Over the top (OTT) advertising is designed to work with the new ways in which audiences consume content. Brands that use OTT advertising can reach their target consumers via streaming services on any device. That’s a great way to reach cord-cutters.
Now, imagine combining this with the engagement and conversion power of local targeting.
This combination is possible with local OTT advertising. However, there are some tips and best practices to consider. This guide has been created to help with that. If you are a marketer or agency pro, keep reading for ways to optimize local OTT advertising.
What Is OTT Advertising?
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The OTT in OTT advertising stands for “over the top.” It refers to advertising content that goes “over the top” of a device to reach streaming viewers. OTT ads are served via an advertising platform to reach relevant audiences on the channels they watch.
Local OTT advertising is simply this form of advertising geotargeted to people in a specific location. Many brands are engaging in local OTT to reach nearby audiences who are increasingly relying on streaming services.
How to Optimize a Local OTT Campaign
OTT campaigns can be complicated to create and manage for people who are inexperienced. Fortunately, these optimization tips should help:
Integrate OTT with Your Entire Marketing Campaign
Like other marketing channels, OTT can get some pretty impressive results on its own. In fact, OTT ad revenue is predicted to be more than $158 billion by 2024. However, the best results come when you integrate OTT with your other campaign strategies and channels. This setup helps to ensure consistency in your marketing messaging as well.
One way to integrate OTT into your overall marketing strategy is to use retargeting. When a viewer watches your ad, you can get your product or service in front of them again through re-targeted ads on search engines, social media sites, your website, or other OTT ad offerings.
Develop a Solid Call to Action
One of the key benefits of OTT ads is that the completion rate is so high. However, you can only maximize this metric if your ads end with a clear, compelling call to action (CTA).
You can use many of the same techniques that work for other digital marketing advertising. These include:
- Creating a sense of urgency
- Being specific
- Using action words
- Selling a key benefit
Your CTA should be relevant to your overall campaign objective.
Use Analytics to Track Ads
How do you know your local OTT ads are working? You need helpful insights from reporting that are based on data extracted directly from your campaigns. This analysis will give you a clear picture of each ad’s performance.
Here are some of the most important metrics to track:
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Site and page visits
- Performance by ad
- Cost per site visit
- Network-level (publisher) performance
Of course, with a locally focused campaign, you’ll also want to track performance by location. This tracking will help you determine how well your targeting efforts are paying off.
Location Is Great, but Drill Down Further
It’s great to target your ads locally. This way, you don’t waste advertising spend on people who will never engage with your company. However, local isn’t a complete solution in most cases. You’ll need to optimize further by targeting the channels that your audience is actually watching.
For example, if your niche is high-end cookware, a site that features cooking shows or kitchen updates would be ideal for your ads. However, a site that shows horror movies may not be.
Focus on Brand Awareness and Name Recognition
If your audience is local, chances are it will come into contact with your brand outside of their streaming experiences. You can take advantage of this connection by focusing on name recognition and brand awareness.
Don’t be shy about using your brand name frequently in OTT ads. You want to leave enough of an impression that customers recall your name when they need local products or services.
Test and Optimize on a Small Scale
As effective as OTT is, there is no such thing as a zero-risk campaign. It is possible to achieve an ROI of absolutely zero. However, you can mitigate that risk and the amount of investment that you stand to lose if you engage in A/B testing for each ad you create.
OTT advertising offers up opportunities for you to engage in A/B testing and to move forward with the best-performing ads. This method can be so helpful in helping you to optimize your local advertisements that many brands find it worth dedicating a portion of their OTT budget to testing.