A Guide to Connected TV (CTV) Ads in Ad Experiences – Terminus Help Center

Note: CTV functionality currently requires use of our legacy display advertising product (tactics/campaigns launched pre-spring 2023). If you no longer have access to the legacy builder, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager to have it enabled.

Overview

Over 150+ million households are currently available through connected TV and it's the fastest-growing channel in video advertising. Here are a few benefits to incorporating Connected TV in your programmatic media campaigns that are worth exploring:

Easily diversify both your arsenal of creative assets and advertising channels
Advertise at scale - reach customers within your target accounts while they’re watching Hulu or other ad-supported streaming platforms
Drive engagement with visually stunning video in the right place and time (non-skippable inventory)
Maintain brand awareness, educate, or upsell/cross-sell. CTV ads are the perfect complement to traditional display campaigns.

Prerequisites

This feature is available to all customers, across all pricing plans. Activation instructions are listed below. For any further questions on integrating premium channels into your ad strategy, contact your Digital Media Manager or your Client Strategy Manager for questions.

Creating a Connected TV Ad

Create a legacy Account-Based Display Tactic in AdEx (Be sure to include CTV in the tactic name)
Configure your audience and establish budget as you would a standard legacy account based display tactic (Typical budgets avg between $50-$100/day but should be directly proportional to your audience size)
Submit your tactic with no creatives. Your tactic will not go live until we receive the necessary creative assets
Go to the Submit Support Portal menu and upload creatives with the applicable landing page (landing pages are required for CTV ads that allow click throughs)
Your tactic will go live between 1-3 business days upon receiving the creatives

Measuring Performance with CTV Ads

Connected TV is a more premium channel with CPM’s averaging between $30-$60 across the industry. Common ways of measuring CTV include:

Completion Rates- Measures the average completion rate of an ad. Completion reports are also available upon request from Customer Support
Conversion Data: Conversion pixels can be placed to measure engagement. You should be able to collect data like identifiers for advertising (IFAs), CTV IDs, device IDs, IP address, and order value to better match the pieces. In addition, you can retarget those users through mobile and digital ads
Control Groups are also highly recommended to measure the efficacy of CTV as a channel. Control groups can be configured in Data Studio to suppress audiences that are not receiving CTV ads to compare the performance of audiences who are receiving CTV ads.

*Please note that CTR’s are not a viable metric to analyze performance as CTV Ads rarely result in users clicking the actual ads.

Consult your CSM or DMM on how to configure control groups and Customer Support for custom reporting

Use Cases

Connected TV ad campaigns are best suited as part of strategies that include awareness and advocacy tactics. For example, always-on campaigns, brand or product awareness, and even retargeting are all ideal plays to include this highly engaging video ad that will increase engagement across all channels.

Best Practices

Align CTV with Display efforts
CTV can be used as full-funnel channel
Be sure to craft a strong compelling message
If possible, consider A/B testing CTV creatives across your target audience

Media/Publisher Placements

CTV Ads are run mostly pre-roll and mid-roll across streamed tv content. CTV is available for both US and International audiences. CTV Inventory in the United States consists of the following:

Inventory from TV content owners (specific CTV apps and networks)
Inventory from premium distributors (aggregators of TV content from multiple networks)
Inventory from CTV SSPS (video-focused SSPs)

Top Providers include: Hulu, DirectTV Now, Pluto, Sling, Tubi, Discovery, SpotX, A&E, NBC, Fox, Newsy, Fubo, MLB TV, NFL TV, and NBA Tv.

Creative Specs for CTV Ads

CTV requirements recommended -
File Type: .MP4

Resolution: 1920x1800

Length: Up to 60 seconds, 15-30 seconds has most available inventory
*Bitrate range: 4000 kbps to 6500 kbps
Maximum File Size: N/A

Frame Rate: 23.98 or 29.97

Audio sample rate: 48 kHz

You can also see the PDF at the bottom of this article for more information on CTV specs.

*Creative within the bitrate range of 4000 kbps to 6500 kbps meets requirements for most CTV inventory. However, this requirement may range per many publisher, like Hulu which requires a bitrate range of at least 15,025 kbps. We recommend referencing here for additional kbps sizes that you should include.

Sample CTV Ad Creatives

You can also click here or here for CTV creative examples.

CTV Ad Limitations

Terminus is unable to provide account-level data for Connected TV ad campaigns at this time. Consult your CSM, Strategist, or DMM to configure control groups for custom reporting.

CTV Creative Specs One Sheet - Nov 2022.pdf
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