TV/CTV Media Buying

How It Works

Reach 200 million Americans watching TV on connected television screens and OTT devices with non-skippable, 30-second commercials indistinguishable from cable commercials to your shoppers — all with the added power of programmatic targeting, real-time auctions, and measurement.

In 2021, television holds the spot of the second most profitable advertising medium — with more than $60 billion spent on television advertising in the United States alone. Worldwide, television advertising revenue tops $141 billion. 

While these numbers are huge, that doesn’t mean that brands have to spend a lot of money to harness some of the power of television advertising. So while it’s true that advertisements during primetime slots will cost you a pretty penny, the average cost of a 30-second commercial remains low for local markets — ranging from about $5 to $10 per 1,000 views. 

So if you thought that you couldn’t possibly afford television advertisements — think again! There are ways that you can get your brand out there on the television without spending a fortune. 

Plus, you should always think about the return on your investment. Television is an extremely effective advertising medium because it’s both visual and auditory. Americans aged 18 and older spend on average more than four hours every single day watching television. This is compared to the three hours and 45 minutes they spend using smartphones. 

Through television advertising, you’re able to maximize brand awareness with shoppers not previously exposed to your commercials, then subsequently stay top of mind and engage with more interactive tactics like display, video, and native.

How to Do It Right

Even though media advertising has been around for a while, many people still don’t know how to do it right! We have all seen those cringey advertisements that make us wonder how they even went live in the first place. Don’t let that happen to your company by following these television media buying best practices:

• Determine your brand voice: While this is something that you often have established ahead of time, you really have to think about this when it comes to advertising on television. How do you want your brand to be perceived? Sometimes it helps to come up with a few adjectives that you would use to describe your brand. For instance, a sophisticated, mature, and sexy brand would look and sound very different from a brand described as whimsical, quirky, and witty. 
• Determine your target audience: Once you have nailed down your brand voice, you need to nail down your target audience. Again, you may already know this information, but it often requires more research on television advertising. If you aren’t sure where to start, you could take a look at your existing customers to get a good idea about what types of people you may want to target with your content. For instance, if college-educated females between the ages of 30 and 45 frequently patronize your business, you may want to target this group with your media buying as well specifically. That being said, don’t be afraid to try to break into new groups through your media buying so long as the research backs it up as a beneficial venture. 
• Determine your goal and call to action: Not all media advertisements have the same goal. For instance, are you trying to improve brand awareness, introduce a new product, or convert on a sale? Depending on your goal, you will need to develop a clear call to action to communicate to viewers what you want them to do after viewing your content. Do you want them to visit your website? Download your app? Make a purchase? All of this should be clearly and concisely presented within the advertisement. 
• Determine your channels: Gone are the days when there were only a few different channels to advertise on. Now, there are seemingly endless options to choose from. Trying to decide which ones to spend your money on can be overwhelming and confusing. While the right channels will depend on your target demographic and overall strategy, you need to make sure that your content is optimized for different screens. People will likely be watching your content not just on an actual television — but also on a computer, tablet, or even a mobile phone thanks to the rise of television apps and websites. 
• Determine your budget and final placements: From there, you can get an idea of what you might pay based on your target channels. You can then choose a budget and select your final placements based on pricing, times, viewership, etc. 
• Determine the effectiveness: The work isn’t done once your advertisement has gone live! Instead, you should continue to track the performance of your advertisement. Is it having its desired effect? What’s your return on investment? Based on the answers to these questions, you can always tweak your approach and revise it for the next go-around. 

The MuteSix Difference

Clearly, a lot of work goes into a successful media buying approach. If you’re a new or small business owner, all of this work can quickly become overwhelming and impossible to do on your own. But the good news is that you don’t have to do it on your own! Instead, you can partner with advertising experts, like MuteSix, who have the experience and knowledge necessary to manage your entire media-buying campaign from start to finish. 

When you work with MuteSix, you’re able to partner with the purchasing power of the Dentsu network. MuteSix provides access to industry-best rates with technology and inventory partners, as well as close relationships with leading data and inventory vendors, earning priority support and access to alpha and beta programs for our clients.

But don’t just take our word for it — we have the data and the testimonials to back it up. Our clients have seen, on average, a 359% increase in revenue after working with us for just six months. We have helped our clients generate more than $1 billion in trackable revenue. Furthermore, we have promoted growth that has led more than 30 clients to raise venture capital funding after working with us. 

And while we have worked with big brand names like Disney, Theragun, Adidas, Petco, Fender, and more, we have also helped small businesses scale and grow their operations to incredible new heights. After all, we started off as a small business, so we know first-hand the work and the struggles that come along the way. As a result, we are primed to help you experience the same success! Sometimes all it takes is a new marketing approach. 

Our Process

We have developed an effective and innovative media buying process that can get the right content in front of the right people to earn the best possible results for our clients. Here’s a quick look into our process and how it can help grow your company:

1. Perform campaign audit and opportunity analysis. We begin our MuteSix process with a comprehensive campaign audit of your current and former television buying strategies. This process gives us a good idea about your industry, brand, products, etc. It also helps us to develop cohesive and complementary content that matches your brand voice and image. We then perform an opportunity analysis to look into the potential of new markets or new areas that we can take advantage of. 
2. Provide creative format and tactic recommendations. After completing the audit and analysis, we move on to the fun part — creative! With MuteSix, creative is easier than ever thanks to our revolutionary in-house content studio — StudioSix. We offer a variety of different services to meet your creative content needs that will appeal to your target groups. We also provide recommendations in terms of buying tactics that would be beneficial for your brand. 
3. Develop performance-driven full-funnel targeting and campaign strategy. Even though targeting for media buying differs from social media targeting, it’s still an essential part of the process. For example, we can figure out where and when your target group will be watching television to place your content in the best possible locations. We also determine the timing and frequency of advertisements during this step. 
4. Optimize against core KPIs. Once your advertisement has gone live, we continue to monitor its progress and effectiveness against core KPIs including impressions, completion rates and return on investment. If any area is underperforming, we can take the necessary steps to get your ad campaign back on track to get you the best possible results. 
5. Scale. Once you have the perfect television advertisement and placement, it’s time to do it all over again! People get sick of seeing the same commercials over and over again. As a result, you need to constantly create new and appealing content that’s just as effective the next time around. MuteSix makes this both possible and easy to accomplish thanks to our expertise. 

This tried-and-true process has achieved the following results for our clients:

• 96%+ completion rate
• $0.01 – $0.10 cost per completed commercial view
• 100% non-skippable impressions

MuteSix as Your TV Media Buying Agency

MuteSix can bring your media-buying strategy into the 21st century with programmatic targeting and monitoring. 

Sources:

1. Why Traditional Advertising Still Matters | Small Business Administration
2. TV Advertising in the US – Statistics & Facts | Statista
3. The Generation Gap in TV Consumption | Statista