This year, DTC marketers plan to spend more on CTV and OTT.
By teamottPublished On July 6, 2023
Over two-thirds of direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies use CTV/OTT, and 57% of them plan to spend more in 2023.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers are flooding into connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) digital TV ads. More than two-thirds of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands use these platforms, and 57% plan to spend more on CTV/OTT in the first half of 2023. This is a big change from the first half of 2022, when only 43% of DTC thought they would spend more.
Why it matters. The inventory and precision of CTV make it the digital ad outlet with the most rapid growth. Brands can run campaigns with any size cash. They can send ads to a few hundred or many millions of people in their target group. All of this is because there is so much content to choose from, from free ad-supported services to very high-priced options on ad-supported streamers.
By working with retail media networks, marketers also have more ways to find their customers on CTV/OTT.
Stock of better quality. CTV/OTT keeps adding new platforms and shows to its collection. People now have thousands of choices for what to watch, and many of them are free.
All of this has made direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers want to try CTV/OTT. Forty percent of the marketers who took part in the study said that higher-quality goods was a reason to spend more on the channel. 38% said that being able to measure was another good reason.
First-time marketers. 65% of the direct-to-consumer marketers who are paying more this year than last are first-time advertisers on CTV/OTT.
From where do the dollars come? Sixty-one percent say the money comes from a different channel, like social media, search, or mobile apps. The other 39% say they increased their total media budget to make up for the rise in spending on CTV/OTT.
Measurement. Another thing to learn from the study is that many direct-to-consumer marketers want metrics to get better. Less than half of the people who answered the survey (48%) said they are happy with the incremental measurement from their present media partner. Almost as many (47%) said they were happy with measuring brand lift. Even less (44%) people were happy with low-funnel credit.
DTC marketers see a chance in CTV/OTT, but they are also looking for better ways to measure the success of the channel.
