FAQ's

An independent buyer is able to work across ALL available stations in a market and quickly provide an optimal package based on your needs and budget. Unlike a salesperson that works for one station, an independent buyer is not going to favor one media company over another and will instead choose the best alternatives from all the offerings out there.  In addition to traditional broadcast channels, an independent buyer is also able to provide recommendations on other types of media vehicles that may be worth considering for your advertising campaign.

This may include options like cable television advertising on channels like CNN, Fox News or ESPN, streaming or OTT advertising on networks like HULU or YouTube for video- or streaming audio channels like Spotify or Pandora. There are even more specialized solutions like facebook and instagram video, video pre-roll, and in-banner video  to consider as well – each of which has their own advantages and disadvantages. A well-versed buyer can provide easily understood universally comparative metrics across a wide variety of different platforms.

Beyond recommending a plan, an independent buyer also provides the implementation and follow up needed to insure your program runs as planned. This includes making sure the right advertisements air on the right stations as scheduled, negotiating any last minute airtime upgrades that become available, as well as providing proof of performance and any cost adjustments due to missing commercials or airing them outside of agreed to parameters.

An independent buyer will also monitor the performance of your program, analyze the results and provide recommendations for improvement. This may include reallocating budgets to maximize reach and frequency, adjusting creative elements to generate more impact, and recommending new markets to extend reach. Unlike a salesperson that works for one station, an independent buyer is not going to favor one media company over another and will instead choose the best alternatives from all the offerings out there.

Almost always, an independent buyer is the less expensive option. Station sales reps (like most salespeople) work almost exclusively on commission. When an independent buyer is used, since they are providing the bulk of the client service, the station instead pays the sales commission to the media buyer. In addition, because an independent buyer competitively “shops” all the available stations and media types, they save money on the actual advertising spot costs incurred as well. An additional advantage of a media buyer is that they are scalable and can provide advertising rates for regional or national ad buys as well

Yes! This could be anything from digital out of home to direct mail, radio, and more. An independent buyer will be able to provide an unbiased assessment of what makes sense for your specific situation. Finally, an independent buyer will be able to negotiate the best terms for you with the different media companies and help you get the most value for your advertising budget.

typically is long-form programming like sitcoms for former Network shows the key factor is that it is non-skippable means that unless the user opt out of the program they are forced to watch the ad there have been a number of improvements in the product over the last few months

Roughly half of US adults over 18 use at least one OTT service¹, which translates into about 182 million OTT subscription video service users². OTT ad spending has seen double-digit increases in recent years, with +54% YoY growth in 2018, 41% in 2019 and 32% in 2020³.There is no going back; cord-cutting is here to stay and this presents new and exciting opportunities for local and regional dealers.  ¹ (OpenX), ² (eMarketer), ³(MagnaGlobal)

Before diving in, let’s take a minute to review three key terms that are used interchangeably and sometimes incorrectly.  “OTT” refers to the delivery mechanism for TV content online, usually through streaming or video on demand served “over the top” of traditional providers. CTV stands for ‘connected TV’s” which access programs through a DEVICE, like a smart TV, ROKU stick or gaming console, to watch TV content online. Lastly, “Programmatic” is a METHOD of purchasing video ads from the various networks and providers.

OTT’s growth, along with advances in data integration, provide new opportunities for dealerships to use more personalized TV advertising to deliver targeted video ads.

Advertisers are now able to layer in-market data from first-party and third-party vendors to target in -market buyers based on make/model or class of vehicle. It is now possible to deliver, on a local level, specific unique commercial messages by household or even individual viewer. This means that different creative messages can be delivered to different people viewing the same content at the same time based on a number of household demographics or characteristics.

There are also continued advances in attribution. By added a tracking pixel to their website, advertisers can more easily track and manage the performance of their OTT campaign(s) to ensure they are driving traffic that converts to actual vehicle sales.

In comparing OTT and programmatic advertising to index-based broadcast or cable TV; comparing the cost per thousand (CPM’s) of impressions each media delivers has been the traditional approach. Other factors typically considered in this type of analysis are factors such as age, sex, geography, rating survey area, live versus delayed viewing, etc. Here you might see comparable CPM’s for a linear or traditional TV buy when compared to OTT.  However, this level of analysis fails to account for the targeting advantages OTT delivers in the ability to target in-market shoppers. Assuming that 11.51% (14.8 MM SAAR projected for 2020) of U.S. households plan a new vehicle purchase within a year, and assuming a three-month purchase cycle, counting only those “in-market shoppers” would result in an adjusted broadcast/ cable CPM easily in the $500+ range vs. a $30-40 CPM for OTT. While this analysis assumes that 100% of the OTT campaign is in fact targeted to in-market shoppers, the magnitude of a 10-fold difference in effective reach vs. cost builds a strong case in favor of the OTT model.

OTT advertising also offers some key advantages compared to other digital platforms such as YouTube and facebook.  While both YouTube and facebook offer the targetability of in-market shoppers, the granularity available in the attribution of OTT campaigns  is currently not easily duplicated in either of those media. Another advantage unique to the OTT platform is the high view thru rate of the video campaigns which often exceed 95%. This means that OTT video messaging has a high completion rate. Compare this to YouTube with a view completion rate in the 31% range (bigcommerce.com) or facebook where the scrolling nature of the format also translates into a low completed view-thru on the video ads.

Improved Targeting

OTT ads can be targeted by geography (typically zipcodes or cable zones if you are buying it from a cable provider), demographics (age, sex) and for automotive advertisers, you can select things like ‘in-market for an SUV’, or “in-market for a Toyota”.  Using a combination of POLK and Experian data, you can both include and exclude certain buying segments (want an SUV buyer, but don’t want a Nissan buyer, for example). The more you narrow the segments, the more you pay and you want to be careful not to narrow the segments to the point that you are working with too small of a data set. Typically a good rule of thumb is to look at the budget you want to spend (3k to 5k per month is a good place to start), look at the fact that you want to reach each viewer with a reasonable frequency (say 5x monthly), and see what size population and targeting that leaves you with- and adjust accordingly from there.

Reporting and Attribution

This is an area where I see the most difference between providers.  A basic, bare bones report should include at least (1) a list of the networks or websites where the ads played (2) number of impressions delivered (3) video completion rate.  A higher reporting level may include attribution to show you (4) how many people that viewed your OTT ad visited your website (website lift) (5) how many in-market shoppers that saw your ad visited “A” Dealership, (6) how many in-market shoppers that saw your ad visited YOUR dealership in the form of a cost per arrival. Additionally, you are also able to see which ad creative and offers generated the most engagement allowing a/b testing of different messaging to improve campaign effectiveness over time.

Finding the best program and value for you.

OTT ads are typically delivered on a variety of devices within the household including TV’s, desktop or laptop computers, tablets or mobile phones. Running an ad on the largest screen in the house, in a long form TV show is a much different environment than running the same ad on a laptop or cell phone. Ads watched on the ‘big screen’ are fully watched nearly 98% of the time.  Contrast that to YouTube or facebook where most ads are viewed for under :05 seconds.

Ads are most typically sold on a CPM basis (CPM stands for Cost Per Impression). Cost per impression for the big screen can be as much as 5x that of other positions. Knowing this will help you to more accurately compare different offers. Since novice buyers may just blindly compare CPM’s looking for the cheapest deal, some providers will include things like in-banner video (think video display ad) and other delivery pieces to make the overall CPM look more attractive. Beware of making a decision based solely on price, ASK the provider what portion of the campaign will deliver on smart TV’s on LFP (long format programming) as opposed to other devices.

As you would expect, every vendor has rationale as to why their product is the best and so it is helpful to look at competing offers or work with someone agnostic. For our clients we are knowledgeable regarding all the major DSP’s and resellers and are able to choose among the marketplaces to customize a program that best fits a dealerships’ unique needs while still delivering a landed cost below what many of the majors charge.

Pricing varies across vendors and platforms and is also sold at auction meaning it fluctuates depending on daily market conditions. As of today, a reasonable planning rate for a blended CPM would start around $18 per thousand with automotive specific packages incorporating purchase intention data, responsive formatting and full attribution costing more.

With precision targeting capabilities, new messaging options, enhanced tracking, and a lower cost relative to traditional TV, OTT is well positioned to drive a higher ROAS for your dealership. The time is now to take advantage of this exciting new opportunity to promote your store.

One way is to phone or email the TV station such as KING 5, KOMO TV, KIRO TV and Q13 Fox here in Seattle, or one of the local radio stations such as KQMV FM, KIRO FM, KZOK FM or KIRO AM. From there,‘your account’ will be assigned to an ad salesperson from that station. Your “rep” could be highly experienced or as is sometimes the case with new clients, could be a brand-new hire and you have little to no say in who is ‘assigned’ to you. Sometimes your rep is allowed to sell other stations owned by their same media group, but may also be limited to selling only one particular station they’re assigned to represent. Each salesperson will show you audience ratings combined with metrics like CPP (cost per point), TRP’s (total rating points), Indexing (percent of audience most likely to purchase your product or service) as well as data on overall reach and frequency of the proposed ad schedule. Typically, this information will be presented in the way that best favors that stations’ own offerings which mean each proposal will include different metrics; ratings periods, unit lengths, audience demographics and other information – making it difficult to easily compare proposals. You repeat this process with each station in your market, and then it is up to you to sift through all the data provided to try to decide what station or stations to use, how many ads to put where, what are best days or weeks to air them, and what the cumulative effect is to your overall budget and goals.