OTT (over-the-top) advertising is advertising delivered directly to viewers through streaming video services or devices, such as smart or connected TVs (CTV). The popularity of streaming services like Apple TV, Hulu, Amazon, and more are only expected to scale in the coming years, so it’s advantageous to understand the ways to best utilize this form of video advertising. In this week’s article, we’re diving into the three leverageable audience types within an OTT campaign. The audiences this article will review are in-market audiences, pre-market audiences, and conquest audiences.
Utilizing a video advertising strategy is essential in our modern age, but having clearly defined audiences is a vital aspect to long-term success that demonstrates that your video content has impact and is moving audiences further down the buyers funnel.
In-Market Audiences
When a customer is in-market, that means they are actively researching or comparing products and services. From this audience, advertisers can expect to drive more high-value user behavior and high conversion rates on your website. Ideally, advertisers are met with high foot traffic attribution metrics that reflect that people who watched your OTT actually visited the store.
Across the Google advertising network, in-market audiences are identified by their demonstrated behaviors. That is often expressed by their search behavior, website time-on-site data, and ad interaction data. The same logic and methodology is employed in an in-market OTT campaign.
Typically, all devices in a household are connected to the same Wi-Fi, connecting all internet activity and increasing the possibilities for more personalized ad experiences that can cater to the needs of the household. So, when a household is showing signs of in-market behavior for their next vehicle purchase, if you’re running an OTT campaign, the probability of that household seeing your ad increases.
We learned from Google’s 2021 Dealer Guidebook that 80% of new auto purchasers took an action after watching a video. Quality video production and messaging compels and motivates the behaviors and actions of those most intent on purchasing a vehicle.
Pre-Market Audiences
A pre-market audience is the classification of people who are beginning to display purchase-intent-based behaviors but are not quite ready for purchase. Again, these households are identified by machine-learning analysis of search behavior, website behavior, and ad interaction behavior. As more intentional behavior is displayed, the sooner a household is moved into the in-market audience.
Pre-market households benefit from being served OTT advertising because it catapults and intensifies the awareness of your unique brand and your variety of inventory.
High-quality vehicle walkarounds or brand-heavy dealership tours that highlight safety precautions are great ways to get the pre-market audience’s attention.
Conquest Audiences
Conquesting can be a risky venture for a dealership’s Google Search campaigns, but with video advertising, it can mean tapping into a market that may not yet be familiar with your brand, inventory, and business. Conquesting campaigns find audiences who have been expressing allegiance or interest in similar brands but have yet to find your dealership.
Because Reunion runs OTT ads that operate with machine-learning intelligence, we are able to report a very important metric called the Local Dealer Index (LDI). LDI is the percentage of foot traffic the individual store received out of all the measurable foot traffic to all dealerships in the area. This key metric is one of the many ways that we are able to optimize and dictate what conquesting has the greatest impact on creating stimulus and awareness for your dealership.
Again, all OTT campaigns should operate with the goal of moving viewers further down the funnel of consideration and into the realm of intent. With a conquesting campaign, the video content can speak more specifically about a new model release and the luxuries that accompany it, grabbing the attention of those who have never considered your dealership before.
Discover Your Dealership’s OTT Advertising Audience
It’s 2021 and 78% of U.S. households are streaming through connected TV. If your dealership is operating in the mindset that traditional TV is the only way to utilize video content, we encourage you to think again and realize the hyper-targeted, personalized demand advertising is veering toward in today’s world.
Advertising via OTT channels with Reunion means having our team of specialists find the right audiences, who then start seeing the right video content. Whether you want to grow your customer base from the ground up via a conquesting strategy, or you want to grab hold of those ready to buy, OTT is a powerful marketing channel that’s here to stay.