OTT (Over The Top) platforms have created a boom in the mobile market by increasing the number of users engaging with video content in the digital world. OTT provides affordable, original, varied, and quality content, giving businesses significant opportunities for growth and expansion. Streaming video ads in OTT is an increasingly popular way to directly reach customers and is the ideal choice for brands that boast of a stronghold in regional markets. OTT marketing reaches its highest potential with mobile devices. Therefore, it is necessary to have a Mobile Measurement Partner like Apptrove to scale your OTT campaigns. In this comprehensive article, find out all you need to know about OTT marketing – starting from how to run ads on the OTT platform, the best OTT advertising examples you can follow, and practices to keep in mind. 

Over The Top Advertising: The Basics

As mentioned before, over-the-top ads are the strategy of delivering media over the Internet through streaming services. There is a misconception that OTT and Connected TV (CTV) are the same. It should be noted that while they are closely related, it is not correct to qualify them as the same technology. Connected TV refers to television that has Internet support, thereby enabling it to serve OTT ads. In the case of OTT, you don’t need a television as it can be streamed through other devices like mobile phones and tablets as well. Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are some examples of OTT platforms.

The Advantages Of OTT Advertising

1. Engaged Audience – Through OTT platforms, we can develop an engaged audience that displays high brand recall. While watching content through an OTT platform, users are less likely to skip or fast-forward the ad, since it is integrated into the user’s watching experience. Such campaigns give the customers a direct call to action, so there are higher chances of conversions, too.
2. Advanced Targeting – Right targeting at the right time is essential for brands to connect with their audiences. Through OTT platforms, ads can be targeted to the right audience segments by using survey data, content consumption behavior, browsing behavior, and user’s age, location, or device preferences. All these should be properly analyzed to understand the user profile and to optimize the ad campaign.
3. Real-Time Optimization – Another major benefit of running an ad in an OTT platform is that you can monitor the campaign and make necessary adjustments in real-time. This also helps the advertisers in proper budget allocation. They can spend more on platforms or time ranges that produce better results and cut down on campaigns that are underperforming. 

Now that we have a foundation let us read about the several practices to be kept in mind when you are running OTT ads. 

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Run Ads on OTT Platform

1. Know your audience and personalize –  With OTT ads you can capture the real-time response of your audience to your ad campaigns, so make sure to optimize your ads according to the user’s geographical location, platform activity, device preference, and intent. This personalization will help you to get more attention from the users. 
2. Choose the right platform – The selection of the right platform is inevitable. Before deciding on the platform, you should consider the available budget, content type, and duration of the campaign. You could utilize the skills of advertising professionals to chart out a strategy.
3. Make creative ad content – The ad content should be unique, engaging, and visually appealing. You should convey your message clearly and keep the length of the ad short as the attention span of the viewers might be limited.
4. Decide the ad placement – Understand when you will get maximum exposure to consumers. You can also choose to place your ads before, during, or after the content is streamed. 
5. Optimize and test your ads – Since OTTs are created to be accessed on all kinds of screens, keep this in mind when creating ads and optimize your ads to be watched on both big and small screens. Make sure you test and track the performance of the ad campaign regularly.

In conclusion, OTT marketing has become essential in the dynamic marketing environment, especially since the rise of mobile devices. However, the probabilistic nature of the OTT platforms makes it necessary for brands to partner with a mobile measurement partner like Apptrove MMP to make the most of their OTT campaigns. Without an MMP, marketers can be at a loss with tons of user data pouring into their pockets yet little to no actionable insights. Apptrove Mobile Measurement Partner gives you a single dashboard to create, monitor, and optimize OTT campaigns hosted across multiple platforms, regions, or time ranges. They also make it easier to decipher historical trends and chart out a safe (if not profitable) strategy ahead. So if you have found the right MMP, what’s holding you back from conquering the OTT world?