With audience-based buying, advertisers purchase their specific audience directly, using data to inform their decision-making. This is a good thing, but not necessarily a new thing, and a variety of tactics can be employed to implement this strategy. This is especially true in more traditional forms of media such as TV, where for years advertisers used data to build rankers and find programming with the greatest index for their desired audience. Yes, today’s data operations are a lot more sophisticated than they were decades ago, but the fundamental premise remains the same.
Addressability, another form of audience-based buying, is the most meaningful application of digital capabilities to television content. Advertisers identify the audience they want to reach and buy only that audience, wherever the viewer tunes in. Whereas an index-based approach to audience buying helps reduce waste, addressability actually removes waste.
Advertisers need to determine if their “audience-based” strategy is buying media with one-to-one addressability, or simply using data to inform decision-making. The latter is good, but the former is better.
Too often, new advanced TV buyers will run a test without defining a specific, measurable outcome. What inevitably happens is that the advertiser gets their shiny new advanced TV report and they can see all the impressions they delivered, but they can’t really say whether their test “worked” and don’t know where to go from there.
Effective testing requires a goal that can be confirmed, such as “reach 1 million households,” “increase web traffic by 20%” or “sell 500 new products.” Without that, testing will decline and advanced TV will struggle to find repeat business.
Editor’s Note: Commentary on addressability and audience-based buying.
Source: LaHaise, C. (2018, November 12). Why New Buyers Must Understand the Nuances in Advanced TV. AdExchanger.