At A Glance
As CTV viewership grows, marketers face challenges in targeting and measurement across fragmented platforms. Identity resolution and audience strategies, supported by Experian’s syndicated audiences and privacy-safe solutions, help DSPs and advertisers reach high-value audiences, improve campaign accuracy, and drive measurable outcomes.In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with George Castrissiades, General Manager of Connected TV at AdRoll.
Premium reach and fragmentation
As viewer attention fragments across platforms, how should marketers redefine “premium reach” in CTV to prioritize engagement and audience quality over scale alone?
A few years ago, ad supported streaming over-indexed on younger adults, those without much financial history and much more budget conscious. It would have been fair for B2B brands to assume that maybe they weren’t going to find their C-Suite audiences on those channels, and so connected TV(CTV) was positioned as a top of funnel tactic aimed at retail. But that’s all changed – ad-free prices are going up, and ad supported tiers are the norm across the majority of channels. 66% of adults have at least one ad supported streaming channel, and adults today spend nearly as much time streaming movies and TV as they spend on their mobile phones. Now that ad viewing audiences on CTV really span the full spectrum of demo, techno, and firmographic segments, savvy marketers should partner with platforms that offer breadth and depth of targeting and measurement to find the highest value audiences wherever they’re watching CTV and serve them highly relevant ads that draw their attention towards the screen. I know I’m jumping out of my seat whenever I see an AdTech or MarTech ad.
Identity and relevance
What does a strong identity framework unlock for delivering household- and person-level relevance across screens, and how does it reshape audience planning?
In privacy-safe ecosystems, people want to share less data and log in to websites and browsers less frequently. If you can’t resolve a household ID to a CTV device through Safari and other sources of obfuscated identity, you’re going to end up losing a lot of signal along the way. On top of that, targeting smaller, higher-value audiences means this attrition can have a profound impact on your ability to build meaningful reach and use audience forecasts to predict scale. A strong identity framework is the key to maintaining as much of your planned audience as possible and staying true to initial forecasts.
AI and outcome planning
How is AI evolving CTV from tactical bidding to strategic outcome planning, and what mechanisms are in place to validate true performance lift?
Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, especially not in advertising. Audiences change where and when they consume media, and so shifting budget to a placement that did well yesterday is like buying a stock when it’s outperforming – the gains might be gone by then! Predictive AI is bridging the gap to find the highest value and most engaged audiences in real time, versus being purely reactive. This helps drive outcomes which we see in the form of pipeline influence, ROAS, and site traffic lift – without exponentially increasing costs. The same is true for account-based marketing(ABM) outcomes – there’s a blend of signals, account “fit” and intent data that needs to be evaluated in a deeper, more intelligent way. AI is helping to find those highest value accounts, even before they’re in market, which means smart marketers aren’t showing up late to the party.
Measurement and incrementality
What privacy-safe, closed-loop measurement frameworks should become standard to prove incremental visits and sales from CTV campaigns?
Working with a dedicated multichannel, full-funnel ad and marketing platform like AdRoll can easily let you know when a user arrives at your site and makes a purchase, but understanding how that customer arrived there and which tactics deserve the credit requires a deeper, more sophisticated workflow. Our partnership with Experian allows all devices in a household to ladder back up to a household ID, so we can ensure accuracy without pivoting on anything personally identifiable. This works perfectly in CTV, an environment that follows an app workflow of user resettable device IDs rather than IP address or email but always connects seamlessly to web tokens including cookies. Accuracy, scale, and privacy are maintained in a proven way – you see this tech underpinning the infrastructure of streaming across all the biggest players, so marketers can rest easy.
Creative and commerce
How can creative sequencing and shoppable TV experiences convert living-room attention into commerce without compromising user experience or feeling intrusive?
I like to say that CTV trades attention for action. Users lean back and focus on the messaging and visuals of the big screen rather than scrambling for the mouse or tapping to close some intrusive pop-up. This focus means that the messaging is absorbed more quickly, but creatives can wear out their welcome just as fast. Sequential messaging really helps to move the messaging along without subjecting the viewer to longer ads where attention wanes, but also increases brand recall and specific product information because the story evolves with each impression. This is a great tactic to use when you want a viewer to take a specific action later – but shoppable ads can help motivate a user to act now, and new formats can really simplify things. Shoppable can feel out of range for most – the top players in this space own major e-comm storefronts and then tie them back into their own demand-side platforms (DSPs), content, and streaming devices. For the rest of us, dipping our toes in slowly through simple and cheap solutions like QR codes can connect audiences right to a web experience from their TVs, or intermediate solutions like interactive video ads. Users love to play around with fun on-screen experiences, and there’s a whole spectrum of crawl/walk/run options available.
Trust and governance
Which shared guardrails—brand safety, fraud control, and frequency management- are essential to unlocking sustainable, scaled investment in CTV?
I’ve always thought of CTV inventory analogously to high-end watches – if you buy from the source or a well-known, reputable dealer, you’re probably buying the real thing. But that fancy timepiece the guy was selling outside the bar, that you swore looked real? Probably not. Untrusted resellers and too-good-to-be-true pricing might mean you’re running ads on a screen at a lonely gas station at 3 am to an audience of no one, and that’s not even the worst case scenario. Good relationships and deep pockets can solve brand safety and fraud issues, but not every advertiser is going to have those resources. Brand safety and fraud prevention can reduce workload and help distinguish the good stuff from the growing pool of gray area, arguably, CTV inventory that isn’t what was promised to a customer. Outsourcing this trust also goes a long way, with buyers knowing you’re not grading your own homework. Frequency management is equally as important. Once you have your audience and your good supply, it’s important not to abuse a single household just because they meet your targeting criteria. Reach is your best friend with CTV.
Data and audience strategy
How do Experian’s syndicated audiences provide a consistent, scalable foundation for planning, activation, and measurement across CTV and digital, and what outcomes are clients seeing?
We love to talk about how Experian’s data is such an integral part of so much of streaming’s architecture, and the fact that it’s built on deterministic datasets means you’re getting scaled audiences built on knowledge rather than best guesses. That means a lot when working across multiple channels, privacy-safe environments, and households with an ever-growing number of connected devices. Our customers are always delighted at how precise targeting can be, especially in the B2B/B2C space – and knowing the size of those audiences helps them to understand how budget transforms into reach in a more predictable way. It’s confidence-inspiring to point to a new audience and tell your client that these are their future customers. The best part is showing them the outcomes reporting – we consistently see a massive spike in site traffic and engagement on days when a new Experian syndicated audience is launched!
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FAQs
Identity resolution ensures marketers can connect devices and maintain audience accuracy. Experian’s identity solutions help reduce data loss and improve audience forecasts, making campaigns more effective.
With viewer attention spread across platforms, marketers need tools that offer both broad and detailed targeting. Experian’s syndicated audiences provide reliable, scalable data to help identify and reach high-value audiences across channels.
Techniques like sequential messaging and shoppable ads keep viewers engaged and encourage action. Simple tools like QR codes or interactive video ads can connect audiences to web experiences directly from their TVs.
Strong identity frameworks help DSPs maintain accurate targeting and audience reach, even in privacy-focused environments. By connecting devices to household IDs, solutions like Experian’s Digital Graph ensure DSPs can deliver relevant ads and measure performance effectively across channels.
About our expert
George Castrissiades, General Manager of Connected TV, AdRoll
George leads the CTV go-to-market strategy at NextRoll, driving rapid growth and adoption of the channel for both B2B and B2C customers. With a track record of building and scaling CTV solutions, he is focused on developing a strategic playbook that accelerates success in the evolving digital advertising landscape.
Before joining NextRoll, George spearheaded CTV product innovation at iSpot.tv and held leadership roles in product and operations at YouTube, VICE Media, Crackle, Roku, and Innovid. His expertise spans product development, monetization, and market expansion.
About AdRoll
AdRoll is a connected advertising platform built for growth-minded marketers. With powerful AI, flexible campaign tools, and seamless integrations, AdRoll helps mid-sized businesses turn complexity into clarity and clicks into customers. The AdRoll platform delivers full-funnel performance through multi-channel advertising, audience insights, and cross-channel attribution, supporting marketers across industries including ecommerce, technology, financial services, education, and more. For B2B teams, AdRoll ABM extends these capabilities with account-based precision, multi-touch campaigns, and real-time buyer intelligence. Backed by nearly 20 years of data and award-winning support, AdRoll enables marketing teams to advertise smarter, move faster, and achieve more, all from one place.
Latest posts
Partnership leverages industry-leading Tapad Device Graph™ for more effective video marketing across all connected devices NEW YORK, April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, a part of Experian, the leading provider of privacy-safe, cross-device marketing technology solutions, has announced its partnership with Innovid, the world's leading video marketing platform. This integration enables Innovid to bring cross-device personalization and a more unified viewer experience to its video marketing clients including Bank of America, L'Oréal, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble. Innovid's proprietary technology is the only platform optimized for video, enabling marketers to thrive in an ever-changing digital television landscape. Since its launch last year, Innovid's Marketing Cloud Suite has helped marketers increase message relevance and the opportunity to drive conversions, retention and acquisition through video personalization. By leveraging the Tapad Device GraphTM, Innovid's marketers can now benefit from the ability to drive consistent, personalized user experiences across all devices, creating more impactful connections with consumers and increasing ROI. "Personalization is a must for every data-driven marketer and really needs to happen across all devices to ensure a unified customer journey," says Ronnie Lavi, SVP of product at Innovid. "At Innovid, we recognize one size does not fit all when it comes to video. As an open platform, we are always looking to add best-of-breed capabilities through integrations and partnerships, and we've chosen Tapad because of its superior cross-device expertise." "Innovid has long paved the way for effective personalization in the video marketing space," says Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad's data division. "As video continues to gain popularity across digital formats, we're excited to see how our technology empowers Innovid to bring that renowned personalization to more customers across all of their devices." Contact us today
Tracey Scheppach's new marketing and media practice leverages Tapad's device-level data to help clients achieve "marketing nirvana" NEW YORK and CHICAGO, April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Tapad, now part of Experian, is the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions, and Matter More, a next generation marketing and media practice with deep experience in the advanced TV space, announced a strategic partnership to bring together world class digital data and audience development expertise to help marketers improve how they connect with consumers. As consumer behavior continues to expand across multiple devices, today's marketers need robust, comprehensive data solutions to accurately engage the people who matter most to their brands. At the same time, the TV industry has reached an advertising tipping point, capitalizing on the power of device-level data. "Achieving unduplicated reach and frequency across all channels with true addressability, and the ability to measure outcomes, is marketing nirvana," says Tracey Scheppach, CEO and co-founder of Matter More, a new agency built for the modern age. "The best opportunity to deliver 'marketing nirvana,' at scale, is by partnering with Tapad and using their world-class Device Graph to help our clients simply matter more to the people they care about most." "By leveraging our access to rich TV data, we can now measure the actual performance of media across channels," says Marshall Wong, SVP, TV for Tapad. Tapad's proprietary Device Graph™ unifies consumer behavior data across all devices, uncovering the interests, passions and behaviors of the audiences who matter most. As with any data solution, privacy, transparency and trust are crucial to bringing marketers a solid offering that delivers results. "Tapad is excited to partner with Matter More to tap into their knowledge base and experience working with some of the largest brands on TV today," says Kate O'Loughlin, SVP and GM of Tapad's media division. "The time has come to truly unleash the power of device-level data at scale." Contact us today
Globalization affects retailers in a number of ways. Complying with commercial laws wherever they have brick-and-mortar stores is one such impact. Navigating through privacy rules that impact e-commerce efforts is another. There is one blind spot in particular that deserves attention — sending shopping cart abandonment emails. I am often asked, “How are abandonment emails treated under the CAN-SPAM Act? Canada’s stringent Anti-Spam Law (CASL)?” “Can I even send abandonment emails to my Canadian customers?” What are cart abandonment emails? But let’s back up… What is an ‘abandonment’ email anyway? In the email space shopping cart abandonment refers to a particular type of automated mailing used to re-engage an online customer. The most common example is one where a retailer notices that a customer has left an item sitting in their shopping cart, and proceeds to send a reminder with a coupon to complete the order. To fully understand privacy compliance pitfalls with this technique, in the U.S. and beyond, we need to unpack what happens before the abandonment email is sent. Email marketing shopping cart abandonment compliance Abandonment messages are almost always ‘commercial’, particularly if they incentivize a shopper to complete their purchase. In compliance parlance, we call this encouraging the continuation of a commercial activity. In contrast, an order confirmation typically provides factual information about a commercial activity. Under most anti-spam laws, particularly under CASL, marketers need to ensure abandonment messages are not unsolicited. Triggering should account for: Appropriate consent covering email marketing to new or ongoing online relationships. Scrubbing the customer’s email address against your unsubscribe/suppression lists before sending a solicitous message. (This is true under any anti-spam law.) For more information about CASL-compliant consent record keeping and related best practices, you can navigate to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Maintaining compliance with online tracking Abandonment emails rely on online retailers tracking their customers’ activity on their websites and tying online behavior back to the email addresses using the same behavioral targeting technologies as those used to deliver Interest Based Ads. This jump across engagement channels to remarket to customers can raise privacy concerns, so online retailers need to pay attention to their privacy compliance obligations. Cross-channel marketing privacy protections Guidance covering privacy policies and practices issued by the Federal Trade Commission are informative and I encourage you to review these with your law department. If you operate outside the U.S., privacy protection laws like Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) may set out additional obligations with your cross-channel marketing efforts. PIPEDA’s definition of commercial activity, which includes remarketing Privacy Commissioner’s findings under PIPEDA in relation to remarketing Privacy Commissioner’s guidance on online behavioral advertising, the technology of which informs triggered emails Under PIPEDA and similar international privacy regimes, cross-channel marketers will need to (i) clearly and conspicuous inform website visitors that their online activities may result in personalized marketing, (ii) offer a way to opt-out of such tracking, and (iii) obtain individuals’ prior express consent with tracking involving sensitive personal information such as health data How to manage cross-channel marketing compliance risks As privacy protection regimes around the world continue to mature and absorb rules covering marketing, online retailers need to start adding new vocabulary to their privacy compliance lexicon. For example, shopping cart abandonment efforts produce ‘cross-channel re-marketing campaigns triggered by an identifiable individual’s online behavior.’ While this is a mouthful to say, viewing your engagement efforts through this lens will help you manage compliance risks. Experian can help you navigate compliance risks Our privacy-first approach to data is trusted across industries around the world. As a leader in the industry, we are here to help you leverage the power of data while maintaining the highest standards of consumer privacy compliance and legal guidelines. With almost 30 years in business, we are here to help you confidently create and launch data-driven marketing strategies. Contact us today to get started! Please note: Cross-Channel Marketing does not give legal advice on electronic marketing regulations or privacy laws. To mitigate risk to your business, please consult with your legal counsel on the law and your corporate policy. Contact us today