How-To Guide: Measuring Success With OTT Advertising Metrics

Over-the-top (OTT) advertising is a great way to increase brand awareness and also drive sales through highly targeted ads. However, many advertisers may not know how to measure OTT campaign success. Understanding which OTT advertising metrics matter and how to track ad metrics for real-time reporting and hyper-targeting is crucial in creating a successful OTT advertising strategy.

It’s important to understand that OTT advertising is different from traditional linear television advertising metrics. With linear, advertisers had access to limited demographics, a lot of guesswork, and difficulty matching advertisements with consumer behavior. In contrast, OTT advertising metrics allow businesses to utilize programmatic buying, real-time bidding, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track their results.

Streaming platforms provide incredible benefits, including real-time reporting and hyper-targeting capabilities. Increased technology and intelligence add complex and diverse components to tracking and analyzing OTT advertising metrics. Knowing which metrics to monitor and also how to measure ad campaign performance is vital to understanding what is and isn’t working and your ROI.

This quick guide will break down three essential metrics to measure OTT ad campaign performance and how to optimize your OTT ad campaigns. Plus, we’ll provide a few additional OTT advertising metrics to offer further insight and understanding of your audience demographics and needs.

3 Essential OTT Advertising Metrics

1. Click-Through Rate

   A go-to OTT advertising metric to measure OTT ad success is your click-through rate (CTR). Click-through rate measures the average number of clicks your ad receives compared to the number of times your ad is shown. Your CTR helps you gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing.

   You can measure an ad’s CTR by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions: clicks ÷ impressions x 100 = CTR.

   A higher CTA means your ad gets more clicks, and so viewers find your video content valuable and engaging. In a 2021 study, LocalIQ data showed the average click-through rate for Google Ads as 3.17%, but this can vary depending on industry.

   While a lower CTR indicates your content and messaging are not resonating with audiences. You may also be targeting the wrong audience or focusing on the wrong keywords.

   Improve Click-Through Rate 

   • Create engaging content
   • Try different CTAs
   • Modify your targeted audience
   • Re-uate keywords you’re bidding on for PPC ads

   It’s essential to remember that a high CTR doesn’t necessarily mean a viewer watched the OTT ad through to completion or followed through to your intended action.

2. Video Completion Rate (VCR)

   Another way to measure OTT ad success is to monitor your video completion rate (VCR). An important OTT advertising metric, VCR, is the average amount of time people are viewing your OTT ad to completion.

   Similar to CTR, the higher the VCR, the better. VCR metrics have continually grown as more people watch long-form content on connected TV devices. It’s not uncommon to see video completion rates between 90–100%. These high rates are likely due to OTT ads being non-skippable and airing less frequently. So, people watch the video ad to completion instead of getting up for a snack break.

   A high rate doesn’t always mean watching the full video ad. As one of the key OTT advertising metrics, you want to track VCR and closely look at any data gaps. This data will help you understand when viewers’ attention is waning and which demographic is turning away mid-ad.

   How to Improve Video Completion Rate

   • Keep video ads short— a 30-second ad is your sweet spot
   • Put key information early in the video ad
   • Adjust audience targeting

   Watching ads in full helps people recognize, remember, and trust a brand and increases the chance they’ll see your CTA and increase your click-through rate.

3. Attribution

   While a high video completion rate is great, you ultimately want to show that your OTT ads drive conversion. And that’s where OTT attribution comes in.

   A vital OTT advertising metric, attribution tracking, links the viewing of an ad with an intended action, such as visiting a website or going to a physical store. OTT attribution is a vital advertising metric because it tracks which OTT ads generated a lead or sale, proving an ad’s ROI.

   However, there are some obstacles to attribution tracking. Most OTT ad types are non-clickable, which means you can’t use cookie data with many ad formats like you can with digital and mobile advertising. This lack of access makes measuring the data flow between touchpoints and actions difficult.

   One solution is to work with an OTT advertising agency with access to a library of digital data segments. Access to a large data pool of user and device IDs allows you to track user behaviors across multiple devices. Advertisers can see online and offline responses.

   Programmatic advertising agencies specializing in location intelligence can further attribute identified viewers of an ad to GPS tracking data from their wireless device. Ultimately, leading to direct attribution of the viewer clicking on an OTT advertisement and walking into the promoted store, restaurant, or other business.

   Tangible attribution tracking requires technology that can be a little more expensive. But, worth it when you can target ad dollars more effectively.

Additional Cross-Platform OTT Advertising Metrics

In addition to click-through rate, video completion rate, and OTT attribution, advertising specialists and marketers will want to track the following OTT ad analytics for optimal performance:

• Website Traffic
• Session Frequency
• Conversion Rate
• Customer Acquisition Rate
• Average Revenue Per User
• Engagement

In Conclusion

Tracking and measuring OTT advertising metrics is crucial to creating a successful OTT ad campaign and your overall digital marketing strategy. While new technologies can be expensive and require a learning curve, OTT attribution is imperative to understanding what content resonates with customers, which ads are converting, and where you can improve ad performance.

An advertising agency can help you measure, track, and interpret the results of your OTT ads. We provide insights and actionable advice to ensure your OTT ads are optimized and provide you the best ROI possible.

New Path is a pioneer in programmatic advertising. We work with the leading programmatic providers to execute campaigns that influence every step on the path-to-purchase.

Since our founding, we have been committed to maintaining end-to-end control of our digital advertising practice. We plan, build, execute and optimize our programmatic display and video campaigns in-house.

Our programmatic display and video solutions include:

• Display & Video 360
• OTT (video advertising)
• YouTube Advertising
• Amazon Advertising
• Adelphic DSP
• Campaign Manager

The outcome? Accelerate campaign launch times, optimizations, and increase your overall return on investment. Ready to learn more about OTT advertising? Download our Complete Guide to Getting Started with OTT Advertising.

Blog Last Updated on 12 months by New Path Digital