Buyers of Mid-Sized CTV/OTT Inventory Twice As Likely to Beat Key Campaign Goals

PubMatic , a sell-side platform that delivers superior outcomes for digital advertising, released the findings from a custom commissioned Forrester Consulting study entitled “New Opportunities for Scale and Value in OTT/CTV Advertising.” The study uncovers two significant findings. First, brands are unsatisfied with the limited number of media companies that they currently leverage for buying CTV/OTT inventory. Second, mid-sized CTV/OTT publishers present a major opportunity for brands to get more from CTV/OTT, including access to key audiences and higher campaign performance. The study, available for download here, surveyed 307 brand and agency buyers of OTT/CTV inventory in the U.S. and U.K.

The study finds that, “respondents who currently buy mid-sized CTV/OTT inventory were twice as likely to say they overachieved against their key video advertising goals last year compared to those who do not.”

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“This study’s findings are consistent with what PubMatic has also seen. Today’s CTV marketplace has combined the high-quality aspects of linear TV with the data and scale of digital media. Brands that diversify their media buying across diverse CTV/OTT inventory are often more bullish on biddable environments, allowing them to make real-time optimizations that drive better campaign performance,” said Nicole Scaglione, VP of OTT & CTV at PubMatic. “Too many brands have limited themselves to inflexible guarantees with high-cost CTV/OTT publishers due to unfounded fears about scale and complexity, and are missing a major opportunity.”

CTV/OTT is a major growth channel for brands looking to reach consumers who have migrated from linear TV to streaming content. Forrester’s research found that the benefits of CTV/OTT include gaining incremental reach and the ability to address media fragmentation.

However, too often, brands stick to familiar relationships within a very limited subset of CTV/OTT inventory. The study found that 40% of brands buy from OTT suppliers while 34% buy from broadcast networks compared to only 28% that buy from small- and medium-sized publishers.

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Buyers agree that a more diverse media buying approach would improve audience reach and performance, exposing the opportunity that awaits those who increase their spend with small and medium publishers. The top reasons for buying more inventory from small and medium publishers includes “ability to reach audiences in a relevant context,” “higher quality” and “greater efficiency” all cited by nearly a third of buyers.

The study notes that, “buyers who diversified their CTV/OTT media strategies across small and medium-sized publishers (mid-sized CTV/OTT) were more successful at their media objectives over the prior year than those who did not.”

To tap into the opportunity provided by small and medium CTV/OTT publishers, media buyers need to lean into partners that can provide comprehensive solutions to reduce complexity and leverage lessons and partner experience with more mature ad formats in order to seize the opportunity.

“The promise of CTV/OTT is enormous for the media buyers who are motivated to diversify their approach. The consumer trend toward streaming media across a growing number of apps and channels proves that investing now will set media buyers up for dramatically better returns,” said Scaglione.