How Advertising on Streaming Services Can Help Your Business Connect with More Customers (Including ‘Cord-Cutters’)

By now, most advertising experts realize that the group of consumers known as ‘cord-cutters’ aren’t necessarily ditching their cable TV subscriptions. In reality, many consumers are only increasing the media sources they use to access content, combining traditional TV with video-on-demand, over-the-top streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, and audio services like Apple Music and Spotify.

Only about 11 percent of consumers use OTT streaming media exclusively, according to AdWeek. But with so many consumers accessing OTT content on a regular basis, the question of how to advertise on streaming services remains critical for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

To help your business connect with this growing streaming audience, here’s a look at the popular streaming options being used by consumers today, along with tips on how to build your brand’s visibility through these media channels.

What is OTT Advertising?

Today’s standalone TVs and mobile devices offer app-based connectivity to a wide range of streaming media that exists outside of, or in addition to, a more traditional cable TV experience. You might watch a live sporting event through your cable TV subscription, for example, and then switch over to Netflix to watch the latest true crime docuseries released on the platform.

Since this media access is available “over the top” of your cable subscription, it has garnered the term OTT media—and it can be a powerful tool for advertising your business. Netflix is perhaps the largest and best-known OTT streaming service—offering on-demand TV and movie content through your Internet connection, rather than a paid TV subscription—but it’s far from the only streaming option. Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV all offer similar TV and movie streaming services. Meanwhile, free, ad-supported streaming services like Crackle, Tubi and Peacock all offer in-platform ad options that small businesses can use.

Advertising on music streaming services is another valuable option for OTT advertising, inserting audio ads into streamed music, podcasts, and other audio content.

Comparing OTT to TV Everywhere

When exploring your options of how to advertise to cord-cutters, TV Everywhere offers similar value to OTT advertising, with a few differences in how these platforms work. Some of the key differences in these advertising options include:

• The type of content being advertised around. While OTT is a platform with its own library of content, TV Everywhere is a digital extension of a cable TV experience, and may offer advertising opportunities built around different types of content, such as live sporting events or special broadcasts aired on cable TV channels.
• Flexibility in how to deliver your ads. TV Everywhere is more flexible in how it enables ad deployments, providing access to both traditional cable TV and OTT content through its ad inventory. While you can purchase OTT ads directly from streaming services, you can also access these options through TV Everywhere.
• Customizable options when choosing how to advertise to cord-cutters. The programmatic ad options—and larger inventories—offered through TV Everywhere can make it easier to build customized campaigns targeted to a specific audience, including local consumers who represent your core consumer base.

While OTT advertising is a powerful tool to connect with your audience, it’s important to keep in mind that you can access the benefits of OTT ads through TV Everywhere, leveraging broader ad options to build the best campaign for your business.

Combining OTT and TVE With Advertising on Music Streaming Services

By swapping traditional TV and radio campaigns with digital ad campaigns across OTT, TVE and digital audio inventories, your business is able to reap many benefits that are crucial for small and mid-sized businesses.

While figuring out how to advertise to cord cutters might overwhelm you with options, this expanded access to ad inventories actually makes it easier to scale your campaigns and target a highly relevant audience. Improved targeting filters, including not just media content type but also user behavior and geographic location, can increase the potential return for your ad campaigns by ensuring your ads only display to your most valued targets.

A skateboarding company, for example, can use streaming services to target their audience based on relevant demographic information, as well as the type of music enjoyed by their core customers. By contrast, a life insurance company can target ads based on demographic data and the kinds of content most popular among consumers who fit their preferred customer profile.

While figuring out how to advertise on streaming services may be intimidating, the end result of this advertising approach is that your local business can utilize TV ads more than ever before, and at a much more affordable price. At the same time, the targeting offered through these digital platforms can help you connect with a niche audience that traditional TV and radio can’t support in a cost-effective way.

How to Advertise to Cord-Cutters: Tips on Purchasing Digital Ads

If you’re ready to start advertising on music streaming services and OTT video services, the first step is finding a digital advertising partner that works with all of these kinds of content. You also want a partner that has experience building campaigns for programmatic ad inventories—this is important when making sure ads are optimized for a high potential ROI, and also avoid potential issues around brand safety and ad fraud.

An ad partner can also help you create impactful messaging that connects with audiences across all devices and streaming platforms. Over time, analytics can help you evaluate your performance, and digital ad partners can use these insights to make additional refinements to your strategy, resulting in better ad performance and higher ROI.

Don’t throw away time and money by trying to figure out how to advertise on streaming services all by yourself. Connect with a digital ad partner that can save you from these costly mistakes, and help you build effective campaigns that make an immediate impact on your business revenue.

Contact us today to see how we can help.