In this episode of Out of the Box, our host Jess Overton, Sr. Director of Sales and Partnerships at ironSource Aura, sits down with Arthur Querou, CEO at Vibe, an all-in-one TV ad platform.
They discuss the basics behind what CTV is and how it’s different than regular TV advertising, measuring installs with a short term attribution window, and tips and tricks for perfecting creatives on a high attention channel.
Overview of CTV
“The way to look at CTV is actually quite simple. Imagine people using their TV like they use their smartphones, with apps.
It’s not really popular in Europe, even though it's growing, but it's very, very, very popular in the US. Everybody is switching to CTV and now people use apps to watch TV. The good thing about that is that everything is delivered through the internet, which is why we call it OTT - over the top. That allows us to also track what people see and what they do on other devices thanks to IPs because TVs are connected to household IPs.”
“Let's say you have Pluto TV installed on your TV, for example, which is one of the biggest CTV app in the US. We will run ads for mobile apps and then try to generate installs through those ads. So, we’re advertising mobile apps on CTV apps, basically.”
Why mobile apps haven’t gotten into CTV just yet
“TV advertising has always been super expensive and required super high minimums. If you want to buy a TV spot on national TV, it'll probably cost like several hundreds, thousands of dollars, which well is a lot, especially if you just want to test. The metric is quite impressive - 95% of the ad spend on TV comes from only the Fortune 500 brands. That's really what we're trying to change.”
Measurement with a short attribution window
“Driving app installs through these channels is quite new. AppsFlyer and Adjust just released their solution in the middle of 2022. Vibe was the first partner for both of them, so that was great for us. We are integrated with them and they can measure and do the attribution when it comes to the performance that advertisers are actually getting. One of the things that we've seen that's also very interesting is measuring incrementality and measuring all the assists that you are actually doing on the other installs. TV's not only about driving direct installs, it's also about building the brand and helping out the other channels. Adjust has released a tool that's called ‘Assists,’ to show those actions and uplifts that you are doing on the side.
How it works again is that we are basically matching IPs, so looking at the IPs that are generating installs, the IPs that have seen an ad on their TV, and then matching those. The big question is really about the attribution window and how you allocate an install to one actor or another.
Our opinion, which is not necessarily the same for other partners that you could find out there, is pushing for a very short attribution window. I know that's kind of rare for a demand partner. Usually people tend to push for longer windows. But let's say you consider that within 30 minutes, if an install happens after having seen an ad, you can really be okay with the fact that that was a direct response.”
Simplifying your creative on a high attention channel
“One thing that is often very overlooked is the quality of the creative. TV gets you an attention that's unparalleled with any other channel. Another thing that's very important is that sound is on by default. So it's super important to work on sound in your creative, which is really, really overlooked by digital marketers because we are used to sound being off by default and not putting much effort in. So voiceover is super important.
Also, be super direct. Don't be too creative. Don't try to do something that explains the brand or gives a feeling of something. Just be direct. Just show the app, show the gameplay. Say that it's on the App Store and that people should download it.”
Europe will switch to CTV, but it will take some time
“Why it's popular in the US? Because cable TV was so expensive that those services starting popping up and people got really interested and that's what made them change their habits about how they consume TV.
In Europe, it's kind of different. I don't know if it's true for every single European country, but most of them have free access to TV channels. They are very used to taking a remote and pressing one, two or whatever number the channel is. When you use CTV, it's not about the number of the channel that you are going to, it's about the app that you are going to select. That's a big change. Europe, in general, will have a much harder time to switch from that habit to another one even though the ball is starting to roll.
Then, it’s a lot about politics in Europe not on the government side but between the big broadcasters. They have a huge presence, huge coverage and there isn’t that much competition like you see in the US. For now, they believe that they’re the only ones and nobody can come and take their place. I think they’re very wrong and they’re about to get wrecked by the big broadcasters coming from the US.”
