"I don't know. What do you want to watch?"
That's the discussion each night on couches across the world.
There are currently more than 200,000 shows available to stream in the U.S., and more added each day–which means that not only is that conversation probably happening more than 200,000 times a night, but people are typing actor names or other words into their streaming service to find something good.
While it won't solve the problem of what to watch, the same kind of keyword searching has come to biddable CTV advertising.
Bringing keyword controls to CTV gives advertisers more ability to increase the relevance and effectiveness of campaigns. This industry-first capability in pre-bid CTV means buyers can use keywords similarly to how they do on web campaigns.
Leveraging a keyword strategy on CTV ensures that ads are contextually relevant to the content users are consuming, increasing the likelihood of engagement and the ROI advertisers and brands are looking for.
Keyword capabilities on CTV also bring a new level of customizable brand safety and suitability to this biddable environment. By excluding specific granular keywords, advertisers can safeguard their brand reputation and ensure that their ads appear alongside brand suitable content, regardless of whether they’re running in the open exchange or creating PMP deals.
For example, buyers can now create campaigns targeting comedies, while excluding specific actors or keywords in descriptions.
Just like the search for what to watch often means saying, "you know, it's the movie with the guy who was in that one show about the person that did that thing," keywords work within:
- Actor Names
- Genres
- Director Names
- Plot Summary/Description
- Ratings
- Sports Teams
- Sports Venue
- Warnings and Advisories
That's right, Sports Teams and Venues are keywords that can be used–opening up all sorts of opportunities in CTV. Imagine a campaign to reach NBA fans that excludes only the markets where an advertiser doesn't want to run.
Program-Level vs App-Level Categories
While streaming has supplanted linear television, it is not without advertising issues:
- Targeting and exclusion options for buyers haven't kept up
- Reporting is often just the basics
- There are app-level categories, self-reported by publishers or SSPs, as categories that many DSPs use
While both PMPs and programmatic guaranteed placements give some assurances of the kind of content that buyers are advertising in, frankly those too can lack transparency around placements and reporting.
So brands and buyers end up wondering, "I don't know. What do you want to target?" That's the discussion happening across the email threads of brands and agencies each day.
A fundamental issue is that categorization can happen at the app level, not at the program level. A broadcast network might be categorized as a handful of genres - News, Entertainment, and/or Sports. If a buyer excludes News from a campaign, the entire channel will be excluded, causing them to miss valuable advertising opportunities.
With program-level categorizations, if a buyer excludes News, the publisher will still get bids on other content that they offer within that channel. And because program-level categories are even more granular - for instance Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Dark Comedy, or Comedy Drama - the advertiser can find their specific content and specific audiences for campaigns.
Which all means that it's easier to create effective campaigns (and get accurate reporting on them) than it is to decide what to watch tonight.
