A Beginner's Guide to Streaming TV Advertising

15 min read·Jun 02, 2023

Have you noticed how ads seem to follow you on streaming platforms?

It feels like they know exactly what you're interested in.

Maybe you’re already running ads for your business, but recently, things aren't working as well as before.

You’ve seen success with traditional ads, but now you’re wondering:

  • How can I get my ads in front of the right people?
  • What's the best way to use my ad budget?
  • Should I start focusing on Streaming TV Advertising?

It’s normal to feel unsure—advertising is changing fast, and many businesses are trying to keep up as viewers move from traditional TV to streaming platforms.

In this blog, we’ll guide you through the basics of Streaming TV Advertising. Here’s what we’ll cover:

👉 What Streaming TV Advertising is and why it matters
👉 How it targets audiences more precisely than traditional TV
👉 Tips for getting the most value from your streaming ad budget
👉 How this trend in advertising can help grow your business

After reading, you’ll understand how to use Streaming TV Advertising to reach more people and connect with your audience.

As streaming platforms grow, your ad strategy should too, so you're ready when potential customers reach out.

What is Streaming TV Advertising?  

Streaming TV advertising is a commercial designed to be inserted within content such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime and provide a more targeted ad experience than traditional TV.

For example, Petfolk, a pet care company, boosted customer acquisition by 30% using Streaming TV ads with Vibe.

By targeting pet owners and new homeowners on Connected TV, they reached the right audience, achieving a low $1.37 cost per session and a 534% ROAS.

Streaming TV ads allow brands to engage audiences on streaming platforms with targeted, trackable results.

But why is streaming TV advertising on the rise? 

As viewers shift from cable to streaming services, advertisers can more efficiently target particular demographics. The custom variation benefits viewers and businesses, making it a vital marketing tool in today's landscape.

What is driving the expansion of Streaming TV Advertising? 

The desire for personalized content is propelling the transition to streaming. In contrast to traditional advertisements, streaming services customize ads for individual viewers, resulting in increased engagement and enhanced outcomes for advertisers.

How does TV Advertising work?

Streaming TV Advertising is changing the game for marketers, offering a fresh way to reach audiences right where they are—on their favorite streaming platforms.

Ready to explore why should new advertisers understand the process? 

Yes, we know - you have barely started with Streaming TV Advertising, and it can seem like a lot to digest.

Understanding the process helps you create adverts that appeal to the correct people and ensure improvement.

Ok, why should a beginner have a full understanding of how this works? 

  • Effectiveness: “Knowing What To Do” prevents you from making mistakes such as running ads on irrelevant placements or not setting the targeting right and being seen by non-targeted users. It also provides you with good ads that people actually take action on, which is exactly what you need.

  • Cost-efficiency: It operates enable you to spend your budget wisely for the audience that matters most and at the right intermittence.

  • Creative strategy: Introducing yourself with the process helps you tailor your ad content for streaming platforms, allowing you to create more engaging, targeted ads.

However, understanding what to anticipate lets you make informative choices and lessen ambiguity, improving your campaign's success. 

Now, all of this might seem a bit foreign right now, but learning about this process will give you an edge and make it seem way less daunting to navigate the advertising space.

So, Why Is It Essential for Beginners to Know About Audience Targeting?

Streaming TV Advertising: “One Size Doesn't Fit All” —This is one of its strengths—tapping into different audiences is a game-changer for newcomers to the platform!

Here's why mastering audience targeting is crucial:

  • Relevance: Only pay attention to ads that benefit the viewers (relevance) and help them in their own surroundings. For higher ad performance, Streaming TV Advertising lets you target ads at specific demographics such as age, region, interest, and viewing behavior.

  • Higher engagement: Personal ads encourage viewers to engage. Targeted advertising helps you connect authentically with your audience.

  • Better ROI: Stop throwing money at ads that are trying to reach everyone and instead tackle the ones who are most likely to convert. Better ROI based on budget allocation because you know your target audience.

By learning to identify and target the right audience, you can create ads that resonate more deeply, driving better results for your business.

Types of Streaming TV Advertising:

  • Pre-Roll Ads: These short ads play before your show starts. They're effective because viewers are eager for content. Imagine waiting for your favorite series when a quick ad for dish soap pops up—perfect timing!
  • Mid-Roll Ads: These ads appear during the show, similar to traditional commercial breaks. While longer, they feel less intrusive since viewers are already engaged with the content.
  • Post-Roll Ads: These ads run after your video ends. Although viewer engagement may drop, they effectively promote the next episode or related content.
  • Dynamic Ad Insertion: This technology uses data like location and viewing habits to deliver personalized ads. If you've been watching travel shows, expect ads for vacation destinations!
  • Interactive Ads: These ads invite viewer participation, such as clicking to customize a product. For example, you might design your car directly from the advertisement for a more engaging experience.
  • Addressable TV Advertising targets specific households based on demographics. So, while you and your neighbor watch the same show, you might see different ads tailored to your interests.

Benefits of Streaming TV Advertising  

Streaming platforms may also open up targeting options based on user interests and behaviors, allowing for a more personalized experience.

Here are a few benefits of using Streaming TV Advertising:

  • Targeted Advertising: Streaming enables you to target demographics using data points such as viewing habits, location, and preference, which results in higher relevancy.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Streaming TV Advertising enables you to target more effectively than traditional TV ads, meaning you get a better return on your spend – i.e., stop wasting money on those who are not in the market for your services or products at that particular time.
  • Measurable Results: Receiving instant data on ad performance by duration, location, and audience helps you tweak campaigns to improve results and have the numbers to prove it.
  • Flexibility and Control: With streaming, you can control when and where your ads appear. You can easily modify your campaign, including ad placements and audience targeting, to suit your needs.

How Much Does Streaming TV Advertising Cost?

If you're new to Streaming TV Advertising, you might wonder, "What will this cost me?" Budgeting for advertising can be challenging, especially with newer platforms like streaming services.

Don't worry! 

Traditional TV advertising requires you to pay for a widespread audience with very little targeting, but streaming TV advertising is priced per household, so users can test it accordingly. 

Normally, charges are based on CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions), which means for every 1,000 views of your ad. This method allows you to stand out directly in front of a relevant audience and not waste your budget targeting people.

For example, if a platform offers a $20 CPM, then you would have to fork over $20 every time your advertising was displayed 1,000 times. This model structure can lead you away from over-spending on those who might not have a need for your product or services.

Factors Influencing the Cost of Streaming TV Advertising

Several factors can affect how much you'll pay for Streaming TV Advertising, including:

  • Platform choice: Different streaming services, such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Roku, have varying price points based on their audience size and targeting capabilities.
  • Ad format: The type of ad you select (pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll) can affect costs. Pre-roll ads, which run before content starts, may be pricier due to higher viewer attention.
  • Targeting options: The more granular you go with your targeting, the pricier it will be. Being more granular by focusing on things like age, location and even interests can inflate your costs.
  • Ad length: Longer ads typically cost more, but shorter, well-crafted ads can be equally effective and cost-efficient.

How to Budget for Streaming Advertising on TV Platforms?

Streaming TV Advertisement budgeting can be simple. 

There are three easy steps involved and here's how to break it down:

  • Set clear goals: Determine whether you aim to build brand awareness or drive specific actions, such as app downloads or website visits. This will guide your investment decisions.
  • Start with a test campaign: If aren't not sure about how much money you should spend, then start a small campaign. It helps to track conversion results, so you can tweak your budget according to its success.
  • Allocate funds based on performance: After running a few test ads, analyze the data to see what works best. Concentrate your budget on the platforms, ad formats, and audiences that yield the highest ROI.

What Are the Key Metrics for Streaming Advertising Success?

If you're new to Streaming TV Advertising, how can you tell if your ad campaigns are effective? 

While creating an engaging ad is essential, measuring its success might initially seem daunting. However, by focusing on the proper metrics, you can easily track performance and make better decisions.

You can gauge your ads' effectiveness by monitoring KPIs (key performance indicators) and identify areas for improvement.

Here are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track:

  • Impressions: This shows how many times your ad was displayed. While it doesn't measure engagement, it provides insight into your reach.
  • Completion Rate: This shows how many viewers watched your ad. A high completion rate suggests that your ad is relevant and engaging.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): If your ad has a clickable element, the CTR measures the percentage of viewers who clicked it. This indicates the strength of your call to action.
  • Cost Per Completed View (CPCV): This KPI reveals your spending on each fully viewed ad. A lower CPCV means better value from your ad spend.
  • Conversion Rate: This measures the number of viewers who take the desired action after watching your ad, such as purchasing or signing up for a newsletter. It's the most direct indicator of your ad's success.

How Can Businesses Maximize ROI With Streaming Advertising?

The effectiveness of your Streaming TV Advertising campaign hinges on the quality and relevance of your ads. 

Here are some strategies to help you create content that echoes with your audience and improves engagement:

  • Keep it short and engaging: Streaming audiences prefer concise ads lasting 15 to 30 seconds. Make every second count by delivering a clear and compelling message.
  • Start with a hook: Make it engaging right from the jump Start attracting them in the first second with a compelling question, powerful statement or impactful visual.
  • Brand early and often: Incorporate your branding within the first few seconds of the ad. This ensures your message is remembered, even if viewers skip parts.
  • Make it relevant: Adjust ads to suit the streaming platform or the content on it. It makes, for example, the watching experience with a cooking show and your product more aligned.

Vibe is a platform that assists businesses in crafting tailored ads that directly address their target audience, ensuring maximum value from every ad impression.

It lets you create ads that resonate with specific viewers, allowing you to target and segment audiences in streaming TV advertising to increase ROI. 

You can use these tips to make sure your ads resonate with the audience that matters most:

  • Use demographic data: The beauty and boon of streaming platforms are that your ad can be served up based on age, location, gender, or income in order to serve ads to those most likely interested in your product.
  • Behavioral targeting: Ads that resonate with viewers' interests are delivered using data on viewer behaviors, such as viewing history and purchasing habits.
  • Contextual targeting: Place ads during shows or movies that align with your brand for a more relevant viewing experience.
  • Frequency capping: Control how often the same viewer sees your ad to prevent overexposure.

Vibe helps businesses manage ad frequency, ensuring effectiveness while minimizing viewer annoyance.

Which Streaming Platforms Are Best for TV Advertising?

There are many different ‘Streaming TV Advertising’ options out there, and as viewers continue to abandon traditional television for streaming services, it can be difficult to know which type of platform to choose. 

Each comes with distinct benefits to help you engage your desired demographic and achieve your advertising goals.

Here are some of the platforms:

  • Netflix: Provides easy access to a global audience:, and it can leverage data from consumer viewing habits to push targeted ads through its new ad-supported tier. Nonetheless, the streamer is further behind in its ad tools and offers less data than other players like Hulu.
  • Hulu: Another leading streaming TV advertising company, Hulu has the largest offering with ad-supported and premium plans. The advantage of this is that it serves a wide demographic (meaning you have a larger reach) but the downfall is, these ads are repetitive and may be missed by premium users.
  • Amazon Prime Video: This platform integrates advertising with its e-commerce capabilities, allowing viewers to act on ads easily. While it offers robust targeting backed by extensive customer data, its ad inventory is smaller than Hulu's, and ad-free subscribers won't see your ads.
  • Roku: Roku is a streaming platform that connects advertisers with many cord-cutters. It offers solid targeting and reporting features, but its audience is smaller compared to Netflix and Hulu. Depending on the app used, ads can also feel more disruptive.
  • Peacock: NBCUniversal's Peacock offers a growing hybrid ad-supported and premium content platform. It offers options for network content and live events, but its audience is smaller and less global.

The Role of Vibe in Facilitating Effective Streaming TV Advertising 

When you start dabbling in TV ads on streaming, you see firsthand how big of an impact they have on your viewer's touch points. But an ad alone does not make a campaign successful. 

Vibe—A streaming service for businesses that want to capitalize on their ad spot.

Vibe homepage

Vibe increases the performance of your streaming TV ads with ‘Vibe Impressions’ for the right audience. Vibe can help you succeed with the necessary tools and resources to get up and running or scale your ambitions.

How Vibe Makes Streaming TV Advertising More Effective?

If you want your Streaming TV Ads to be successful, getting impressions on the screen isn't enough — targeting and metrics matter. 

This is where Vibe comes in to make that happen:

  • Advanced Targeting Capabilities: Vibe provides you with deep audience insights, making it easy for you to target viewers based on demographics, interests and consumption behavior. This will make sure the ads served, reach to relevant people and eventually leads to a better engagement.
Creating Targeted Campaign in Vibe
  • Integration Across Platforms: With Vibe, ads can run seamlessly across major platforms such as Samsung Plus TV and other popular networks, allowing your brand to continuously engage with your audience on their preferred channels.
Channel selections in Vibe
  • Data-Driven Performance Optimization: Vibe will enable you to see how your ads perform and make quick decisions to enhance impressions, engagement, and conversion while ensuring you stay within budget.
Campaign Performance Analytics in Vibe.co

With the increase in adoption of streaming services among viewers, Streaming TV Advertising has been a swiftly evolving discipline. 

These are some of the key trends we're watching:

  • Increased Interactivity: Streaming TV ads are also more interactive, allowing viewers to click through to buy products or personalize specs. That increases engagement, which makes ads stick and leads you to take action.
  • Personalized Ad Experiences: Streaming data enables marketers to truly personalize ads based on user preferences. This enables them to view interest and habit based ads rather than general content, the outcome of which are a more friendly and appealing user experience.
  • Integration with Other Marketing Channels: Streaming TV Advertising is gaining prevalence as a part of an overall marketing plan. These ads will be integrated with social media, email campaigns and in-store promotions thereby syncing the offline and online marketing strategies.

  

Stepping into Streaming TV Advertising opens up a dynamic way to connect with your audience. As more viewers abandon traditional cable for platforms like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, businesses can target audiences more precisely.

Having the right tools and strategies is critical to ensuring your streaming TV ads are effective.

This article covered the essentials of Streaming TV Advertising—its types, benefits, and future trends in modern marketing.

The key to success in this space is being able to personalize the experience and refine your approach.

Final Thoughts on Streaming TV Advertising

Well done on reaching the end!🎊

Just a quick recap of what we've covered:

  • We discussed the basics of streamed advertising on TV and how it is different from regular television commercials.
  • We also focused on upcoming trends that make ads interactive and help them be better personalized.
  • We talked about the need to target and the relevance through connecting with other channels for a consistent end-to-end brand experience.

How can you bring all these elements together? 

Tools like Vibe can help with interactivity, personalization, and cross-channel integration that can reach your target audience in your Streaming TV Advertising campaigns.

What's the next step?

👉 Vibe is here to take your Streaming TV Advertising experience and enhance your current strategies, and Vibe can streamline the process and improve your advertising ROI.

Happy advertising, and see you next time!

Ready to learn more about streaming advertising? Read A Beginner's Guide to Video Marketing for Small Business for more examples!

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