Commentary

Study Across 20 Major Advertisers Finds CTV Frequency Problem 'Highly Exaggerated'

Yes, connected TV is fragmented, and yes, measurement issues continue to be a serious challenge. 

But according to a study spanning 35 campaigns from 20 of the world’s largest advertisers, conducted by Innovid and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), CTV’s much-cited frequency problem is “highly exaggerated.” 

Further, both its …

3 comments about "Study Across 20 Major Advertisers Finds CTV Frequency Problem 'Highly Exaggerated'".
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  1. Andrew Huson from Tubular Labs, May 22, 2022 at 3:53 p.m.

    From my experience i've found it's about the distribution of frequency - not the 'average' frequency is the issue/challenge.

    If 98% of devices reached get a frequency of 1 and 2% get a frequency of 200, it doesn't really matter that the average frequency is ~4.9 - the vast number of targets have far too low and a small number far too high.   

  2. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, May 22, 2022 at 6:09 p.m.

    Accirding to this study of "household audiences"---not to be confused with viewers----the average CTV campaign  granered the rather small number of 47 GRPs over its course and attained a mere 13% reach. Which resulted in an average frequency of 4.6. From this we are told that there really is no "excess frequency "problem". Yet if we were to replicate the average CTV  campaign as a typical "linear TV" buy, with 47 GRPs you would probably get a 22-25% reach, not 13% and your average frequency would be only 1.9-2.0 So before we accept the notion that most CTV campaigns have  a very "light" frequency we might ask, "compared to what?"

    The same analysis also tells us that you ned over 100 million impressions to attain a 42% reach of CTV homes. Translating this into terms that a brand manager might understand, this calls for something like 140-160 GRPs, maybe more. Yet if you bought that many GRPs in "linear TV" your reach would probably be in the mid to high fifties. Again, much higher than what these brands would attain in CTV. And once again, the reason seems to be that you do get considerably more frequency in your CTV buys than their "linear" counterparts.

  3. John Grono from GAP Research, May 23, 2022 at 7:54 p.m.

    Thank you Andrew and Ed.

    I was bashing away on a calculator as I was reading the article then I saw your comments about higher than norm frequency delivering lower than hoped for reach.  The CPMs would have to be pretty highly discounted compared to broadcast to deliver.

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About the Author

Karlene Lukovitz is editor of MediaPost's "Digital News Daily" and writes the weekly "Video Insider" and "Advanced TV Insider" columns. You can reach her at karlene@mediapost.com.

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