It is critical for marketers to think that their OTT advertisements efforts are reaching their audience and are creative and innovative at the same time.
Media savvy marketers can now take advantage of OTT’s ability to deliver one-on-one engagement and video storytelling as both can be used as an awareness channel for their campaign depending upon the creative messaging that is paired with the advertising efforts.
OTT advertising allows marketers to deliver ads directly to their audience. A survey showed that more than 70 percent of viewers aged 18 to 34 are currently subscribed to a streaming service, which only shows the reach it can offer you.
In this blog, we’ve curated some of the best practices to keep in mind while creating your OTT advertisement.
Best Practices To Follow In OTT Advertisements
1. Define your goal
Your goals must be defined before you create any marketing content for OTT advertisements. As much as it is tempting to hit multiple targets in one advertisement, you should primarily focus on one clear goal as there are times, implementing multiple objectives can confuse your audience, resulting in poor conversions.
2. An audience-first strategy
OTT advertisement is all about the creative messages you convey to your audience one-on-one. Hence, it becomes even more important to know who your audience is. Your ads cannot be for everyone. Every piece of content that you push out there must be tailored according to a buyer’s persona.
Research as much as you can about your target audience and find out what resonates with them and modify your style of messaging accordingly.
3. Create storytelling OTT ads that are data-driven
Align creative messaging to user segments across each point of the marketing funnel.
Focus on pulling your audience/users to your ads with an engaging story within the first few seconds.
This is because most users have an attention span of a goldfish and they will skip ads as soon as the option unlocks. Make sure your advertisement is clear and the message is understood as soon as it is delivered. This can be achieved by tighter framing, large-type high contrast headlines, and faster pacing.
Additionally, make sure this doesn’t stop you from being creative. Keep your non-skippable ads limited to 15-30secs, as different audiences have different expectations!
4. Maintain consistency in OTT advertisements
Consistency in marketing creates trust among your audience and increases engagement with your brand. Try to include your brand’s core values and offerings for your potential clients as there are times when your ads are presented to multiple target audiences, and they find fundamental values offered in common, despite the ad having a different target audience.
5. Include strong action verbs in your CTA
One of the disadvantages of OTT advertising is that, unlike social media ads, viewers can’t visit your website directly via an OTT Ad. Hence it becomes vital for you to make the most of what OTT advertisements has to offer, such as incorporating a compelling CTA, with sounds and attention-grabbing voiceovers, etc.
Some of the essential best practices across display advertising and digital marketing are required to be followed here as well, such as:
- Focus on Ad’s primary goal: Awareness and Engagement
- Use of Strong Action verbs
- Creating a sense of urgency amongst the viewers
6. Format your ads for Multiple devices
Create OTT Ads that support multiple devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and TVs. Do not limit your Ads to support a single device. Optimize your ads according to multiple devices so that value proposition and CTA are immediately visible on all screen types.
Modifying sizes and creating close-up shots are some of the best practices for OTT advertisements across multiple devices.
Additionally, incorporate TV-to-mobile elements, such as QR or text codes. This allows users to receive information directly to their devices and can help you in lead generation, offer a coupon, and even promote an app install.
7. Align your marketing strategies with your advertising tactics
Identify any inconsistencies with brand voice, your direction, and missed opportunities for cross-promotion.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that your Marketing and Advertising Strategies must align with each other. Ads might differ from platform to platform, but the underlying core philosophy should remain the same.
Find out inconsistencies with your brand’s tone, the reach, engagement with your audience, and opportunities that can be created via cross-promotions.
Although you can go for inventing newer ideas, it doesn’t always have to be the same. Sometimes you just need to explore different angles and possibilities with the same OTT advertising strategy for your campaigns.
8. Run an A/B test for your OTT advertising campaign
Generally, it takes 5-7 impressions for a user to recognize your brand. You must plan multiple versions of your OTT advertisements over a period of time. This is will save a lot of time and your budget while offering you the opportunity to work on variables such as background music, voiceovers, creative messages, and call-to-action buttons.
A/B testing will allow you to further dwell in your audience’s mind and help you understand them better. Keep in mind that brand-building campaigns are a time-consuming affair and you need to be patient. It takes anywhere between 3-6 months of effort for you to see visible results.
Conclusion
OTT advertisement campaigns at the heart of your marketing efforts are a brilliant way to engage with your audience as you get to create a lot of cross-platform traction. It is true that an ad agency will be able to help you much better in organizing your OTT Campaigns. However, we at Apptrove consider Attribution equally important in marketing.
Track your marketing and advertising efforts with our best-in-class mobile measurement partner. Avail of the free trial direclty from here.
FAQs
1. What is OTT advertising, and why is it important for marketers?
OTT (Over-The-Top) advertising is a type of video advertising that takes place directly through the streaming media of the user without going through the conventional cable or satellite. It enables marketers to send highly engaged users one-on-one and personalized messages, which makes it best suited to brand awareness campaigns and storytelling campaigns.
2. How can I make my OTT ads more effective?
In order to make OTT ads effective, set a specific purpose, appeal to the appropriate audience, rely on data-driven storytelling, be consistent with your brand and have powerful CTAs. Structuring advertisements to fit various devices and conducting A/B tests can also help the engagement to a great extent.
3. What are the best practices for OTT ad creative?
Best practices encompass production of concise attention grabbing ads of 1530 seconds, high-type headlines and high-contrast graphics and involving compelling voiceovers or action verbs in calls to action. Make sure that your message is relevant to your brand as well as your target customers.
4. How can OTT advertising support multiple devices?
The OTT ads must be laptop, smartphone, tablet, and TV-optimized. Add customizable pictures, close-ups, and interactive features such as QR-codes or text codes to enable users to act on their device of choice.
5. Why is A/B testing important for OTT campaigns?
A/B testing enables marketers to test various ads with the aim of determining the best versions of the advertisement to attract their customers. The use of testing variables such as music, voiceovers, CTAs, and visuals will enhance more engagement, make the ROI more effective, and make a brand more memorable over time.
