NEW YORK—A new report and survey from Innovid and Digiday finds that more advertisers are embracing the idea of advertising on connected TV, with 64% believing connected TV advertising efforts will help them better target consumers.
The finding is another example of how connected TV advertising is gaining steam. Separately, the research company eMarketer has predicted that the CTV advertising spend will reach $11.31 billion in 2021 and increase to $18.29 million in 2024.
But the new “State of CTV Advertising” report from Innovid and Digiday, which surveyed more than 100 brand marketers and agency executives, also found that the sector faces some challenges as it grows.
While 41% of respondents began shifting investments to CTV 1-3 years ago, nearly half began less than a year ago (24%) or haven’t started (24%).
The survey also found that 64% are hoping to achieve more precise audience targeting and 50% expect improved relevance among consumers.
Respondents said investing in the channel has significantly increased brand awareness (59%) and brand engagement (50%). A majority of respondents (39%) are also seeing an increase in return on ad spend, while a third of respondents have not yet quantified exactly how investing in CTV has impacted their return on ad spend.
While the platform offers better targeting of ads, advertisers were concerned about a number of areas.
The report noted that Inconsistent measurement (58%), targeting the right audiences (53%), and inventory fragmentation (41%) are the key challenges marketers encounter as they integrate CTV advertising.
To tackle addressability challenges, more than half of respondents are using audience targeting (69%) and first-party data (64%). To better measure performance and overcome performance obstacles, a majority (68%) are partnering with ad tech companies like DSPs, SSPs and ad servers.
“Our joint report with Digiday reveals that while CTV has grown exponentially in the past year and marketers are increasingly making it a part of their omni-channel strategies, there’s still room for education and growth in the industry,” said Stephanie Geno, the CMO of Innovid, an omni-channel advertising and analytics platform built for television. “Marketers clearly understand the opportunity that CTV presents, they just need more help to realize its full potential. To meet the challenges and opportunities arising from CTV’s growth, Innovid is focusing on helping brands consolidate their omni-channel strategy to efficiently deliver, personalize and measure ads across all screens and devices. We believe that marketers who are equipped with these tools will perform better as television increasingly moves online and away from the cord.”
The full report is available here. https://digiday.com/report-the-state-of-ctv-advertising-in-2021/
