So how does TV advertising work? Let’s review some of the basics behind how traditional and Connected TV advertising work and how they stack up against each other so you can determine the best choice for your brand.

Traditional TV vs. Connected TV Advertising

Traditional TV advertising can require a considerable amount of planning, budgeting, and research to get started. To run commercials on traditional TV, advertisers buy ad space during a specific program and specific time slot depending on their target audience. For example, a brand looking to reach working moms may buy ad space in late night TV time slots on reality TV programming with high female viewership rates.

Connected TV advertising campaigns are significantly easier to get started. Connected TV reaches a more targeted audience than Traditional TV, as brands can choose specific audiences to reach on whatever program they’re watching. For example, the same brand looking to reach working moms could target that audience using behavioral and demographic tactics and serve commercials to them on any program, app, or channel they’re watching.

Reporting and Measurement: Traditional TV’s reporting and metrics are limited, often relying on limited viewership data provided by networks. Alternatively, Connected TV campaigns provide access to real-time data so you can gain insights on the platforms your audience is watching, completion rates, impressions, and more. At Awarity, all Connected TV campaigns include access to Awarity Campaign Central, where you can access granular, real-time reporting.

Creative Flexibility: Connected TV provides more flexibility to adjust and update your creative. With the ability to manage your own creative, you can easily feature specific promotions or tailor your creative based on the particular audience and individual franchise location. When it comes to Traditional TV, creative adjustments and customizations can be time consuming and require more communication with the networks.

Pricing and Efficiency: At Awarity, our Connected TV campaigns have an avg. CPM of $35.85. While Traditional TV advertising’s CPMs vary by network, daypart, program, and other factors, its lack of targeting and skippable placements results in wasted ad spend and higher costs. When accounting for wasted media, Connected TV’s effective CPM to reach your target customer is much lower than traditional TV’s effective CPM.

While Connected TV has increased in popularity for its ease of use, targeting capabilities, and reporting, traditional TV can still play a role for larger franchisors and brands looking to reach a broad audience. Understanding how tv advertising works and how different forms of linear and Connected TV can be implemented for the best results in your marketing strategy is a key first step to starting TV advertising.