Addressable TV Advertising: A Marketers Guide for 2023

Television has come a long way since the era of dependent broadcast programs and single-television households. Now, TV screens are slim and sleek and don’t require cable or satellite services anymore—all you need is an internet connection. Television has become part of our digital lives, allowing us to access streaming content anytime, anywhere.

This massive shift has revolutionized the way marketers target viewers, empowering them to hone their ads for maximum relevance. With various options such as OTT (over-the-top), CTV (connected TV), and addressable TV, advertisers now have multiple avenues to get their television commercials into households everywhere.

Addressable TV vs. Connected TV vs. OTT: What’s the Difference?

Connected TV (CTV) is an advertising platform that allows marketers to target viewers via streaming devices. This form of digital television enables viewers to access a wide range of content from internet-based streaming services, including TV shows, movies, and web series.

OTT (over-the-top) is a marketing platform that allows marketers to directly target viewers on a wide range of devices, such as smartphones, tablets, computers, smart TVs, and set-top boxes. By utilizing OTT, marketers can reach their target audience with their message in a much more personalized and effective way than traditional television advertising.

Addressable TV is a form of digital TV advertising that enables marketers to target viewers in unique and much more precise ways than traditional broadcast television. This technology allows advertisers to segment their audiences into smaller, more meaningful segments based on criteria such as geography, demographics, lifestyle choices, interests, and behavior.

In short, over-the-top is the gateway to reaching viewers through connected devices, while connected TV represents the way consumers access streaming content. Addressable TV, on the other hand, is the method marketers use to target their ads and get them seen by relevant viewers.

What is Addressable TV Advertising?

Addressable TV advertising is the process of delivering personalized ads to specific households or viewers based on their attributes. This is done with the help of data-driven targeting, which enables advertisers to target viewers who are most likely to be interested in their product or service.

This form of television advertising allows marketers to design campaigns that are tailored for each individual viewer—a process known as “addressable targeting.” For example, an advertiser can create multiple versions of the same ad, each tailored for a different target audience.

What are the Benefits of Addressable TV Ads?

Addressable TV allows marketers to deliver ads to specific households based on predetermined criteria. This enables advertisers to reach viewers who have an affinity towards their product, thus providing more effective campaigns with higher returns on engagement (ROEs).

Benefits of addressable TV ads include:

• Increased engagement due to precision targeting and relevancy
• Ability to reach more highly targeted customers
• Greater control over audience targeting
• More accurate tracking of campaigns
• Improved ROI

When combined with other forms of advertising and marketing, addressable TV can provide the most comprehensive reach for an advertiser’s campaign. With its ability to target viewers in a more precise manner, addressable TV is quickly becoming an essential piece of the modern media plan.

How do Addressable TV Ads Work?

Ad buying in addressable TV advertising involves producing the ad creative and placing it onto the appropriate media channels, which include broadcast, cable, satellite, and OTT services. The advertiser will then work with a network provider that can access the target audience’s set-top boxes.

By taking advantage of data points such as viewing habits and demographics, the advertiser can tailor ads to reach an audience that is most likely to purchase their products.

Once the campaign has been created, it will be distributed across all relevant networks and activated on each household’s set-top box automatically by the provider.

How Can Advertisers Produce Addressable TV Ad Creative?

Advertisers have access to a range of data points that can help tailor ads to a target audience, including:

• Demographics (age, gender, location, family status, etc.)
• Viewing habits (what shows they watch and how often)
• Lifestyle information (interests/hobbies/behaviors etc.)
• Technology usage (what devices are used to view content)
• Purchase history (what products they regularly buy).

Using this information, an advertiser can create highly targeted ads that speak directly to the intended audience. Furthermore, the data can be used to track the success of each campaign and assess the ROI.

Beyond this, advertisers look at CTV trends to inform their creative decisions. Since CTV is relatively new, successful campaigns often involve testing different creative formats to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Final Thoughts on Addressable TV

Addressable TV advertising is the future of television advertising. It offers an unprecedented level of control and targeting, which enables more relevant messaging and increased engagement with customers. This leads to more successful campaigns that have a greater impact on ROI.

As technology continues to evolve, so too do the capabilities of addressable TV, making it an invaluable tool for any ambitious advertiser. And in 2023, that’s exactly what companies need.