Key Trends in the OTT Market + How to Get Started

Over the top (OTT) viewership is on the rise creating a world of opportunity for marketers who want to find new and better ways to reach their audiences at home.

OTT streaming isn’t going anywhere any time soon, but getting started can also be overwhelming for brands and some marketing partners.

The OTT market today

Connected TV (CTV) has been gaining ground rapidly in recent years, with more total video ad impressions served versus mobile.

It’s only a matter of time before OTT through connected devices dominates the market. And why shouldn’t it? It offers marketers some major benefits, including:

• Making television advertising more accessible to smaller companies: Not only is the price per impression dropping, buying is much easier with the help of addressable buying methods and lower minimum purchase requirements.
• The influence of OTT is easier to demonstrate: Because synergy between OTT and mobile is clear, you can much more easily track funnel activity. That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to necessarily know down to the dollar how much your ad is making, but you will see the influence it has and how it trends in relation to others.
• Giving more options for deep dive metrics: There was a time in television advertisement buying when you just didn’t always know where your buyers came from unless you ran a marketing campaign that demanded action in that moment to a specific telephone number or using a special code. The OTT market can help marry the buyer to the advertisement in a way that gives significantly more data, depending on the OTT unit involved.

Since over 80 percent of homes have at least one OTT unit, be that a streaming box or stick, smart TV, gaming console, DVR or set-top box or Internet Blu-ray player, getting a solid handle on OTT marketing only makes good sense.

OTT: Now is the time

OTT may have only held about $2 billion of the market in 2018 (compared to the $63 billion of traditional TV), but between the decline of traditional television overall and the increase in OTT viewing and advertising, it’s an area that’s only going to grow.

Because OTT watchers tend to be much more engaged, streamed content creates a perfect platform for awareness campaigns. CTV viewers are stickier than their mobile and desktop counterparts, with twice as much ad engagement time and a 25 percent higher completion rate. Add to this that OTT watchers are more likely to second-screen content related to the programming or advertisements they’re seeing, and you have a platform full of possibilities for marketers.

Buying OTT advertising

Although any marketer can go directly to a programmatic or direct OTT sellers, doing so without a strong understanding of the market can spell disaster.

For example, some programmatic sellers look great with their low minimum spends and wide reach across CTV, but often targeting can’t be guaranteed at the program (or even platform) level. These ads are also often limited to non-clickable video, which can certainly get some eyeballs, but fail to grease the path to purchase.

With the help of an agency, however, you can reach your market no matter where they are. That might mean connected TV for some, ad-supported offline viewing or mid-roll video advertisements for others. Instead of having to spend a lot of your own time going between a variety of different platforms in order to secure the spots that you need to get the most from your ad spend, an agency partner can do that work for you.

These seasoned partners already know the terrain and how your company will best fit into the existing (and emerging) ecosystem. With years of experience working behind the scenes to ensure that companies reach their best audiences as often as possible, an OTT expert can get the ­­­results you’ve been hoping for.