Everything You Need to Know About OTT Advertising

OTT (Over-the-top) advertising is to digital TV what traditional television advertising is to cable TV. Unlike traditional television advertising, however, OTT advertising can harness the power of its digital platforms and track, target, and monitor advertising campaigns like never before. 

OTT advertising, also known as streaming advertising, is the process of promoting your brand, products, and services directly to your target audience on the internet through video streaming services and platforms.

Everyone has experienced OTT. Those YouTube ads that pop up if you don't have a premium subscription? That's OTT advertising. The streaming services that provide inventory often work with OTT platforms to sell that inventory to interested parties.

As cable TV continues to shrink in popularity, we've witnessed the rise and victory of subscription-based streaming services. OTT advertising fills the advertising gap left by the significant shift away from cable to streaming TV. Most importantly, it's a highly effective way to advertise your brand.

It works very well, actually! By getting your brand message directly in front of the perfectly tailored and targeted audience, you maximize the effect of your message with very little wasted effort. All killer, no filler.

Oh, how does it work, as in what is the process to follow? Well, it’s quite simple.

First, you choose one or multiple mediums like Hulu, Sling, and YouTube. Your choice should be based on your thorough marketing research and the personas you've created. You know what your target market is watching, and you know where they're watching it too! 

Next, you’ll work with an OTT advertising platform that can access that inventory.

Once you sign up, you create your ad. There are many types, including more traditional video ads that play during the movie or show and banner and display ads that appear at various places and times on the screen. More about which, shortly. 

The ads are targeted, but they are fully interactive too, and your audience can engage with any of your platforms during or after the ads. 

OTT advertising has several benefits that businesses can harness to increase web traffic, leads, conversions, and ultimately, your revenue.

Most OTT advertising solutions include advanced targeting capabilities that allow advertisers to tailor ads to specific groups of people on particular platforms. Businesses can choose from various characteristics and demographics, including: 

This means that you can reach your target market on hugely popular streaming platforms, boost your online presence, and dramatically increase your sales. 

Some OTT platforms, like Hulu, allow you to create ads based on a user's habits, like binge-watching TV shows. This will enable you to create a more personalized experience for users, encouraging more clicks and sales for your company in the long run.

As you know, streaming services have huge captive audiences that use the services daily. This means that your tailored ads can reach more of your demographic, which is always one of the top goals for online marketing. 

Traditional linear TV advertising was a notoriously hit-and-miss affair. On the other hand, OTT advertising is calculated, targeted, and highly measurable. You can view advertising analytics at any time and make the necessary changes based on the results. 

The targeted reach and available analytics contribute toward a favorable return on investment (ROI) for OTT advertising. 

There are several types of OTT ads to choose from, including:

Digital ads are the most common online advertising medium and usually include some form of multimedia with a button to "find out more." For example, OTT ads appear somewhere around the video your potential customer is watching. 

As the name suggests, video ads are short clips that promote your business. They're usually between 15 and 30 seconds and will play before, during, or after the show. They can either be skippable or non-skippable too. 

Interactive ads can entice people to your landing page, website, or social media pages. The audience clicks on something they're interested in finding out more about, and the traffic is directed to your business platforms. 

While many streaming services are subscription-based, many also have different tiers. These tiers can go from entirely free to a variety of tiers. For example, platforms will offer free content with ads or cheaper subscriptions that include ads. The premium options are usually ad-free. 

YouTube is incredibly popular and is also one of the most trusted platforms consumers use to make purchasing decisions. A study showed that 40% of consumers bought products they first discovered on YouTube. 

With 92 million active users and a very popular subscription option that includes ads, Hulu is an online marketer's dream come true. It is one of the fastest-growing platforms and has a very wide and varied demographic. 

Facebook offers live streams, original content, and a wide variety of videos across all genres, including news, sports, and entertainment. In addition, with around 5 billion active users, OTT ads on Facebook have a profound reach, and the targeting is possibly the most specific and accurate available anywhere. 

Many connected TV advertising platforms are optimized for direct-response marketing goals. They redefine what advertisers can do with television, giving them the power to tie performance directly to their TV campaigns.