Audience Targeting and Online Video Ads

Many brands today face the challenge of successfully capturing the attention of their target audience in an online space saturated with content and advertisements. This task is even more demanding, as traditional advertising methods often fail to meet the expectations of modern consumers who demand a high level of both personalization and relevance.

The solution to this challenge lies in new technologies such as Connected TV (CTV) and online video ads, which provide advertisers with a unique opportunity to connect with their audience in the spaces where they spend most of their time. While these formats are not yet globally available, they can still be utilized across a wide range of markets, including North America, Europe, and Asia, in countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and India.

According to the latest statistics from Microsoft, up to 90% of young adults use the internet and television simultaneously. This trend highlights the generation’s familiarity with the well-known phenomenon of multitasking. This behavior opens up a unique advertising opportunity to reach audiences across multiple screens at once. Such a combination ensures that your ad can be effectively displayed on multiple channels simultaneously, potentially maximizing your reach and increasing engagement with your target audience.

When discussing Microsoft Advertising, it is essential to highlight its ability to precisely identify target audiences and tailor advertising messages to reach relevant users effectively.

This capability aligns with the growing consumption of video content, with users expected to spend up to four hours a day watching videos by 2025. Microsoft provides exceptional opportunities to leverage this trend for brand building and effective targeting. Utilizing unique data signals and audience intelligence, it ensures reaching the right customers at the right time on Microsoft platforms, partner websites, or Connected TV.

To capitalize on the evolving video landscape, Microsoft Advertising offers a variety of ad formats designed to enhance reach and audience engagement:

Source: Video and Connected TV – Feature Guide

By combining Connected TV and online video ads, advertisers can achieve a synergistic effect, ensuring their presence across all platforms where their audience resides. This approach not only ensures consistent messaging but also enhances effectiveness across multiple channels.

These campaigns are straightforward to set up and optimize, without unnecessary fees or lengthy onboarding processes. Microsoft Advertising provides flexibility with a payment model based on visible impressions and completed video views, eliminating wasted budget on ineffective ads. This functionality allows advertisers to precisely target their desired audience, maximize campaign impact, and achieve higher engagement rates.

Additionally, Microsoft Advertising collaborates with Integral Ad Science (IAS), a technology partner specializing in verifying the performance of online video ads. This partnership enhances ad efficiency and brand safety by offering independent reports and metrics, such as ad viewability, invalid traffic prevention, and brand protection against risky content.

The inclusion of IAS tags in ads enables advertisers to track key indicators, including viewability rates, completed views, and invalid impressions. At the same time, it ensures ads are displayed to real users in secure placements.

CTV and online video ads on the Microsoft Advertising platform collectively represent a revolutionary approach to targeted marketing. Leveraging advanced data models and sophisticated algorithms, these ad solutions deliver marketing messages to audiences genuinely interested in the advertised content or products, ensuring impactful and efficient campaigns.