Advertising has always adapted with new technology, and the latest way to watch TV and movies is also the hottest advertising market today. Shockingly, streaming video viewership today is 80% of all internet traffic.

OTT advertising — short for over-the-top — is any ad on a streaming service or device like Hulu, Roku, or Amazon Prime. The increased interactive and targeting abilities of these video and audio ads give small businesses and big corporations alike the ability to communicate directly with their potential clients and their demographics for less than television ad spots.

As of summer 2020, more than 55% of U.S. households — or a whopping 174 million American adults — subscribe to at least 1 online streaming service. To reach those subscribers, OTT advertising is key — and while it may look just like regular television advertising, OTT ads are completely different than a traditional television commercial break.

And while many streaming services offer ad-free platforms, those always come with an additional fee. In fact, more than half of US consumers prefer ad-supported video services to keep costs low.

In all that noise, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Define Your OTT Advertising Goals

OTT advertising is a broad umbrella for several streaming mediums and platforms. Ad lengths can range from a few seconds to a minute and involve multiple interactive features, including letting a consumer buy directly from the ad screen on platforms like YouTube.

One great way to begin defining your OTT advertising goals is to start with your target demographic. Unlike standard television advertising, OTT ads can be dispersed to a specific group of people based on gender, age range, and even watching preferences.

OTT advertising sounds similar to social media advertising, but a recent Amazon Advertising study showed 30% of consumers are more likely to pay attention to an ad before, during, or after streamed video content. Comparatively, just 21% of respondents were likely to pay attention to social media feed video ads.

However, not all OTT advertising requires video. Streaming radio like Spotify and iHeartRadio also need to fill their air time with ads. This year, ad revenue from podcasts alone is projected to top $1 billion, making podcast ads a crucial tool for a digital advertising plan.

What Makes a Good OTT Advertising Agency?

OTT advertising has emerged as one of the fastest-growing digital marketing platforms in the last 5 years, but it’s still a new and difficult landscape to navigate for a company marketing team. How do you find the best advertising agency to partner with for your streaming ads?

OTT ads offer more demographic data than ever before, but knowing how to use the streaming platform’s resources is key to making ads go the distance and boost your ROI. With more people than ever leaving traditional television on satellite and cable providers, finding an advertising agency with knowledge of the top platforms is critical to a successful marketing plan.

Our OTT strategy focuses on a cross-channel approach with tools like website retargeting to keep consumers engaged with your products across multiple websites and devices. If someone is browsing for a new swimsuit and lands on your page without buying the swimsuit, they can soon see ads for that same swimsuit — and every other suit you sell — across food blogs, social media, news outlets, and more.

With more data also comes more precise analytics. A solid marketing agency can help transform that data into sales with real-time changes in ad strategy. With traditional television marketing campaigns, it can take months to see results; with OTT advertising, you’ll know within weeks how an ad is performing across demographics.

The bottom line: We have been increasingly recommending launching an OTT campaign with hyper-personalized advertisements on the same granular level as social media ads.

Contact Us Today

If you’re looking to dip your toes into the OTT advertising market, we can help! Contact us today and let us help get your brand message in front of younger demographics on phones, tablets, laptops, and televisions all at once.