Advertising platform Innovid unveiled this week its Global Benchmarks Report, revealing global connected TV video impressions surpassed those of mobile devices in 2021. CTV made up 46% of all video ad impressions last year, up from 40% in 2020.
Mobile video impressions, on the other hand, dropped from a 43% share in 2020 to 39% in 2021. Desktop impressions remain a solid minority worldwide – sliding from 16% to 15% last year. These results come from Innovid’s analysis of 286 billion video and display advertising impressions across a variety of devices and social media platforms.
CTV ad performance should come as no surprise, as CTV viewing gained momentum last year while linear TV views declined, noted the report. CTV ad spend made up nearly half of 2021 digital ad spending, a recent IAB report found, suggesting advertisers are well aware where their core audience lies.
North America by far recorded the most CTV impressions globally – at 48% with mobile impressions slightly behind at 38%. This is a contrast to findings from Latin America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, where mobile impressions are dominating. Asia-Pacific mobile ad impressions tower at 79%, while PC and CTV both occupy a measly 11% of shares. In Latin America, mobile impressions made up 64% of the advertising market but CTV had a more solid showing with 22% of impressions.
Jessica Hogue, general manager of measurement and industries at Innovid, said in a statement the past two years have “seismically changed” consumer behavior and content consumption habits. CTV is particularly taking hold of programmatic advertising, as CTV programmatic shares increased to 30% - causing broadcast impressions to slightly bump down from 61% to 54% of CTV impressions.
“Advertisers have had to keep pace with these changes while managing a roster of marketing tools, analyzing more data than ever before, and creating relevant, personalized experiences for their audiences,” said Hogue. “As marketers further define their priorities, I hope these findings will renew their confidence in the power of measurement to drive business outcomes and empower them to utilize proven mediums like CTV to reach audiences at scale in a premium viewing environment.”
As CTV usage surges, marketers are leaning towards more dynamic and interactive ad formats to maintain viewer engagement. The TV advertisement and measurement landscape is at a crossroads with smart TV at the intersection, Paul Erickson noted in his March Industry Voices column. Most major U.S. smart TV platforms have integrated automated content recognition (ACR) technology, and CTV is best able to serve targeted advertising and analyze combined consumption behavior.
Innovid’s report indicates interactive CTV campaigns demonstrated a higher engagement rate compared to the same campaigns on mobile and desktop. CTV interactive ads generated an incremental 72 seconds of time earned between brands and potential buyers, compared to 34.75 seconds of time earned from both mobile and PC devices.
Smart TV platforms are penetrating the advertising market at a rapid rate. So far this year, Roku unveiled its beta for dynamic linear ad insertion, Vizio created a new advertising analytics platform leveraging Inscape’s ACR data and Samsung has tossed its own hat into the ring with a cross-platform measuring product.
But Innovid suggests CTV reach still has room to scale. The study found 58% of U.S. CTV campaigns included 19 million or fewer impressions, reaching just 3% of households on average. Many advertisers are still new to CTV, the study noted, and having a broader household reach isn’t necessarily the goal for all marketers.