Issues with ad serving on connected TVs
It used to be that your computer or laptop was the only way to get online, but as technology has advanced, there are now countless devices that connect to the Internet and allow you to view live TV, streaming videos, surf the web, or do some shopping online. With that in mind, advertisers are now adjusting their campaigns to deliver ads that can be viewed on everything from smartphones to connected TV’s. If you are thinking of going with the latter of those options for your advertising needs, there are some issues that you are probably going to need to consider. Let’s look at some of the problems you might run into with
ad serving on connected TV’s.
Actions are more difficult to control
When you are interested in an ad that you see when using a laptop, PC or even a mobile phone, clicking on said ad is easy. Things get a little trickier with a TV given that the average remote control was not designed for that purpose. A remote control cannot get the job done as quickly as it is when using your mouse or keyboard, which means that you may run into even more problems if the ad requires some other types of action, such as searching, entering a comment or email address.
Ads can be skipped
Depending on the app being used on the connected TV, it may be possible for the user to skip the ad with just a click of the remote control. In some instances, the viewer may need to watch 5 seconds of the ad, after which they can skip past, but that means that they may miss out on the important portions of said ad. One way around this is to embed the ad directly into the video stream so that ad skipping is limited.
Video quality considerations
An ad that looks great on a 5-inch smartphone screen might look totally degraded and terrible when it is displayed on a 50-inch connected TV if the resolution is too low. At the same time, a high resolution video file will take longer to download. If you are intent on creating a video ad, you need to make sure that the video quality remains in place regardless of the resolution or screen size of the device it is being viewed on and yet it can be downloaded within an acceptable time frame.
Limited landing page options
Many ads end with a call to action that will lead the potential customer to a landing page where they can learn more about the product or service that they are interested in. This option may not be available to them on a connected TV because browsing a website on a TV is not yet a convenient or pleasant experience yet. This would then mean that they would need to switch to another device to get more information about your offer. Unfortunately, a large percentage of customers will simply not take that extra step.
Data measurement issues
Even though
video adservers support tracking events for interactions with ads on connected TV’s, the problem is that you can never really be sure who is seeing the ad. An ad might be watched by a whole family with multiple people with different interests, or left on without anyone watching. If the TV is viewed by a group and there may only be one that is interested in what you are selling. How can you possibly guarantee that it will be that one person that sees your ad? Likewise, people very often leave the TV on as they do other things at the same time. It means that they don’t even see the ads that are displayed on TV.
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