All You Need to Know About Over the Top Advertising

Over-the-Top (OTT) is taking a new reach in recent years. Many users have cut their cords with traditional TV and have shifted to OTT platforms. The popularity that this technology gained has made it a perfect marketing tool for many leading brands.

Many corporates started approaching the best OTT service providers to promote their brand through their advertising channels. This is not only with OTT platforms but also every best IPTV service provider is getting more offers to advertise in their channels.

In this article, we will get a clear picture about what OTT advertising is and what are its benefits and challenges. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to get a detailed knowledge about OTT advertising.

What is OTT Advertising?

The OTT content is delivered to the audience through internet services. It is termed as Over-the-Top as it bypasses TV and cable operators with the help of the internet. All OTT services mainly involve subscription-based video streaming services.

By subscribing to the platform, users are able to access the content available in the OTT library. As all OTT channels are device compatible, users can use their smartphones and other Android and iOS-enabled devices to stream videos online.

OTT advertisements include ads in streaming videos. Users may need to view ads and this will benefit the advertiser to gain better reach and high brand visibility.

Benefits of OTT Advertising

As per a recent survey, more than 85% of the US citizens are watching video content through their OTT platforms and the traditional TV viewers count has decreased to 37%. This clearly shows that OTT has taken over the market of traditional TV. Let us find out how advertisers are going to be benefited while using OTT as the advertising medium.

Cost-Effective: The cost of OTT ads is comparatively cheaper than the cost of traditional TV ads. The OTT platform users’ count is very high and it is also increasing day-by-day. But still the cost of ads is quite cheaper and advertisers can be benefited by paying less and getting more visibility.

Target the Audience: When we place an ad in a traditional TV, the audience is not segmented and whoever watches the TV will be seeing the ad. This will get proper reach. But when we place an ad in an OTT platform, we can pitch the brand to the target audience and this will result in better lead generation and also conversion.

Better Analytics: Getting insights about consumers’ behavior is very essential in any business. This will help to understand their preference and to deliver more personalized services. With OTT advertising, the adviser can make use of analytics that are carried out by advanced technologies like AI and ML and can place their ads accordingly.

Optimize Campaigns: Advertisers can run several campaigns at a time and these campaigns can be optimized using several metrics. Some of the metrics are video completion rate, no. of app installs, site actions, and many more. By making use of these metrics, campaigns can be optimized to get better results.

Challenges in OTT advertising

Although OTT has multiple advantages, there are many hurdles to be confronted by users. These challenges are caused mainly due to lack of operational standards and its guidelines. Some of the critical challenges are listed below.

• Lack of Transparency: Universal identifier is not provided that will make advertiser difficult in finding how they reach their audience and how can they enhance that particular channel that gets them higher reach. So, while investing for advertisements they will become blind about the channel they invest in.
• No Standardized Identifier: The real challenge in OTT advertisement is, there is no standardized identifier that will support in identifying the target audience. Without properly pitching the advertisement, you may not reach the right audience. This will be a waste of money for advertisers as they are not sure about the outcome of their spending.
• Lack of Credibility: As the demand for OTT platforms is high, many fraudsters were attracted to exploit the service. Fraudsters create fake traffic and impressions that will misguide advertisers and they can wrongly invest their money.

Future of OTT Advertising

Covid-19 Pandemic has elevated the demand for OTT platforms. These platforms have channeled their digital advertisements and started earning well in recent years. A survey has reported that more than 60% of US citizens has started spending more on best ott solutions and stopped spending on traditional TV.

There is a 33% increase in the number of OTT users in 2022 and it is expected to increase to 57% in 2023. With the involvement of AI and ML technologies, brand’s ad campaigns will be effectively optimized.

Conclusion

OTT’s share in the advertisement market is increasing year by year. Still, it has a long way to go. Few more changes are expected to come in coming years that will enhance analytics, targeting audiences, flexible budgeting, high-quality campaigns and many more. Investing in OTT advertising is a right choice for any budding entrepreneur.