SEO – The search marketer’s guide to connected TV: best practices for making the jump

Lack of video creative and imprecise targeting historically meant that channels like paid search were a better use of a limited ad budget for agencies and small businesses.

With the growth of connected TV (CTV), and its ability to accurately target and measure performance, the largest screen in the house is now available to B2B businesses.

And the great news? As a paid search expert, you already have the tools to make your B2B brand’s jump to CTV successful.

At SMX Advanced, Join Hooman Javidan-Nejad, Director of Performance Marketing at MNTN, shared five best practices to bring advertising to the TV screen.

By taking what you already know about a channel that is working that is performing and driving results (paid search), you can apply those lessons and best practices to CTV advertising, Javidan-Nejad said.

CTV: An untapped market for B2B

Connected TV (CTV) is a virtually untapped performance channel for B2B advertisers because not a lot of B2B advertisers are running ads on connected TV today. And it’s a channel that can be easily activated with tried and true paid search, Javidan-Nejad said.

So why is CTV now a viable solution for B2B advertisers? CTV checks all the main boxes that a B2B advertiser needs (e.g., precision targeting, cheaper video creation).

• Precision targeting. Unline linear TV, you can target by job title, company size, etc., so no impressions are wasted
• Video creative that won’t break the bank. The switch to video advertising doesn’t mean engaging in an expensive agency.

Measurement. To track cross-device site visits and conversions.

Best practices for your CTV campaigns

1. Create a sophisticated account structure

Cover the full funnel. The way you organize your paid search efforts can be leveraged for CTV as well. Include:

• Campaigns that align with each funnel stage
• Organization by campaigns, ad groups, etc.
• Follow your paid search structure and address each funnel phase such as prospecting (top of the funnel), CRM (mid-funnel), and retargeting (lower funnel)
• Segment audiences, budgets, and creative by campaign to maximize performance and align with business goals

2. Optimize your budget.

Reallocate ad spend from poor-performing keywords to somewhere it can be more effective and avoid PPC plateaus by repurposing ad dollars for CTV.

The issue Javidan-Nejad sees with B2B companies on paid search is that they spend about 80% of their ad dollars there and then don’t have the budget for new channels. B2B businesses “overdo it” he says.

He suggests that advertisers go to their search term report, sort the search terms that are driving traffic to your website and analyzing which ones are costing the most and not converting. That practice alone will allow some B2B businesses to reallocate some of that ad spend toward CTV.

3. Use your existing keyword targets

The third best practice is to rely on the keyword strategy you already know works.

• Employ broad search terms to capture a wider audience
• Use exact keywords, phrases, etc. to capture high-intent users

With paid search, you have to make sure that you are leveraging exact keywords and phrases to capture high-intent users. And if you’re interested in driving some top-funnel users to your website, you can do that with broad search terms to capture a wider audience.

You can also use some of those learnings from those keywords to structure your connected TV advertising campaigns, Javidan-Nejad explains. You can set up your CTV campaign to use the existing keywords you’re already targeting. He suggests using the search terms report here, too.

4. A/B test to find what works

Your PPC campaigns likely involve continuous testing, including both creative testing and audience testing.

In CTV you can run 2 versions of video creatives for CTV and see which one performed better and which one drove higher website traffic. You can also run the same video, or the winning video to different audiences to learn which one engages more.

5. Make relevancy a key component

In PPC, the title, description, and landing page experience need to align. A higher relevancy means a higher ad score, and you pay less for those targeted keywords and your ads will be served at a higher position. And when we talk about relevancy in the context of paid search.

The same concept applies with CTV. Relevancy is just as important.

• Video creatives, audience extension, display ads, and landing pages all need to align
• Look for an ad platform that allows you to target the same CTV viewers with companion banners on display. Javidan-Nejad says that this strategy can lead to an increased campaign performance of up to 8x.

Other considerations

Brand safety

• Just like paid search, CTV is a brand safety haven
• Look for a platform that offers premium non-skippable inventory on the screen

Remove creative barriers

• If you dont have video assets, vheck with your team to see if you can repurpose their videos
• Look for non-agency solutions that allow for easy creative updates

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