By Raquel Rodriguez, Founder, R2 Media

Connected TV (CTV) offers a major advantage in reaching Millennials, better known as the generation of cord-cutters, but many dealerships aren’t clear on what CTV is or how they can incorporate it into their current media strategy.

Simply put, CTV is television that connects to the internet. Unlike traditional TV, you can view programs without a cable box by using your Smart TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku, X-Box, and PlayStation.

According to Google, 80% of internet time is spent watching videos; That’s a staggering number you can’t ignore.

So, how does it work? Imagine this: When watching the playoff game with a few friends, you see an ad for the all-new Silverado. During your workout the next morning, you hear an audio ad for that Silverado, and later in the afternoon, you use your weather app and see a compelling offer for that same Silverado. In this scenario, what’s leading you to visit the Chevy website and then the dealership two days later for a test-drive, is called the magic three frequency.

You can use this same strategy at your dealership and even track how many people see or hear your ad and then later visit your website, or better yet, physically visit your location. You can even track this back to actual sales.

Now, imagine Joe is looking for a new car, and when he gets home, his router picks up a signal connected to all his devices. The ad agency delivers ads to Joe via his Smart TV, laptop, iPad, and cellphone. He even hears the ad on his Alexa. Now, the agency tracks his actions, including his visit to your website just two days after watching your ad on his Smart TV. Later, he clicks on a banner ad on his laptop. That weekend, the agency tracks Joe’s arrival to your dealership. Detailed analytics gets collected and traces the sale back to the original ad. Your ability to track attributions to a specific ad is now measurable.

These digital strategies will help dealerships to reduce wasted ad spend and focus ad dollars on those customers most likely to interact with the dealership.

With CTV, you can scale by zip code and create a specific location, targeted by geographic coordinates, making your advertising very precise. You can target auto intenders in your backyard, or you can use CRM lists to target existing customers, which helps to enhance brand loyalty and customer retention. And with CTV, you can also personalize videos to serve existing customers a different ad than the one created for potential buyers.

You know your desired audience, but do you know what that audience is actually watching, what they’re looking for or what they find interesting? Here are examples of differences between TV buying across linear and advanced TV.

Our first example is traditional or linear TV ad buying, which is cable and broadcast. Marketers use an age/gender selection (e.g. women ages 25-35) set by Nielsen, to purchase TV spots in advance based on what they think the customer is watching. The downside here is that you cannot utilize specific, in-market targeting to buy linear TV.

Then, there is advanced TV. Under this umbrella, we have CTV, which means people are watching TV on a device like Roku, their Smart TV, Apple TV or a gaming console. This can utilize specific targeting and currently has the most scalability and inventory. Then, there is TV Everywhere and video-on-demand. TV Everywhere is exactly how it sounds – watching TV everywhere, on your tablet, phone, television or anything internet capable. Video-on-demand is when you watch a show after it has been released. Both of these overlap with CTV since they can be viewed on the same devices as CTV and you can get them with your CTV buy.

The biggest difference between traditional and CTV is that with CTV, instead of buying a program, you’re buying the audience you want to target. With all of these advanced TV options, marketers define their target audience using the data technology mentioned above, but they also match household-level, bid in real-time, and deliver ads directly to their target households. This method lessens your chances of wasting impressions since ads only get delivered to viewers within a target audience.

Targeted advertising is one of the most attractive features of CTV for marketers and advertisers alike. CTV gives you the power of TV in your own backyard, targeting the people that are most likely to visit your dealership. It’s more affordable than traditional broadcast and cable, and you’re more likely to reach more people – with content that resonates.

For more on video advertising through streaming services, join Raquel Rodriguez at Digital Dealer 27 Conference & Expo this Aug. 19-21 in Las Vegas, NV.

About the Author

Raquel Rodriguez is the Founder of R2 Media based in Los Angeles. She has managed advertising for dozens of dealerships and launched open points for groups like Hendrick Automotive and The David Wilson Group. She is experienced in digital strategy, integrated marketing, media buying and creative conceptualization. She speaks Spanish fluently and has worked for media companies like: CNN, NBC, Sinclair and Cox. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Spanish.