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The Anatomy of a CTV Creative: How to Craft a Perfect CTV Ad
CTV is not a novelty nowadays, and it keeps on growing year by year. According to eMarketer, it is expected that by the end of 2021 its growth will reach 60% with more than $14 billion ad spend. This means that CTV advertising becomes more and more challenging and competitive, requiring advertisers to use innovative approaches and ideas in terms of ad creatives. But apart from that, there are many opportunities for the marketers to make their campaign stand out against a background of others.
The variety of CTV ads formats
As the CTV industry keeps on growing by leaps and bounds, new types of ads appear aiming to make the most effect on the viewers. Let’s review various ad types CTV marketers address CTV viewers with nowadays:
- In-stream video ads: they are displayed right in the player where the viewer watches the content and are divided into pre-rolls (appear before the video), mid-rolls (played during the pauses) and post-rolls (inserted in the end of the main content). In-stream ads help raise brand awareness because they are well-targeted and usually address the right users with the right offers.
- Pause ads: catch the attention of the viewer while he is engaged with the main video, and thus are distinguished by the high view rate
- Interactive ads: imply templatized and scripted ones. Templetized ads are fully controlled by the publishers and can be adjusted using metadata, but at the same time provide limited predetermined options. Unlike them, scripted ads provide more capabilities and advanced experience.
- Choice-based ads: give user an option to choose the particular ad they want to watch
- Dynamic overlay ads: allow marketers to personalize the existing creative
- Actionable ads: they are interactive and allow customers to get more information about the product including links and click-to-buy option
- Voice-enabled ads: are distinguished by the viewers’ interaction using their voice and following instructions on the screen
- Sequential ads: imply several logically related creatives that tell a story
- Extensions and end cards: short ads that are displayed before the creative or at its end
The format of ads you choose for the campaign depends on your brand specificity, your goals and your audience preferences. However, it is not less important to think over the creative you use in your ads and choose the right tactic that will make the desired effect on the viewers.
Best practices to make your CTV creative work for you
Creative appears to be the most important part of every ad. It is responsible for engaging the viewers and making them interact with a brand. A perfect ad creative can help you establish strong relationships with your customers.
Here are some tips you may use for enhancing your creatives:
– make it more personal addressing your consumers’ needs and hitting the context
– leverage viewers’ interactivity and give them the ability to choose and make decisions
– try using “shoppable ads” to make a stronger connection between your brand and the customer
– use end-cards and brand frames to enhance the image
– don’t just stick to the length – short and long videos can perform in the same way just because they are relevant and engaging
– use several separate creatives to tell a single story recalling the previous episode in every next one
– add content that resonates with your audience or use topics that are trendy and don’t forget to add a bit of fun to your ads to give them an entertaining friendly note
– add a compelling CTA at the end of your creative in order for the viewer to easily use your offer
A good creative increases brand awareness, helps create strong connections between your business and customers, and boosts your ad effectiveness. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how wide the reach is – a good creative shown to a smaller audience can perform better than a bad creative with immense reach.
Takeaways
In order to invent the right creative, it is necessary to know your audience well, to understand its needs and the things that engage your viewers the most. You need to research, to experiment with various approaches, and stay in the loop of all relevant and upcoming trends to be even one step ahead and be the first to use the catchiest creatives in your ads.
Apart from that, you can always get professional assistance from BidMind’s experts who provide programmatic solutions to advertisers, media buyers, and creative agencies to help them run well-targeted ad campaigns that engage viewers to the fullest and attract more customers to a brand.
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