Doing More With Less — Strategies for Advertising Success in Uncertain Times

Ann Kraus: Hello and welcome to the Simpli.fi webinar series. I'm Ann Kraus. Thanks for joining us each month for industry news, interviews, product rollouts, and training on all things related to targeted advertising and connected TV. The Simpli.fi webinar series is available on demand with new episodes posted each month at simpli.fi/webinars, along with all of our previously recorded episodes. It's June 2023 and this month we are focusing on doing more with less. I'm sure that probably rings a bell with many of you. Even in these times of economic uncertainty, ad tech is still growing, just not as fast as before. Experts that follow and report on trends are telling us to prepare for less ad spending. And the best way to do that is to be ready to do more with less. That will be the focus of our time together today. How, as marketers, can we work smarter with leaner teams and tighter budgets? And how we can help our advertisers reach their performance goals and maximize their relevance by choosing the right platform provider. We know it can be tough to deliver results with all of these pressures. The leading advertising platforms are taking this approach. Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg called 2023, "The year of efficiency." And Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai stated his desire to make the company 20% more productive. So how can you prepare? How can you lighten your load and deliver results at the same time? By leveraging technology for automation and partnering with platform experts. Instead of accepting that they have to do less, savvy advertisers are turning to technology for automation and performance improvement. Even Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai agrees. "We want to make sure as a company that when you have fewer resources than before, you are prioritizing all the right things to be working on. And your employees are really productive. That they can actually have an impact on the things they're working on." A great platform partner can pick up the slack and automate manual processes, provide valuable insights and reporting for better performance, and ensure efficient use of resources and ad spend. Good advice, right? But how can we help? What's in it for you to stay with this webinar? Well, according to Simpli.fi, co-founder and CEO Frost Prioleau, "The best advertisers are laser-focused on achieving their performance goals and flexible when it comes to tactical execution. We advise our partners to let the data talk, and to reallocate budgets and adjust tactics accordingly." That laser-focus and transparency are exactly what you get when you look at the Simpli.fi platform. But you don't need to hear it from us. We rounded up the top four pieces of advice to share with you when choosing a platform provider. First, let the data do the talking. Successful advertisers know their why and their what, but not necessarily the how. In other words, they have a clear purpose and goal, but they rely on trusted partners to help shape their strategy. That's where the data comes in. A partner that uses bidding technology powered by machine learning, will provide clear and accurate data sets to reach your audiences effectively. And will offer integrations that give you access to a wide range of placements and product enhancements. The data from the machine learning will adjust to the best performing creatives, copy, and more, in real time. By letting data do the heavy lifting advertisers can remain focused on goals, and be open to new strategies as they look at the real time data. Even further, when advertisers partner with platforms that offer omnichannel capabilities, they can get even more value for their money. Think of it as a one-stop shop. These platforms allow advertisers to see performance across multiple channels and allocate budgets seamlessly for better results, doing more with less. Think of it this way. It is essential to clearly see and understand the data behind what's working, versus what's not. If you do not get insight from a platform provider, you are not doing more with less. You are getting less done. Without a platform provider that can provide the data and help you interpret the data, you will not know how to optimize media investments quickly and accurately. Now, for number two. Pick a partner that can lighten the load. Teams are getting leaner and budgets are getting tighter. Because of this many agencies and brands are reacting by cutting external vendors, eliminating services, and focusing more on internal strategies. But in fact, this is an opportunity to lean on the technology and expertise of a platform partner, especially on the software side. Agencies can work smarter by leaving processes and media buying services to a provider that can lighten the load. When you partner with a platform that offers built-in software solutions, there are so many ways they can offer efficiencies. This will allow you to streamline your media planning and buying. Take advantage of direct integrations. Give you the resources to help your teams manage projects. Lean on what the platform provides. Like campaign specialists, who can give you strategic recommendations and manage your campaigns for better outcomes. You could even move from managed service to self-service if the desire is there. Don't make the mistake of employing too many vendors, leaving you to piece together relationships and data coming from a multitude of sources. Media planning, buying, accounting, and project management do not need to be four different vendors. Don't spread yourself thin if you don't have to. When vetting partners, emphasize the importance of being able to tackle these areas. Both on the advertising and software side with a single partner who knows your team, understands your needs, and can provide top-notch service with advanced technological solutions. Onto number three. Insist... No, demand, transparency and insights. When things get tight, everyone is on high alert, right? Where budgets are spent and how it performs is your information, not your partners. Without transparent spending and clear reporting, you will not be able to make decisions for things moving forward. When you have multiple measuring tools, it is difficult to accurately plan and assess your investment across channels. By tapping into a consistent measurement tool that allows you to seamlessly assess your media plans, budgets, and performance, you can all but eliminate the risk factor and data coming from too many sources and not aligning. With transparent insights into how campaigns, creatives, and channels perform, advertisers can also make decisions based on reporting data going forward. Shifting strategy if needed to drive optimal performance. All this talk about media planning and platform partners has got me thinking about CTV, which will be number four. Surely, CTV is part of many of your advertising plans, and that should play into your platform provider decision. You may not know it, but streaming TV is on its way to becoming the leading form of television viewing. In fact, Nielsen reported that viewership and streaming exceeded cable usage for the first time in 2022, representing the largest share of TV viewing compared to cable, broadcast television, and other forms. Time spent on CTV devices has nearly doubled in four years. That increase is being driven by consumers who are watching more ad-supported video-on-demand. Services like Hulu, and Tubi, and more YouTube. As attention turns to the new dominant form of television, advertisers, if they haven't already, need to think seriously about adding CTV to their media buying strategy. CTV can complement existing strategies to build brand awareness, achieve cross-channel conversions, and maximize their brands' relevance and return on investment. But most importantly, advertisers need to be where their audience is. And CTV can help them achieve that. According to Michael Beach, CEO of Cross Screen Media, "The three trends that are pushing streaming in the right direction are more households, more overall time spent, and more share of the time that is going to add supported media." He's not wrong. eMarketer reported that more than 85% of US households will have at least one internet connected TV set this year. US households will spend an average of one hour and 51 minutes per day using CTV devices. And time with connected TV devices will make up one fifth of adult viewers digital time this year. To meet demand, more streaming services like Netflix and Disney plus are adopting AVOD, or advertiser supported video on demand models. As inventory becomes more available via programmatic, this opens the door to advertisers to spend effectively. That's because CTV inventory largely represents an opportunity to buy non-skippable ads through a large number of publishers and exchanges. This leads to a substantially higher video completion rate than any other digital service format. One long-term study reported a greater than 90% completion rate. The targetability of CTV ads can make it a strong performance advertising medium, similar to direct response performance. Simply put, CTV ads are more measurable than linear tv. And with access to realtime reporting, advertisers can measure reach, frequency, and performance metrics from their CTV advertising efforts. An IAB study showed that nearly three quarters of CTV buyers reported shifting budget from broadcast and cable TV to CTV in 2021, citing premium high-quality content. The same buyers also reported targeting and brand safety as the key benefits of CTV, with 46% of buyers citing targeting as the key benefit of CTV. This is a significant advantage for advertisers. In fact, the average US household has a reported mean of 4.1 CTV devices. 64% of CTV viewers pulled said they would prefer to watch ads than pay for more content. This presents an opportunity for advertisers to connect with relevant viewers and the environment they prefer. This brings us back to our talk about choosing a platform provider. Linear TV and CTV need to be merged in a larger digital strategy. So a platform provider needs to handle omnichannel campaigns, and offer automation and insights into those campaigns. Chris Maccaro of Beachfront also spoke about automation. "Traditional TV isn't going away anytime soon", he said. "So what problems are we going to need to solve if streaming is going to grow? But traditional TV will still be a way content is consumed." Even with the number of cord cutters on the rise there is still 65.1 million households across the country that rely on traditional paid TV to consume content. The key isn't to eliminate linear tv, the teams or the budgets, but to embrace their differences and automate their planning where possible. In order for advertisers to capture attention and maximize return on ad spending, while unifying different media strategies, they need to partner with an advertising platform that can bridge the communication gaps between linear and digital. By using cross-channel reporting to track delivery and performance, this kind of platform partner helps advertisers succeed with their holistic strategy. Michael Beach, the CEO of Cross Screen Media also said, "If you can automate the planning, you can solve a lot of the problem. You can automate the planning, the reporting, the post-campaign reporting, and the language." Advertisers are navigating between the legacy media planning and buying systems with the technologically advanced structures of digital and programmatic. Traditional linear advertising may be buying it in national level, a local level, or both. Regardless, they have the same goal. To reach as many eyeballs as possible with one spot. Digital buyers are used to buying based on effectiveness and efficiency, relying on data-driven targeting methods, and real-time optimizations to meet their goals. Often these differences become aggravated by internal silos, separate strategies, separate teams, and separate budgets. By bridging these two worlds with an integrated strategy, media planners and buyers can work together to enable incremental reach and to manage frequency of household exposure. In an ideal world, media planning teams would remove the silos altogether. Teams, budgets, targeting and reporting could be managed under one umbrella, with the sole focus of maximizing results by buying more holistically with CTV as a key part of the strategy. Companies looking to add CTV to their expertise and make strategies like sequential messaging effective in driving conversions, will need an advertising platform partner that understands the creative differences between linear, CTV, and digital. You'll also want to ensure they have the technological capabilities to adjust and deliver your creative assets effectively across channels. A platform partner with creative driven tools will ensure your ads are reaching consumers effectively and showcasing your brand message positively. That's the beauty of digital and CTV, the ability to dictate control through creative, targeting, and optimizations. Lastly, when choosing a technology partner, make sure they're a good fit for your needs. Avoid partners who lack transparency and insight. Who rely on disparate measurements and attribution tools. Or have workflow and automation inefficiencies. Find a partner who understands your team, offers top-notch service, and provides advanced technological solutions so you can have a successful advertising platform partnership. Remember, it's all about working smarter, leveraging technology, and partnering with experts to achieve your performance goals. We look forward to seeing you next month. If you have any questions about Simpli.fi's offerings, please reach out to your simplify account manager. Or send an email to hi@simpli.fi.