Way forward for TV Briefing: Frequency administration continues to be a problem for streaming advertisers

• Streaming advertisers wrestle with some viewers being overexposed to adverts whereas others are underexposed.
• There are methods for advertisers to extra strictly handle advert frequency, however they arrive with prices.
• Netflix and Disney+ could evince a shift in streamers’ willingness to handle frequency for advertisers.

Just a few years in the past, I felt I hit the frequency cap on articles written about streaming advertisers’ wrestle to handle how typically audiences have been uncovered to their adverts. I used to be unsuitable. Whereas the problem has improved in response to company executives, balancing between overexposing and underexposing streaming audiences to adverts continues to be a problem.

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“It’s getting higher, but it surely’s nonetheless a difficulty,” mentioned Marcy Greenberger, evp and managing associate of built-in funding at UM Worldwide.

Usually the problem is that particular person viewers are overexposed to seeing the identical advert too many instances in a given week. Usually advertisers attempt to restrict their video adverts from being proven to the identical particular person to 2 to a few exposures per week, although some model classes can prolong the vary to 4, mentioned Greenberger. Nonetheless, there proceed to be conditions the place some viewers are served the advert greater than 3 times that threshold.

“For those who take a look at a median model, their CTV frequency curve appears as unhealthy, if not worse, than their linear [TV] frequency curve,” mentioned Mohammad Chughtai, international head of superior TV at MiQ, which makes a speciality of managing programmatic shopping for for advertisers and businesses. 

To that time, Chughtai shared the under graph that charts the weekly advert frequency for an undisclosed model’s marketing campaign throughout conventional TV and streaming through the use of MiQ’s information on 43 million U.S. households. Whereas the model’s streaming adverts remained inside the typical frequency vary for 80% of viewers, the highest 20% of viewers — i.e. those that spend probably the most time streaming — noticed the advert greater than a dozen instances in every week.

Nonetheless, whereas some streaming audiences and streaming advertisers are coping with an overexposure problem, the alternative can be a difficulty and evinced within the chart above: Advertisers wrestle to succeed in some viewers a ample variety of instances.

“We did a marketing campaign with a purpose of common frequency of three [ad exposures per week per individual viewer] throughout all the key publishers mixed, and we may barely hit three,” mentioned an company government.

That have befits a examine revealed by advert tech agency Innovid in 2021 that tracked 36 CTV advert campaigns and located 85% of households have been solely proven a given advert one or two instances.

A major cause for streaming promoting’s frequency administration problem continues to be the problem for advertisers to rein in exposures throughout disparate streaming providers. Particular person streamers can cap advert exposures inside their providers, but when an individual makes use of a number of ad-supported streamers every week and an advertiser is working a marketing campaign throughout every service, that particular person is liable to see the advert in extra. 

Advertisers can handle these cross-service exposures by way of a demand-side platform if they’re shopping for adverts programmatically, however usually advertisers must enlist a number of DSPs for his or her streaming campaigns. Moreover, managing streaming advert buys programmatically can drive advertisers to make a trade-off.

“Among the premium providers, in the event you purchase them both as [through a programmatic private marketplace] or by way of open alternate, you’re going to restrict the quantity of provide that you may entry,” mentioned Greenberger.

Moreover, some streaming providers precise a tax on advertisers requesting stricter frequency caps. “Some will endeavor to cost extra for extra restrictive frequency caps, which may very well be prohibitive or incentivize decrease spend from companions,” mentioned a second company government. “However increasingly more, they’re prepared to waive these charges. And hopefully that would be the case going ahead as I feel these decrease frequency caps are the expectation, not the exception anymore.”

By no means say by no means, although. In an extra potential signal of frequency administration changing into the expectation, not the exception, within the streaming advert market, Netflix and Disney+ have every taken steps to restrict advert overexposures on their nascent ad-supported providers.

“Disney+ and Netflix each began off very aggressive of their gross sales method, however each realized shortly they weren’t scaling as quick as anticipated. They have been each very proactive in both turning away {dollars} or going to their advertisers which have already dedicated and saying, ‘We suggest or we’d like you to peel again some cash in order that we are able to be certain that we’re delivering each your plans successfully and a optimistic consumer expertise,’” mentioned the second company government. “That’s not all the time the case with among the extra established platforms that actually are simply prioritizing income.”

The financial downturn may very well be an X think about how the frequency administration problem performs out in 2023. 

On the one hand, there’s already a historical past of streaming advert sellers overpromising to safe offers and bypassing frequency caps to make sure supply, in response to trade executives.

“For those who [as an ad buyer] inform a writer, ‘Right here’s $50 million to run my adverts,’ they don’t notice that these publishers are going to take your cash. They’re by no means going to be like, ‘No, my frequency administration isn’t nice,’” mentioned a former streaming government.

Alternatively, advertisers wish to eradicate advert spending waste, and managing streaming advert frequency can current low-hanging fruit. 

“Extreme frequency is wasteful, and inadequate frequency can will be ineffective,” mentioned Greenberger. “So I feel it’s simply as necessary as ever that each advertisers plan for it accordingly and publishers handle for it accordingly.”

What we’ve heard

“I simply acquired a Samsung TV. It’s wild how a lot they push [the company’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service Samsung] TV Plus. They’re making an attempt to make it unbelievably clear that you may cancel your cable subscription. They throw the native information at you, which is the number-one class. They throw films at you, which is the number-two class. And so they make it laborious to arrange your cable field. So it’s like all of this stuff that simply kind of slowly pushing folks into it.”

— Leisure government