Innovid Is Riding The Waves Of Ad Tech Consolidation With An Eye On CTV Measurement

Image credit: Innovid

Author: Alyssa Boyle Source: AdExchanger

Video ad platform Innovid is making moves to tie CTV measurement closer to creative performance.

On Tuesday, Innovid added a new machine-learning feature to its measurement product that automatically optimizes CTV campaigns based on how they’re performing.

Until now, Innovid’s measurement and management tools were kept separate, due in part to the ad industry’s historic fear of letting tech companies grade their own homework. Roughly 63% of marketers work with two different companies to run and measure campaigns, according to a survey Innovid conducted over the summer.

But buyer priorities are changing, said Delia Marshall, chief operating officer at WPP-owned TV and video agency Eicoff. Marketers are more concerned about the constant pressure they’re under to prove increasing returns on ad spend than they are about maintaining a clear separation between church and state.

Be creative

To improve CTV ad performance, Marshall said, marketers need optimization to happen as quickly as measurement does (as in, immediately). And that requires working with fewer platforms.

Innovid’s upgrade allows clients that use its measurement platform to automatically update their campaigns based on how their ad creative is performing.

Agencies select the KPIs they’re looking for from a particular campaign – for example, site visits, app downloads or a lower cost per acquisition – and the time frame for campaign analysis. The tool then favors the spots that are driving more of the desired outcomes while dropping the lowest performing ones.

Innovid doesn’t make recommendations itself, though, because the company doesn’t handle media buying. Any optimizations are based on the audience and budget designations that buyers decide during the planning process, said Dave Helmreich, chief commercial officer at Innovid.

For now, the tool only optimizes the streaming and digital video portions of a TV campaign because CTV is Innovid’s priority. But the linear measurement capabilities Innovid has from its acquisition of TVSquared last year also helps inform the optimizations.

Eyes on the prize

The impact that different creative can have on campaign outcomes is palpable.

For example, Innovid can differentiate between 15- and 30-second spots, which especially matters for direct response advertisers that are focused on lead generation and sales, Eicoff’s Marshall said. Marketers with longer purchase consideration cycles, such as insurance companies or financial services, often see higher conversions from longer spots because they get more time to explain what a service offers compared with the competition.

Advertisers can also set parameters to make sure Innovid doesn’t drop spots featuring certain specific products despite their performance.

Hurry up, will ya?

If agencies can help brands drive sales more quickly because their creative is more effective, they can be more efficient with their media spend.

But Innovid more so intends for its new tool to be a time saver.

Even though Innovid could measure campaigns in real time before, it used to take at least 24 to 72 hours for clients to actually be able to apply results to in-flight optimization. Now that happens automatically.

It’s too early to say, though, how much a product like this will attract performance dollars to connected TV.

For marketers to accept CTV as a performance channel, Marshall said, optimization has to be as real time as other digital channels.