Targeted Advertising: The Power of Geotargeting for CTV Campaigns

A staggering 1.1 billion users have a subscription to a streaming service. From Netflix to Hulu and beyond, streaming isn't slowing down — and advertisers need to keep up with this trend to stay in front of audiences.

Imagine you own a brand with a national product but want to increase market share in the Tulsa and Chicago area. How can you intensify your advertising efforts in those areas?

Enter geotargeting — an excellent connected TV targeting strategy for businesses looking to reach audiences within specific locations. We'll explore how geotargeting on connected TV can help advertisers increase their advertising impact, reach their ideal customers, and drive business growth.

What is geotargeting?

Geotargeting serves specific advertisements to viewers based on their location. Advertisers can choose to target audiences at a macro level or micro level, including:

• Country
• State
• City
• DMA
• Zip Code

How does it work?

1. First, the application serving the video content to the streaming device sends a signal to the ad server when there is an ad break.
2. This signal contains information about the CTV device such as DMA, zip code, and IP address.
3. The platform receives this information and determines whether or not to send a commercial to the user’s device.

With geotargeting on CTV, businesses can target specific locations for their campaign. The platform can use geographic data to decide how much to bid, what creative to serve, and track the performance of their advertising efforts by region. Geotargeting helps marketers make data-driven decisions about where to focus their advertising efforts and allocate their advertising budget.

Note: How do CTV apps determine what information they’ll use? It comes down to the data available. For instance, many CTV apps collect subscriber information, which contains the viewer’s zip code. Occasionally, the publisher includes this information in their bid request. When this happens, the platform uses the zip code to geotarget. If not, the platform falls back to securing the viewer’s location through their household IP.

Is geotargeting the same as geofencing?

These terms may seem one and the same, but they’re actually different — specifically in their scope. Geotargeting allows advertisers to reach users within a defined area regardless of their exact location.

On the other hand, geofencing narrows down audiences to those physically present at a specific location. As the name suggests, it involves setting up a virtual boundary or "fence" around a physical site. Advertisers implement this fence using latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates to delineate a shape on a map. When a user enters the geofenced area, they receive targeted CTV ads.

While geofencing is helpful for a specific event, like the grand opening of a store, geotargeting by city or zip code works well for scenarios where advertisers need to reach a broader audience. Think of political campaigns, for instance. In this scenario, an advertiser should use geotargeting to reach possible voters in all relevant districts.

What are the benefits of geotargeting?

According to Martech Series, more than 80% of marketers find their campaigns more successful when using location data. What makes geotargeting so effective?

It's cost-effective. Geotargeting allows advertisers to reach a specific audience without wasting resources on people who are unlikely to convert. For instance, if your brand's physical stores are only available in the northeast, you can exclude customers from other areas — minimizing ad spend on those who cannot convert.

It drives foot and web traffic. Geotargeting allows retailers to target reach those within driving distance of their store. Better still, advertisers can combine geotargeting with web and foot traffic data to focus their efforts on areas that are converting best.

It works well with other data. Geotargeting is just one piece of the audience targeting pie. To drill down further, add behavioral and demographic data to your location-based data for additional granularity. Now, you can target ads to those in a specific location and to those who've shown interest in a product or service relevant to your brand.

It allows advertisers to use different ad creative for different locations. To create a more personalized ad experience, brands can use different creative for areas. That means you can include a call to action telling viewers to visit a specific local store and images or clips of said store.

It offers a competitive edge. Geotargeting is for more than targeting those in your locations. You can target those in your competitors' locations, giving your campaign a competitive advantage.

For instance, you can choose audiences who frequent your competitors if you own a local restaurant. Now, you can offer competitive deals, showcase your key differentiators, and stay top of mind for potential new customers.

Maximizing Your Advertising Impact with Geotargeting on Connected TV

It's no secret geotargeting can take your CTV advertising campaign to the next level. You now have the knowledge to get started, but you also need the right tools.

Simulmedia's TV+ platform empowers advertisers to pinpoint audiences to states, cities, or any location they see fit. But that's not all — layer on other data sets using our suite of targeting capabilities to easily find your ideal target audience.

Ready to try it out? Learn more about our platform by speaking to one of our experts.