As viewers increasingly consume video content across multiple devices and platforms, it's important for advertisers to be present where their audience is.

One of the most effective ways to connect with consumers is through the combination of Connected TV (CTV) and linear advertising. CTV advertising allows for more precise targeting, while linear TV advertising can reach a broad audience that includes viewers who don't have access to streaming services. By booking both together, advertisers can improve their campaign's reach, frequency, and performance, and diversify their ad formats to engage their audience in different ways.

In this article, we'll explore the benefits of booking CTV and linear advertising together and how they can help advertisers achieve better results.

Improve incremental reach

Linear TV can reach a wide audience that includes viewers who don't have access to streaming services. Meanwhile, CTV advertising allows brands to reach cord-cutters and younger audiences who are more likely to watch streaming content.

According to Samsung's proprietary ACR data, 70% of viewers watch both linear and streaming, while 27% fall under the streaming-only category, and 3% watch only linear.

Samsung also found that the practical reach of traditional linear TV campaigns is approximately 50% of their intended audience. The company recommends brands improve their reach without spending another dollar on media by shifting 40% of their linear ad budgets to CTV. By running both campaigns, advertisers can broaden their reach and connect with a larger audience. Check out the full article in Adweek here.

Increase ad frequency

Running both campaigns can increase the frequency of the ads, which can help reinforce the message and improve brand recall.

(On that note, if you want to learn more about the ideal frequency rate, I evaluated recent campaign data to understand the impact of ad frequency, and shared it here).

Target specific audiences

CTV allows for more precise targeting options based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. By combining this with the broad reach of linear TV advertising, advertisers can effectively target specific audiences and achieve better results.

Related article: The impact of first-party data to improve connected TV advertising results

Diversify ad formats

While CTV advertising offers a range of ad formats, including interactive ads, display ads, and pre-roll ads, CTV is limited to 15s, 30s and sometimes 60s. Linear allows for more long form messaging such as heavier 60s and 120s inventory. By running both campaigns simultaneously, advertisers can diversify their ad formats and engage with their audience in different ways.

Improve campaign performance

Running both campaigns can help advertisers capture the attention of viewers on different devices and platforms, leading to improved campaign performance and better ROI.

Leverage more inventory

Not everyone who watches linear programming is watching in a linear space, people often watch the programming they like via streaming. So, running simultaneously ensures you’re covering wherever your target audience might be watching.

Integration is seamless

Booking both CTV and linear TV advertising campaigns can be a game-changer for advertisers. Our dedicated teams for linear and OTT advertising work in close collaboration with our creative and analyst teams to ensure that our clients can leverage the strengths of each platform, seamlessly. With our in-house creative team, we can build ads that are tailored for both linear and streaming audiences and easily adapted and repurposed as needed. This approach has been proven to maximize ad spend and effectively reach desired audiences.