those posts tie the audience back to the website?
If not, what could you have done to tie the posts back to the website?

Engagement:

What about the posts that made your audience engage? What category is the content in? Was it locally driven? Did you respond to the audience? Did you engage in meaningful conversation?
With this ammunition, you can start to have an idea of what you could be posting to your audience to gain the most engagement. Also, if those posts didn’t have any tie-back to your websites, what can you do to include it next time? Let’s talk about this and other insights, we can help. If you would like to go over this or any other strategy, regarding social media or anything else digital, please reach out!
Remote Control with Connected Television in living room

Time to Focus on Performance CTV

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Inflation may be up, but consumer spending is strong — here’s why now is the time to focus on performance CTV.

Right now the market is volatile and there is lots of uncertainty among consumers and businesses. The biggest question facing marketers is how to adjust marketing budgets during these uncertain times.

Relax, we’ve seen this movie before and we’ve learned a lot. In 2001 we had the “dot com crash”; in 2008 we had the economic crisis; in 2020 we had the pandemic.

What did we learn from those times that we can apply now? In uncertain times, there has always been a “flight to performance”.

Broadly speaking, marketers have three buckets of marketing activity: Brand/Awareness; Search & Social; and Affiliate. What we have learned is that savvy marketers don’t necessarily pull back spend during times of uncertainty.  In fact, there’s plenty of research that suggests the exact opposite. Instead, they redirect spend to channels that allow for clear measurability and ROI analysis. So this generally means moving money away from brand/awareness marketing and into channels that are ROAS measurable. We saw this in 2001, 2008, and in 2020. It is the exact model for today.

And this doesn’t necessarily mean reducing your marketing budget. If you can increase your overall marketing spend where every dollar spent is ROI positive, why wouldn’t you increase your budget by 50% or more? The logic is pretty simple, but the ROI math can be complicated in some channels, and other channels have historically precluded ROAS measurement — like TV.

Here’s some easier math. Traditional “linear” television advertising may not have digital-like targeting, measurement, and attribution capabilities, but CTV does. Consumers may be reluctant to splurge on that big vacation until the economy settles a bit, but they’re flocking to CTV platforms in droves (there are now 110M streaming HHs in US). More consumers than ever using a channel that drives highly effective performance marketing: Those are numbers everyone can understand.

Choose Performance CTV

It’s not unwise to maintain or even increase your marketing spend during a time of economic uncertainty, so long as you’re smart about it. CTV ads aren’t a magic bullet all by themselves; you also need access to a sophisticated data platform that lets you buy, optimize, and measure the ROI of your campaigns. We built tvScientific explicitly to drive performance. Our platform gives you the ability to measure results, attribute conversions, and optimize for ROAS so you make smart choices about your ad budget. Contact us to learn more today.

 

 

Close-Up View of Hand Pointing Remote Control at TV

CTV Retargeting Drives ROI

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Reignite consumer interest during peak viewing periods with CTV retargeting. 80% of US households have a CTV device, and it’s likely this massive audience is only going to keep growing. But CTV’s power isn’t just in the size of its audience. The channel enables advertisers to engage with TV audiences in ways only traditional digital channels once allowed. Now, advertisers can run retargeting campaigns on TV.

If you’re interested in leveraging this emerging advertising channel to help you convert more of the curious into consumers, then read on. From top use cases to the core benefits, this blog explores the entire world of CTV retargeting.

What CTV Is Retargeting?

CTV retargeting is the practice of showing follow-up CTV advertisements to a consumer previously exposed to a brand in some fashion. These consumers could have visited the brand’s website, seen the brand’s ad on social media, nearly purchased something from the brand, etc. Brands can set up CTV advertising campaigns that retarget these consumers by leveraging available user tracking information. This includes data from third-party providers. Retargeting has been used in advertising for years to improve campaign performance. It is proving to be just as — if not more — effective when deployed in a highly targeted TV environment.

The Benefits of CTV Retargeting

Experts estimate that advertisers dedicated 21% to 40% of their budget to CTV in 2021. And they expect that percentage to only increase in the following year. Why such growth? Because CTV advertising is a powerful channel with numerous benefits, like effectively retargeting potentially interested consumers. What makes CTV retargeting so effective is its accuracy. And enhanced measurement capabilities. And the quality of the ad experience it provides, and the comprehensive campaign coverage it affords.

Let’s look at each of those benefits in turn.

Precision Targeting

While traditional TV advertising is infamous for its questionable targeting capabilities, CTV advertising brings the accuracy of digital to this impactful entertainment experience. CTV advertising platforms like AlphaDigital’s are compatible with all major third-party data sources. Thus, allowing advertisers to build retargeting campaigns with the precision previously only possible on the web. This ensures their ads are only seen by a high intent audience while they’re engaging with high-quality content.

Quality Measurement and Attribution

Like targeting, traditional TV advertising has long struggled with “lower funnel” metrics that connect campaigns to consumer activities. But CTV advertising — with its digital-like tracking capabilities — affords advertisers with quality measurement and attribution. This means they can assess the effectiveness of their CTV retargeting efforts much like they would on any digital channel.  

Premium Ad Experience

Unlike digital retargeting, CTV retargeting only connects with audiences while they are in the mood to passively consume content. Consumers on the web are often on the go, engaged in goal-oriented tasks that put them in a poor state of mind to receive a brand message, regardless of its relevance. With connected tv retargeting, on the other hand, the messaging is delivered to the consumers when at their most receptive: relaxed, on the couch, and ready to be entertained. This difference in the audience’s disposition significantly impacts the quality of ad experience, boosting the brand lift created by a retargeting campaign.

CTV retargeting also delivers ad creative on a much larger screen, giving brands more room to create exceptional ad experiences. The average computer monitor ranges between 21- to 27-inches — and most smartphones have a five- to six-inch screen. TVs are gigantic by comparison: typically 32- to 72-inches. With so much visual real estate, brands have a unique degree of freedom when it comes to developing compelling and immersive advertising.

Comprehensive Ad Coverage

CTV advertising is opening the doors for smaller companies to realize a genuine omnichannel approach. For most of advertising history, television has been dominated by massive brands. But CTV advertising’s improved targeting, measurement, and attribution capabilities are making TV a cost-effective channel for the average brand, allowing them to finally tell a unified story across the entire consumer content landscape. Whether their audiences are on desktop, mobile, or TV, brands can deliver advertising that reinforces what their consumers have seen elsewhere — and reminds them to take the next step.

Top Web-to-TV Retargeting Use Cases

Now that we’ve reviewed the benefits of CTV, let’s explore a few of its most powerful use cases. While the following examples will give you a good sense of what’s possible with this channel, it’s important to note that it’s not an exhaustive list. CTV advertising is new, and the space will develop rapidly over the coming years.  

Consumers Who’ve Seen Your Ads on Another Channel

While many advertisers are content to develop their entire strategy on digital platforms, enhancing this approach with a CTV retargeting follow-up can significantly improve campaign performance. Advertisers build CTV campaigns that target consumers who have, for example, viewed an ad on Instagram. This engaged audience would then be met with a non-skippable ad while subsequently viewing content on their CTV device, reigniting their interest in the brand.

Consumers Who’ve Nearly Made an Online Purchase

CTV retargeting provides advertisers with another means of nudging highly interested consumers over the finish line. With the average ecommerce store only converting on 25% of filled carts, advertisers can undoubtedly capture more of that potential revenue by adopting this tactic. Now, brands can reconnect with consumers during their favorite CTV program – meaning that shopper who got distracted ordering their new couch can finally complete their living room set.

Consumers Who’ve Been to Your Site

For years, advertisers have been using retargeting campaigns to draw their site visitors back for a second look, but they’ve never been able to extend those efforts to their audiences’ televisions. CTV advertising platforms like tvScientific make it easy to start reaching these consumers, featuring a straightforward setup process that allows advertisers to get up and running in no time. 

How to Add CTV Retargeting to Your Advertising Arsenal

CTV retargeting allows advertisers to keep consumers engaged across all their devices — and reach them when they’re most likely to listen. For forward-thinking brands, adoption is a must.

Our CTV advertising platform tmakes it easy for any advertiser to begin leveraging the power of CTV retargeting. In just a few steps, you can get your web-to-TV retargeting campaign up and running, allowing you to reconnect with your most valuable visitors using the highest impact ad creative on the most influential screen in media. Why wait? Get in touch today.

Growth Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

Growth Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

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In a rapid-paced industry like marketing, staying on top of tech and trends is crucial for survival. It can be easy to lose sight of the basics: what marketing really is, what marketers’ goals are, and what strategies are right for any given company. In this article, we’ll break down the fundamentals of growth marketing vs. digital marketing. You’ll have a better understanding of how these terms differ and how they relate. Let’s do it. 

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the practice of using digital channels to market to consumers. It’s a very broad category that can include virtually any attempt brands make to connect with consumers online. One of the reasons digital marketing has become increasingly popular is that consumers are living more and more of their lives in digital spaces. A Pew Research Center study found that 31% of American consumers say they are “almost constantly” online.

Digital marketing can happen on any connected device (computer, tablet, phone, etc.). And across any digital medium (social media, search engine optimization, video, email, display ads, etc.). It’s often contrasted with traditional marketing, a category that includes methods like billboards, direct mail, and print advertising. 

Linear television advertising is often included under the umbrella of traditional marketing because TV sets were historically “dumb” devices. Smart TVs, on the other hand, which are connected to the internet by design, place CTV and OTT advertising squarely into digital marketing territory.

What Is Growth Marketing?

Growth marketing is an approach that prioritizes metrics and goals oriented toward company expansion. Some common growth marketing goals include building revenue, increasing retention, or otherwise up-leveling core business metrics. Growth marketing can technically be applied to either digital or traditional marketing strategies. But is more common in the digital world due to the availability of highly detailed data. Growth marketers constantly analyze data to test, experiment, and iterate. All in an effort to get ever closer to achieving their goals. 

In many ways, growth marketing was born out of the evolution of digital marketing. The invention of the internet gave brands and companies access to huge quantities of customer data. When traditional marketing dominated, brands simply did not have access to this level of data. As technology evolved and more of the world got online, so did the tools and strategies that marketers use to turn consumers into customers. Consumers grew accustomed to using countless digital channels to work, shop, play, and live. Thus, creating a treasure trove of data points that digital marketers and growth marketers alike can use to achieve their respective goals.

Growth hacking is a popular term in the growth marketing space. Growth hacking refers to a heightened, even aggressive approach to growth marketing. It is categorized by rapid experimentation. All with the intention of discovering and mastering the most successful (read: profitable) techniques, strategies, and channels as quickly as possible.

Digital Marketing vs. Growth Marketing

The key difference between digital marketing vs. growth marketing is methodology. A digital marketing strategy can be growth-oriented. And a growth marketing approach can be applied across digital channels. But as standalone concepts they operate at different levels. Digital marketing is an umbrella term under which you can find countless different marketing efforts. But no individual one of them is necessarily a growth marketing technique (though it can be). While modern growth marketing likely takes place in digital spaces, what makes something a growth marketing technique is its orientation toward specific results. 

Understanding growth marketing vs digital marketing is in some ways a question of degree. While a digital marketing campaign might use data to iterate toward a specific goal of increasing brand awareness or converting new users, a growth marketing mindset might refocus that campaign toward retaining those users. Growth marketing puts the pressure on digital marketing concepts to inspire long-term, sustained business growth. So while plenty of digital marketing techniques focus on filling the top of the funnel, growth marketing is dedicated to nurturing those leads through the funnel to transform those early-stage efforts into measurable business results.

When it comes to applying a growth marketing mindset to a relatively new channel like connected TV advertising, it helps to have a dedicated partner. That’s where AlphaDigital can help — we work with brands of all sizes to realize the benefits of both digital growth marketing in general and OTT programmatic advertising in particular. Our proprietary platform combines the reach of television with the data analysis, measurement, and attribution capabilities that make growth marketing so powerful. Ready to work with AlphaDigital on bringing your growth marketing mindset to the world of OTT programmatic advertising? Get in touch today.

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What Is Growth Marketing? An A to Z Guide

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As marketers, it’s not unusual to find ourselves constantly reinventing the wheel. Brands need to create new best practices or adapt to audience expectations for every technological breakthrough or new media channel. In recent years, however, growth and acquisition marketing strategies emerged as a reliable yet flexible way to acquire — and retain — highly valuable consumers. But what is growth marketing, and how can you implement it effectively?

What is Growth Marketing?

Growth marketing is the data-driven practice of attracting targeted customers, drawing them through a marketing funnel stage, and ultimately placing them in a retention loop. While all marketing techniques can achieve some of these goals, the “data-driven” component stands out. Growth strategies are about analyzing and optimizing the customer experience across an entire campaign, from choosing a channel to designing ad creative.

The core principle of growth marketing is simple: Everything is measurable. If each marketing activity is measurable, marketers can predict results, test them, and better understand the factors that improve performance. Every growth marketing activity needs a key performance indicator (KPI) that determines how effectively it aligns with current projections. Over time, marketers can A/B validate every aspect of a campaign before increasing ad spend and associated returns.

To learn more, check out Growth Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

What Makes Growth Marketing Different?

While growth marketing shares some overlap with other practices, such as digital or brand marketing, there are critical differences. Therefore, it’s essential to understand each technique’s respective advantages and limitations to prioritize growth with a company’s ad strategy.

Brand Marketing

Brand marketing is the technique of creating awareness of your brand as a distinct entity apart from the competition. In most cases, it involves developing a specific voice or image, applying it across a brand, and building a positive reputation among consumers. For brand marketing to succeed, businesses must maximize brand exposure while delivering a consistent product and customer experience.

In today’s climate, the most successful brand marketing campaigns are for companies that have already achieved a high level of success. For example, Apple is the most recognizable brand in the world, to the point that it doesn’t need to prioritize appealing to individual customers directly. Instead, most spending is dedicated to maintaining a consistent brand image that reflects sophistication and functionality.

Most brands don’t have the luxury of Apple’s brand awareness. Growth marketing is a promising alternative because it offers a cost-effective way to generate business — placing the right ad in front of the right consumer at the right time.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the practice of marketing to consumers using digital channels. As a marketing category, it’s intentionally broad, often encompassing growth and brand strategies. Yet it is prevalent considering the amount of time people spend in digital spaces — one Pew Research Center study found that 31% of American consumers are “almost constantly” online.

While a digital marketing strategy can be growth-oriented and vice versa, as standalone concepts, they operate at different levels. The difference lies in methodology — while digital marketing focuses on top of funnel activity, growth marketing refocuses campaigns towards acquisition and retention. This distinction can make the difference between companies that consumers are aware of and ones they support over the long term.

Why Is Growth Marketing Succeeding Now?

Before the advent of digital marketing tools, performance strategies were limited. Traditional channels like TV or radio were linear mediums that lacked attribution components to demonstrate when consumers took action. However, with the advent and adoption of CTVs, we can access robust datasets to analyze campaign performance. That presents marketers with a huge opportunity to combine growth marketing techniques with TV advertising practices.

In traditional advertising, marketers had limited budgets that represented the uncertainty of their strategies. Once growth marketing data proves that a campaign brings in new customers and increases LTV, executives are more likely to invest in processes with a positive ROI.

What Are the Most Popular Growth Marketing Channels?

The future of growth marketing is tied to digital channels for a good reason — it lets marketers analyze campaign performance and customer activity in unprecedented ways. By comparison, traditional media is oversaturated, expensive, and drives lower returns, prompting small brands to embrace digital alternatives. That being said, each digital channel comes with opportunities and drawbacks that marketers must consider.

  • Social media: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram represent a large audience, but face new privacy changes that make it difficult to target ads efficiently.
  • Mobile apps: Mobile games and apps are a popular performance marketing channel with a high ROAS, but consumers increasingly expect ads to be unobtrusive or offer in-app rewards.
  • Podcasts: With 100 million monthly listeners and ad revenue expected to reach $2 billion in 2023, podcasts are a high-performance marketing opportunity — if marketers can find ways to overlap the subject matter with their products.
  • Search engines: Whether using organic SEO techniques or paid SEM marketing, search engines are an excellent way for brands to associate their offerings with specific keywords. Performance marketers can succeed here, but should expect extensive testing to detect what keyword strategies will succeed.
  • Connected TV: Digital advertising has come back round to televisions, or more specifically, connected TVs. A projected 82% of households will use CTVs by 2023, with most preferring ad-supported streaming over ongoing subscriptions.

Want to learn more about the benefits of each channel? Check out 5 Growth Marketing Channels that Deliver ROAS in 2022.

Building a Growth Marketing Strategy

Now that we know what growth marketing is and its most effective modern channels, how do marketers actually go about building their strategy? Thankfully, the ideal approach has a structured methodology that revolves around performance, measured using return on ad spend (ROAS).

  1. Define your KPIs: It’s vital to know precisely what campaign metrics you’ll be testing for before testing begins — otherwise, you won’t understand how effective your ads are. Choose a KPI that reflects the priority for your campaign or audiences, such as completion rate, cost per completed view, or average order value.
  2. Use incrementality testing: Similar to A/B testing, incrementality testing analyzes campaign effectiveness against a control group that isn’t viewing your ad. If performance surpasses the control group, you know it’s worth pursuing further. But if the control group outperforms your ad, it’s time to investigate another channel.
  3. Test and learn: Adopting a “test-and-learn” mindset is one of the most effective marketing techniques because it accounts for failure and missteps. Apply it to incrementality testing results to identify areas that need improvement or opportunities you might have missed.
  4. Retarget: Once you’ve engaged your audience using one channel, it’s a good idea to pivot and retarget them on others. For example, if someone visits your website or social media page, you can follow up by delivering CTV ads to keep your brand in mind — increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

A Growth Marketing Partner

Whatever campaigns you build or channels you pursue, growth marketing is the most effective way to succeed. Brands that prioritize data analysis, creative testing, and optimization will acquire and retain far more customers over the long term than traditional methods. However, when you’re just starting out, it helps to have the right partner.

At AlphaDigital, our powerful CTV buying and attribution platform gives advertisers total control over their campaigns. By combining the reach of television with the accuracy and performance of digital marketing, our platform allows growth marketers to utilize real-time reporting and built-in, always-on testing to take their campaigns to the next level. Want to know more? Get in touch!

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Understanding Streaming & On-Demand Models in 2022

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Understanding Streaming & On-Demand Models in 2022 and the opoortunities they present – is crucial for performance marketers.

Though television consumption increased during the pandemic, how people opted to watch TV changed. The pandemic saw the appeal of linear TV wane greatly and increased adoption of on-demand and streaming services. This shift means that the way consumers access advertising content has changed, and thus, it is crucial that brands focus their attention on the different streaming and on-demand models.

In this article we will focus specifically on two models, OTT vs. VOD to show why differentiating between the two is crucial for modern-day advertisers.

OTT vs. VOD: What’s the Difference?

Though the terms OTT (over-the-top) and VOD (video on demand) are often used interchangeably, they are not identical services.

OTT stands for “over-the-top” and it means any media content delivered to consumers over the internet instead of via traditional cable or satellite. OTT advertising, therefore, refers to marketing messaging placed in OTT content. These ads allow advertisers to reach audiences en masse due to the shift from traditional cable and live TV to streaming video content.

VOD stands for “video on demand” and refers to any video content that starts simply by pushing “Play.” In contrast, cable and satellite TV run programming on pre-determined schedules that viewers must observe should they want to view the content.

While OTT is used to describe the way the content is distributed, VOD is used to describe the way in which the content is consumed. That said, there is some overlap between the two.

What’s an Example of OTT vs. VOD?

OTT

Some of the biggest names in OTT include Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Disney+. These are all channels through which content is distributed. Consumers can view the content via a streaming device such as a Roku or directly through their connected TV (CTV).

VOD

This is where the overlap occurs. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney+, and other on-demand streaming platforms are considered VOD. YouTube and Facebook are as well since they contain video content. Three different models fall under the category of video on demand.

What are the different types of VOD?

It is important to know the differences between the three VOD models: SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand), TVOD (Transactional Video on Demand), and AVOD (Advertising-Based Video on Demand).

SVOD

This type of video on demand allows consumers to pay a flat rate for access to a catalog of content. Netflix is a well-known example of the SVOD model. Subscribers pay a monthly fee, and in exchange have unlimited access to Netflix’s entire content library.

TVOD

If SVOD is at one end of VOD, TVOD is at the opposite. The transactional approach to video on demand allows consumers to pay a one-time fee to watch a single piece of content. Commonly referred to as “pay-per-view,” this model is often used for things like major sports events or a hot new movie release. YouTube, Amazon, and Redbox all offer content through the TVOD model. Each episode or movie that someone wants to view requires a pay-per-view transaction.

AVOD

While SVOD and TVOD are both paid models, AVOD is not. Advertising-based video on demand allows consumers to gain free access to streaming content that features ads.

OTT or VOD monetization strategies

There are several avenues to monetization of OTT and VOD, many of which complement each other. Indeed, most successful OTT channels merge several different payment structures into their overall monetization plans to ensure not only consistent revenue but also that they’re appealing to as broad a selection of consumers as possible. SVOD, AVOD, and TVOD can all be mixed and matched to provide the best possible options for a service’s audience.

Hulu is perhaps the best example of this. Its ad-supported service is free while viewers who want to skip the commercials can pay a monthly subscription to do so. In addition, Hulu offers add-on services such as premium channels for consumers who access content the core platform doesn’t provide itself. Movie lovers might tack a premium channel like Showtime onto their Hulu subscription, for example. Amazon Prime takes this one step further by including VOD content for rental or purchase.

The TVOD market is continuing to grow and is expected to reach in excess of $10 million in 2022. This model brings money in by allowing consumers to buy permanent access to a single piece of content or by renting a piece of content for a set period of time.

Advertising-based video on demand is seeing media companies profit a large amount of money. The interspersing of ads with free content is something consumers are more than willing to participate in; in fact, more than half of viewers (56%) are happy to watch ads in return for free streaming services.

Contact us

As you can see, television advertising looks much different today with over-the-top and video on demand options. This means greater opportunity for brands to reach consumers, and in a new way that results in greater success. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the idea of connected TV advertising, contact us today to learn more about how our platform tvScientific can help with your television advertising strategy.

How do consumers use social media

Setting Smart Social Media Goals

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Setting smart social media goals for your social media strategy does not have to mean reinventing the wheel. It has been said that you can’t change the past but you can learn from it. We frequently use past information to inform future strategy in marketing. Social media is a great way to talk to your audience. And you can learn a lot from your posts that will help you understand what works against your social media goals, and what doesn’t.

Let’s jump in to find out how to set smart social media goals

There are a few easy steps you can take to set yourself up for success when creating goals for social media. In this two part blog post, we will go over how to assess your previous posts and set yourself up for success with goals to point you in the right direction for the future.

Take an assessment of the platforms you use

When was the last time you posted on each platform and what were the results for that post?

Look at your demographics

Are you posting on platforms that match your demographics? Are you creating the right content for the platform to meet that audience’s expectations? Have you looked at different audience segments to see if they engage differently?

What do you want to achieve with the platforms?

Are you looking to increase overall awareness of your brand?
Do you want to increase traffic to the brand’s site?
Are you introducing a new product or feature?
Maybe you’re endorsing an event?
Write the answers to these questions down. Now take a look at your previous few posts and dive into the insights for each. What was the reception and how was the engagement? Were there comments? Did you comment back? In part two of this blog post, we will go over setting smart social media goals based on the findings.
AlphaDigital is a media company that specializes in custom, multi-channel campaigns based on client goals. We are a company long entrentched with small local businesses and their unique marketing needs as well as large companies looking to talk to local audiences. Social media is an excellent way to continue to talk to your followers and grow new ones. Setting up smart social media goals and a strategy to reach them requires time and attention. We can help you, contact us today to talk to a digital specialist.
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A Step-by-Step Guide to Incrementality Testing for CTV Advertising

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Sophisticated digital advertisers use incrementality testing. This allows advertisers to isolate unique contributions coming from their many digital marketing channels. As marketers move into CTV as the next growth channel, incrementally testing is especially important. CTV is unique in the digital advertising domain and because consumers cannot click on TVs. Incrementality testing is a foundational way for marketers to go “beyond last clicks attribution“. This of course is a requirement when there is no last click.

From defining your audience to calculating incrementality. We will show you how to apply this methodology to the fastest-growing video advertising channel in the world.

What Is Incrementality Testing?

Incrementality testing in advertising is an approach to measure ad performance measurement. It allows marketers to determine the exact level of contribution, or “lift”, that a channel’s advertising has on audience behavior. It requires using two groups: the test group and the control group. The test group is exposed to the advertisement. The control group is not.

If the exposed group performed better, then the test has shown a positive incremental lift. However, if the control group outperformed the exposed group, then the test shows there wasn’t incremental lift. And if there is no difference in the results, the test is deemed neutral. A difference between the results is only meaningful if the gap is statistically significant.  

Incrementality testing is a type of A/B testing. Instead of comparing two advertisements, incrementality testing determines the value of advertising at all. In other words, incrementality testing is about understanding whether advertising on a given channel works. And exactly how much it works.

How to Run Incrementality Testing for CTV Advertising

Step 1: Create a Hypothesis and Establish Performance Metrics

It’s surprising how often advertisers can jump into a testing process before clearly establishing what they’re trying to test. Or how they’re going to assess success. With incrementality testing, you’re testing whether an advertisement works better than not advertising. This means you could test messaging and creative. But you could also test with placebo or dummy ads. These would measure the fundamental value of the channel.

On top of generating your hypothesis, you also want to agree on the performance metrics you’ll be using to evaluate that hypothesis. These are usually metrics like purchases, visits, average order value (AOV), conversion rate (CVR), and visit rate.

Step 2: Define Your Testing Audience

Next you need to build a testing audience derived from your overall target audience. This testing audience will contain the control and the exposed group. When defining this subset, you’ll want to account for any variables that could have an impact on the outcome of your test. For example, if you’re advertising a luxury product, it would likely be a good idea to hold income constant across the groups. Without accounting for these variables, the results could be erroneous. As would be any actions taken as a consequence.

For advertisers looking for precision audience control during testing, our CTV advertising and attribution platform provides numerous targeting parameters. These include age, gender, education, income, household and zip code. In addition, we can target by brand affinity, online purchases, offline purchases, viewing habits, device, business vertical, and fifteen thousand more segments. This level of granularity provides advertisers with complete control over their incrementality testing process.

Step 3: Determine Timeframe and Ad Content, and Run Your Test

The timeframe of the test depends on the volume of interactions, not any specific amount of time. It’s accepted best practice to run your experiment for a minimum of a week. Generally speaking, you should also consider running your test during a relatively normal time of the year. Holidays, elections, and any other major event could impact your audience’s state of mind. This could undermine the validity of your results.

Now, you need to develop ad creative based on the hypothesis you’ve set out to test. If you’re measuring the raw, incremental value of CTV advertising, you need to run placebo creative during your test. This creative needs to be irrelevant to your business. Whether it’s a placebo or a public service announcement (PSA) ad. By running this kind of test campaign, you’ll be able to get an accurate handle on the baseline value of CTV advertising.

With these done, it’s go time. Flight your ad to your test group while suppressing the control group’s exposure.

Step 4: Analyze Test Data and Calculate Incrementality

Once your test is finished, collect all the campaign data from your two groups and review them side by side. From visits to CVR, analyze all your performance metrics. And use them to calculate the incremental lift, as an overall percentage, that the test group saw versus the control group. Using this percentage, you can then calculate the incremental cost per acquisition (iCPA), conversion value, and return on ad spend (iROAS). With these figures in hand, you now have an exact read on the value CTV advertising brings to your business.

Finding a Platform that Supports Incrementality Testing

The impact of traditional TV ads has always been difficult for advertisers to pin down. With the arrival of CTV advertising, those days are behind us. Now, advertisers can measure the value of their ads with the kind of precision that had only been possible on digital channels. They no longer need to wonder if their TV ad campaigns are working. All they need to do is run incrementality testing on their CTV advertising platform to find out.

Advertisers looking for a CTV advertising platform that provides a comprehensive testing toolkit should consider AlphaDigital. We have the world’s first CTV advertising and attribution platform We provide a robust, built-in incrementality testing feature. This feature allows advertisers to run ad hoc tests to assess channel value. And will also run continually to adjust for the lack of ad exposure data via walled garden environments. The only platform on the market with this always-on feature. Our platform was designed to ensure advertisers are consistently getting value out of their CTV campaigns. A commitment we also back up with a fraud-free guarantee.

Reach out to the team to learn more, or get started with your first CTV incrementality test!

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How CTV Measurement, Attribution, and Brand Lift Analysis Work in 2022

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A one-to-one model of CTV measurement and attribution shows performance advertisers exactly where to spend their ad budgets.

As the popularity of connected TV continues to grow, CTV measurement is becoming increasingly important for advertisers. TV viewership data shows skyrocketing CTV adoption rates. In the US today, 56% of viewers watch video content through connected TV apps. By 2023, that number is expected to reach 82%. Here’s what advertisers need to know about CTV measurement, CTV attribution, and brand lift analysis in 2022.

What Is CTV Measurement and Attribution?

CTV measurement is the ability to track and analyze the success of performance TV advertising campaigns. CTV attribution is the ability to identify where consumers are coming from when they take an intended action. Whether that’s a specific channel or an individual ad campaign. Assessing effectiveness in CTV advertising usually means tracking metrics. Metrics like cost per completed view (CPCV), cost per acquisition (CPA), average order value (AOV), etc.

The untrackable nature of linear TV advertising means it isn’t a particularly useful channel for brands. With the exception of major corporations with huge budgets and the resources to sustain brand awareness investment. CTV, on the other hand, drives short-term sales with the added benefit of attribution. The ability to know where performance campaign success comes from for smaller brands is now possible.

Consumers might see an ad on linear TV that inspires them to buy. They might search for the brand or product name on Google. Then navigate to the company’s website from the search results. That website click will be attributed to the search engine instead of to the ad spot itself. But in the CTV realm we can track that initial click. The consumer who navigates their attention away from TV to visit the brand’s website on their mobile device, for example, will be attributed to the CTV ad.

How Does CTV Measurement Work?

The ability to measure and attribute CTV ad performance is incredibly powerful. But the process is distinct from other popular channels like digital advertising and linear TV. Here’s how CTV measurement and CTV attribution work, from start to finish:

  1. First, an ad is delivered to the CTV advertising platform being viewed in a specific household. The platform identifies and stores the household’s IP address in an exposure file.
  2. A device graph maps out any other devices that are connected to the same IP address within that household. The devices of multiple people in the household using mobile phones, laptops, etc, are also added to the exposure file.
  3. Someone in the household uses one of those connected devices to complete the action the ad intended. For example, visiting a website or making a purchase. Data about that event is recorded via a pixel and stored in an outcome file.
  4. We compare the data in exposure files and outcome files. This makes it possible to identify matching IP addresses. Those IP matches are attributed and recorded. Indicating that someone in that household completed the intended action specifically as a result of viewing the CTV ad.

In that sense, CTV measurement and attribution follow a one-to-one model. That’s an important tool for performance advertisers adding TV to their playbook. Especially in contrast to the way linear TV ads require complex panels, indexes, and samples in order to measure results.

What Does CTV Measurement Mean for Brand Lift Analysis?

Linear TV advertisers typically conduct brand lift studies. And consumer surveys in order to understand how each ad campaign resonates with their audience. That’s because on linear TV, like on most advertising channels, accurately tracking and analyzing brand lift is very difficult. Consumers are likely to interact with countless touchpoints before taking an intended action. The one-to-one nature of measurement and attribution on CTV solves that problem. Resulting in advertisers being able to attribute and analyze brand lift with a high degree of precision. No longer does a brand have to wonder why performance metrics are on the rise. By tying actions directly to ads allows advertisers to see exactly why consumers are showing interest.

Successful CTV measurement, attribution, and brand lift analysis allow advertisers to make better decisions. Knowing where and when to invest their ad budgets. That’s why advertisers work with an experienced partner like Alpha Digital. Our advanced CTV measurement and attribution tools give advertisers full control over their campaigns. Interested in partnering with the first CTV advertising platform to combine the power of television with the performance of digital marketing? Get in touch today to learn more.

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How to Test OTT Without Blowing Your Budget

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Marketers know that ad testing is a critical component of any successful performance campaign. But testing a new channel is a complex process. The good news is it’s entirely possible to test OTT campaigns while driving positive ROAS. Especially if you commit to CTV as your delivery channel. When you’re ready to introduce television advertising to your channel mix, there’s a strategic way to avoid flushing your initial investment down the drain on the off chance that there might be a return. Even if you are new to the world of TV advertising, this approach will help you gather information about its potential effectiveness. And you don’t have to blow your entire advertising budget to find out if it can work for you. Read more to learn how you can test OTT and not waste your budget. 

Here are five tips performance marketers can use to find success from their very first TV ad campaigns:

#1 Don’t Buy Based on CPM

In the world of television advertising, CPM (cost per mille) is a less efficient metric than CPA, or cost per action. Because CTV and OTT advertising unlock such powerful attribution capabilities, CPA is an incredibly effective approach. Viewers taking your desired action is more valuable than the total number of people who see your ad. Regardless of your desired action, a visit to your website or making a purchase.

For example, imagine your desired outcome is for consumers to scan a QR code featured in your OTT ad. With a CPM structure, you would be able to determine that you spent a certain financial sum to expose a certain number of people to your ad. But buying based on CPA instead allows you to see that spending X dollars running your campaign resulted in Y number of individuals scanning the QR code.

With OTT advertising’s 1:1 attribution model, buying based on CPA provides a more clear idea of the causes and effects of your ad’s influence. Performance marketers should work with an established partner that has invested in supply-path optimized media buying designed to hit CPA goals.

#2 Track Multi-Touch Attribution

Single-touch attribution models assign 100% of the credit for each successful conversion to a single marketing interaction (first-click or last-click, e.g.). It’s certainly helpful to know which marketing touchpoint eventually leads a consumer to perform the desired action. It is also important to understand the other touchpoints that contributed to that eventual outcome. That’s why OTT advertisers should use a multi-touch attribution model instead of first- or last-touch models.

Consumers — and OTT video viewers in particular — are highly likely to experience ads for the same brand or product multiple times before they perform the desired action. Performance marketers should choose an advertising solution that tracks and demonstrates the multi-faceted deterministic path from CTV ad exposure to outcome.

#3 Start Small & See ROAS

Many major advertisers make large investments in the hopes of seeing greater ROAS. Not every brand can meet the minimum spend that big-ticket platforms require. By excluding smaller brands from running and testing OTT campaigns, the ad platforms that require a minimum spend of $20,000-$50,000 miss out on the democratizing ethos of CTV advertising. Performance marketers just getting started with television ads should choose a platform with low or no minimum spend requirements. Depending on your vertical, you could see ROAS with an investment as low as $500.

#4 Iterate On Creative

Your creative efforts shouldn’t be separated from data-backed strategic thinking. Instead, marketers should design multiple iterations of each creative concept and then test each one in the wild with their intended audience. You could be tracking performance, engagement, or some other kind of metric. The results of the test will reveal which ad creative performs most effectively. In that sense, iterating on creative — and testing every version of your ad — will help marketers get the most out of each campaign flight. Even without huge up-front investment.

#5 Test Incrementality Constantly

Incrementality testing measures the results of a test group exposed to a campaign against a non-exposed control group. It’s an advertising best practice across a variety of channels. But many still treat it as a step in the process as opposed to a constant state. A one-and-done mindset about incrementality testing will deliver a snapshot of results in a static moment. However, conducting incrementality testing on an ongoing basis will show how test results shift over time. OTT advertisers — both new and experienced — should choose a partner that can support an “always-on” approach to incrementality testing.

Our CTV/OTT campaigns empower performance marketers to activate first-party audiences. With the addition of third-party data segments and retarget visitors from the web back to their connected TV. Our premium ad inventory unlocks access to connected TV devices. In addition, we access native apps and platforms, and the most popular OTT streaming services. Our campaigns offer powerful attribution capabilities and real-time reporting. In addition, we have built-in, always-on testing.  This allows marketers to monitor and measure the incremental value of their connected TV advertising efforts. Ready to learn more about how Alpha Media can help you add OTT advertising to your strategy and test OTT without blowing your budget? Get in touch today.

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