“Do you have any good recommendations to binge?” “What are you going to stream this weekend?” and “That is such a good podcast” are regular conversations made by all of us these days. While television has long been a staple of the auto advertising playbook, the vehicle for TV viewing has changed.
For auto marketers, Connected TV (CTV) is now the most popular model and it’s giving dealerships unprecedented access to their highest-intent audiences. That was the message driven home during the recent webinar on digitaldealer.com from MNTN’s Cary Tidls titled How CTV Accelerates Results for the Auto Dealerships as she delved into how CTV is driving innovation for dealers.
“CTV can drive performance outcomes for auto dealerships,” said Tidls. “Some of the most savviest marketers in the world I should know [are] in the auto space.”
Connected TV
Tilds is general manager, local at MNTN, where she leads the development and implementation of a comprehensive growth strategy and operational plan for local advertising. Equal parts internal strategist and operator, Tilds began her career in the local merchant marketing space where she ultimately became an early search marketing expert.
Her experience in the automotive space includes being recruited by Team Detroit (GTB) to lead digital media operations for the newly formed agency for Ford Motor Company and serving at FordDirect as head of corporate strategy.
Tidls noted CTV is the fastest growing advertising channel, experiencing a 15.7 percent performance increase year-over-year, due in part to being able to deliver performance-based results for auto advertisers.
“We can drive measurable results for dealers using the power and magic of television,” she said. “And hopefully finding those buyers coming in your door.”
MNTN Offerings
MNTN was the recent subject of an Inc cover story as actor/businessman Ryan Reynolds and his business partner, Mark Douglas, talked about one of the fastest-growing names in the ad business that delivers self-serve television advertising platform for its clients. The company says its proprietary technology—an AI matchmaking system called MNTN Matched—helps advertisers of all sizes target the commercials you see on your connected TV.
For monthly fees starting at $5,000, MNTN delivers 15- or 30-second unskippable spots to any TV-connected device in a household, targeting audiences based on their attributes, regardless of what they’re watching.
According to company officials, the one-two punch of pinpointing hard-to-find customers along with democratizing ad production and access has lured heaps of new buyers to television—more than 90 percent of MNTN clients had never run a commercial on TV before. And they believe CTV merges the best of all worlds—the visual appeal of television with precision of digital as linear TV declines.
Targeting the Right Audience
“Dealerships are tuning in to CTV for its ability to deliver targeted ads and measure performance effectively,” said Tidls. “But here’s the best part— you can continue using your existing TV creative to drive those results. We believe this is an incredibly powerful media.”
MNTN offers the world’s first keyword-based audience builder empowering dealers to identify and target high intent viewers who are actively searching for a new car, used car and parts and service.
“This isn’t just targeting like you find in other platforms, it’s really AI working with analyzing audiences translating them into keywords,” she said. “Our system creates a keyword profile of your most ideal customers this is based on your website and mobile app data. MNTN Match uses those keywords to search over 99 percent of available U.S. households for the customers most likely to act when they see your ad.”
According to Tidls, MNTN Match can retarget users based on actions they’ve taken as shopping activity location is “super important” for dealerships. Additionally, it has capacity to upload CRM data to help dealers target their advertising.
“I just think that in itself is a game changer,” she stated.
Tracking Across Multiple Devices
With consumers juggling multiple devices all day, tracking and performance across different screens can be a daunting task. MNTNs verified visits model offers a solution providing an accurate and deterministic way to measure the impact of CTV campaigns that hone’s in on common device identifiers, include household device ID’s, Google Analytics ID, and other signals that detail who has seen a dealerships commercial.
“A verified visit is one driven from a CTV app that’s watched to completion and the visit occurs within a window of time,” said Tidls. “Within our importing suite and Google Analytics, which we know every dealer relies upon…MNTN helps you make informed decisions and maximize your performance against the valuable campaign you’re running.”
Control of Data
In a response to a question about data, Tidls detailed how dealership can operate through MNTNs platforms.
“The great thing about MNTNs platform is it’s self-service so you are in the driver’s seat,” she said. “You know your marketing leaders at your dealership are in the driver seat of being able to set your goals set your audiences flexible.”
“CTV is a great addition to what dealership marketing leaders are already doing, finding the highest intent audiences and measure outcomes. CTV offers the flexibility and agility advertisers need to get started make changes and measure results fast.”
