CTV Advertisers Losing 4-8% of Viewers Per Break, Wurl Study Reveals
Wurl, a leader in the CTV industry, recently published A Full-Funnel Approach to CTV Marketing 2024 – a new report developed in partnership with parent company, AppLovin, a leading marketing platform, and measurement and analytics company, Adjust.
The study found that 4% of viewers are lost per minute of an ad break, meaning an 8% loss during a typical two-minute break. Wurl’s data also found that “emotional resonance” (ensuring ads match the tone of the content around them) can reduce this user loss by as much as 60%.
Additionally, viewers are more likely to change channels during ad breaks when the content and ads are not aligned, with a portion not returning once the ad break is over. However, as GenAI continues to transform contextual advertising in CTV, marketers have a powerful tool to prevent this trend.
The report walks readers through tangible considerations for three major stages of the marketing cycle: awareness, consideration, and decision-making. I asked Peter Crofut, VP of Business Development at Wurl, to highlight the most effective strategies advertisers can use during each of these stages.
Tyler Nesler: What are some of the most important techniques for positive attention and making an impact with CTV advertising in the Awareness Stage?
Peter Crofut: Brands can harness positive attention in CTV ads by ensuring that ads are aligned creatively with the content they appear in.
CTV is a medium for storytelling, and when the mood and creative of ads shown on CTV align with the mood and content around which they appear, they can generate positive attention. However, when the two are misaligned, viewers are much more likely to change channels, resulting in lost opportunities in the form of incomplete impressions and potential negative associations with the brand.
For CTV, contextual targeting leverages advanced technology and analytics to ensure ads are aligned with the mood and content of the programming, which in turn boosts the ad’s emotional resonance and garners positive attention.
In one case, a fintech brand leveraged Wurl’s emotion-based contextual targeting to match their CTV ads with the emotional tone of the content they appeared on and saw a 7x lift in brand awareness and a 4x lift in brand favorability.
Can you discuss the most effective strategies for brands to stay top of mind with innovative ad formats and enhanced targeting in the Consideration Stage?
Brands can set themselves apart on CTV by implementing interactive and creative ad formats that significantly boost viewer engagement during ad breaks.
Consider punching up your CTV ads with graphic overlays that visually enhance the display while seamlessly integrating informative text, useful QR codes, or appealing graphics and images. These features are designed to grab the user’s attention and prompt them to learn more.
In a similar vein, shoppable ads are interactive and allow viewers to purchase products directly within the ad, adding another level of seamlessness. While shoppable ads can spur immediate purchases, they also aid in the Consideration Stage as they allow customers to learn more about a product in the moment of inspiration the ad elicits.
Sequential ads stand out as well, because they are more narratively interesting than standard ads. The term refers to a series of ads that build on one another to craft an enticing story, deepening engagement.
Graphic overlays, shoppable ads, and sequential ads all boost engagement during the Consideration Stage by making memorable impressions on viewers and shortening the path to purchase.
How can advertisers develop tactics to drive conversions, leveraging CTV’s unique capabilities for performance marketing in the Decision Stage?
CTV ads can absolutely drive conversions, but to do so, they must simplify the conversion process. Thankfully, the channel offers many unique capabilities that make this possible.
The conversion process can be streamlined through one-click purchase pathways like QR codes and push notifications, which significantly reduce the friction between impressions and conversions.
Marketers can further reduce friction by offering instant access to discounts and promotions only available for CTV viewers in a given moment, thus capitalizing on the immediacy and engagement that is a cornerstone of TV viewing.
Once your CTV ad gets a viewer to your website landing page, making a purchase should be effortless. For example, returning users’ information should be auto-filled into the fields. A streamlined conversion process necessitates a checkout process optimized for efficiency and ease.
By simplifying the conversion process through CTV’s unique capabilities and connections to mobile, performance marketers can drive lower-funnel conversions, not just the awareness with which TV has historically been associated as an advertising medium.
About Wurl
Wurl is a leader in the CTV industry, helping connect viewers to the content they want to see with technologies for distribution, monetization, and advertising. The company supports publishers, streamers, and advertisers in growing viewership, maximizing revenue, and strengthening brand value. Wurl is owned by AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP).
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