Understanding the difference between CTV and OTT advertising is crucial if you are looking to spread your product over different applications and audiences. Despite what many believe, OTT, or over-the-top advertising and CTV, or connected TV advertising are not the same. The difference between them is what helps budget-savvy advertisers and companies make decisions regarding their branding.
What is CTV?
CTV stands for connected TV. A CTV app encompasses any application that you find readily available on a smart TV, which is any television that can connect to the internet for content. Some of the famous CTV applications will include streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and others.
CTV advertisement, therefore, includes all the ads that show up while using any CTV application. The benefits of running CTV advertisements are different from OTT ads. CTV advertisements have a much higher completion rate since they do not have a skip option, and they reach a much wider audience.
The completion rate of the CTV ads is commendable because the TV viewers normally have a higher level of focus when they are watching the TV as opposed to when they are consuming content from their phones.
Another reason is that when viewers are consuming CTV apps, they are most likely to be more relaxed and they have more time on their hands to spend on advertisement. Nevertheless, CTV advertisement is non-clickable; this means those advertisers are unable to direct viewers to a landing page.
OTT apps and Ads
The name OTT, or Over the Top can be very misleading. It is nothing more than a buzzword that revolves around all applications and advertisements that you can highlight on a multitude of platforms. These include:
Ø Cable
Ø Satellite
Ø Broadcast
Ø Smartphone
Ø Computer
Ø Tablets
In other words, when you sign up for OTT advertising, the content will deliver across a magnitude of different electronic devices, and not just smart TV. Nevertheless, unlike CTV, consumers can skip an OTT ad, and click on it. This blend in features of the OTT strategy means that you can use it not just to increase reach, but also convert the Ads into traffic frequency on the product.
Final Words
Both the OTT and CTV routes are applicable and successful. If your goal is a high completion rate and reaching an attentive audience, then CTV is what you are looking for. On the other hand, if you are looking to increase click ratio and frequency, then OTT is the better choice.