If you’ve had a hand in advertising, you know one thing for certain—data is our greatest source of truth. Meaning, data today is invaluable for building a successful strategy for tomorrow.

That’s exactly why Innovid sifted through over 286 billion impressions globally to extract insights on where the market’s been and where it’s likely heading, which can be found in our CTV Takes Center Stage: 2021 Global Benchmarks Report. It may come as no surprise that following a decade of mobile dominance, connected television (CTV) took the throne as the device with the most video impressions.

As a fairly young leading channel, there’s a lot to learn about CTV advertising. So which pieces of wisdom are essential for marketers venturing into the space now? We’re here to share.

1. Make room for CTV in your media budget and plan

Every vertical we researched increased their video contribution to CTV ads in 2021. Significantly, each of the five leading verticals (travel, auto, consumer packaged goods (CPG), quick-service restaurants (QSR), and retail) allocated more than 50% of video impression share to CTV. With linear and digital viewing expected to be nearly equal by 2023, according to eMarketer, CTV is already a mainstream way of consuming content. Is your plan caught up?

2. Embrace advanced video creative and interactive campaigns

Last year, 32% more advertisers ran dynamic video campaigns, garnering higher engagement than ads served via standard pre-roll creative. And get this: interactive campaigns resulted in higher engagement than dynamic creative, with the most coming from CTV. Interactive video earned 51.05 seconds across all devices, and 72.25 seconds on CTV. In contrast, dynamic video earned just 28.85 seconds.

3. Invite QR codes to the party

Thanks to its touch-free and easy-to-use nature, QR codes are heating up fast, particularly for interactive CTV, where QR was responsible for the largest growth in 2021. It’s easy to see why. QR codes provide plentiful opportunities for conversion through landing pages, where marketers can extend CTV objectives to the lower funnel.

4. Maintain control of your reach metrics

Even though advertiser adoption of CTV surged, 58% of campaigns included 19 million or fewer impressions and reached just 3% (on average) of the more than 95 million US CTV households that Innovid reaches. Yes, plenty of advertisers are still getting their CTV legs by testing and experimenting. But for others, this is a terrific opportunity to play up broad reach.

5. Finesse frequency

Advertisers must also learn the art of frequency. Fortunately, it’s quite moderate in CTV—with an average frequency of 4.08 exposures. On average, only 8% of campaigns had a high frequency (over 10 exposures), while two-thirds had a low frequency (1-2 exposures), and one-quarter had a medium frequency (3-9 exposures).

The low levels of ad exposure frequency suggest that marketers have plenty of runway to reach new households that are not already over-exposed. But balancing frequency still requires an active effort. Consider applying strategies such as platform overlap management, sequential creative messaging, and distribution over time.

Hungry for more insights? Get access to “CTV Takes Center Stage: 2021 Global Benchmarks” anytime here.