The growth of CTV (connected TV) shows no signs of fading in 2021. According to eMarketer, CTV investment grew 40.6% in 2020, totaling over $9 billion. The projections for 2021 are even better, at $13.41 billion.
Image: eMarketer
Analysis from IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) noted that 60% of advertisers are shifting ad dollars from linear TV to CTV in 2021.
To ensure that you get this new piece of the advertising pie, you’ll need to position CTV to your advertisers. Automotive is an excellent vertical to leverage this channel.
Growth of CTV and Its Impact Are Perfect for Automotive
The auto industry is still dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and supply chain shortages and disruptions. Industry experts predict that inventory will remain tight into 2022.
However, local dealerships still have inventory to sell. They are also attempting to increase their used car stock. Further, they want to expand and boost revenue from service appointments. These are three different advertising goals, and you can address them all with CTV.
How CTV Expands Reach
Is CTV accessible? Per Integral Ad Science, nearly 9 out of 10 consumers do have a CTV device. Consumers have adopted new ways of viewing, and they aren’t reverting.
Adding CTV advertising to the mix of an integrated linear and digital campaign enables your auto dealer advertisers to engage with car buyers. CTV has excellent reach, and you can measure its impact. As a result, advertising becomes more data-driven, which typically correlates to better outcomes and ROI.
What Can You Measure?
Your customers are likely very interested in measuring the performance of ads. With CTV, you can track how many people visited a dealership or dealer website or purchased a vehicle after viewing an ad. With geotargeting, you can even measure when customers walk into stores. You can then connect this data to ad exposure to determine the conversion rates of your campaign efforts.
What Are the Targeting Opportunities?
CTV gives you several targeting options, including:
- ZIP code
- State
- DMA (designated marketing area)
When it’s OTT (over-the-top) supported, you can also target by household demographics. OTT refers to how the content is delivered because ads sit “over the top” of another platform, enabling serving them to users on any device.
CTV Advertising Offers Opportunities Linear Doesn’t
Linear is a proven pillar for auto dealership advertising. A study found that a 15% increase in TV ad spend resulted in a 48% jump in unique website visitors.
Reach “Lost” Audiences
CTV has its own advantages as part of the automotive campaign mix. With traditional viewing declining by 39 million customers in 2019, and an expectation for it to lose 50 million in 2022, CTV can reach those viewers linear has lost. Most households have more than one CTV device, so the audience is there.
Enable Smart Targeting and Retargeting
CTV provides a way to target and retarget with great accuracy. The targeting capabilities of CTV include demographics. With linear TV, you sell a spot during specific programming, assuming the demographic is part of the audience. You’re targeting based on audience, not content.
With retargeting, you’re only serving ads to people who visited a website or have some past interactions with the brand.
In an omnichannel marketing campaign, CTV targeting helps your advertisers:
- Engage the right people in the market for a car: Since car purchases are big, with only a small percentage of people shopping for cars, connecting with the actual buyers is key.
- Build brand equity: If car buyers see ads on various mediums, including CTV, they could have stronger recall when they are ready to purchase.
- Eliminate waste: With insights from your CTV campaigns, you can optimize campaigns to prevent your advertisers from wasting impressions.
Offer a More Affordable Option
CTV can often be more affordable than linear TV because of targeting and retargeting. That’s mostly because you aren’t wasting budget on audiences that aren’t relevant. Greater returns on that ad spend occur because you’re serving the right people.
Let Auto Dealer Advertisers Know About the Growth of CTV
We’ve provided some strong arguments for why auto dealers should diversify with CTV. Its growth and targeting opportunities will be of interest to your auto dealer advertisers. Be sure to tell them about this and how you can execute it for them in your next chat.
