Insights from the EXACTA Media team
Staying informed and educated on emerging strategies and opportunities for our clients is a priority. That’s why our media team recently attended the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) NewFronts 2024 event where big names in media showcase the latest and greatest features for the industry.
During its NewFront presentation, Google announced Display & Video 360 (DV360) updates which will change the game for marketers trying to reach target audiences on video and TV. These notable adjustments will not only allow for cross platform marketing and tracking but will integrate artificial intelligence (AI) features enabling marketing teams to maximize client budget and targeting for video ad placements.
Here’s what we learned at the IAB NewFronts about Google Display & Video 360, and why it will make a difference in how we get the biggest return on ad spend (ROAS) for our clients.
What do we mean when we talk about TV?
It’s important to understand where DV360 updates will make an impact. TV has become an all-encompassing term, as many people use streaming services and connect other apps such as YouTube to their big screens. This means that there can be frequent transitions from various devices, platforms and formats, all which allow media consumers to watch a new hit show, a favorite from the past, as well as short- and long-form content from creators on platforms like YouTube—and it can all take place on the living room TV.
With the updates to DV360, Google is answering the marketing call to be able to unify the video media buy across devices and better reach target audiences through multiple platforms and publishers.
What is Google Display & Video 360?
Display & Video 360 is a consolidated tool for marketing, allowing advertisers to reserve both programmatic and programmatic guaranteed campaigns across video, TV, Audio and other channels all through one interface. Google employs five modules that work together to bolster campaign success. DV360 has become a hub for cross-functional team collaboration, ad budget management and placement and performance assessment.
Image credit: Google
What is new for Google Display & Video 360?
The media giant’s big NewFront announcement indicates significant changes coming to its Display & Video 360. Here are a few of the most notable updates:
More partner opportunities – Google is expanding its strategic relationships with streaming partners such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. This will add more variety of content to choose from providing a wider range of potential target audiences.
More control over frequency – Seeing the same ad over and over can get annoying, especially when served to the viewer back-to-back. It can even negatively affect the customer’s perception of the brand. DV360 will allow brands to align frequency with customer viewing habits, and even manage frequency based on ad performance.
Better measurement across platforms – Not only will media buyers be able to manage guaranteed and biddable ad placements across publishers, but there will be cross-platform campaign capabilities providing deeper insights into performance metrics including brand lift, purchase intent and deduplicated reach between various streaming partners and YouTube.
Privacy-forward solutions – According to Google, 85% of consumers globally want brands to invest in privacy-safe technologies. DV360 will introduce PAIR (Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation), which will allow brands to use first-party data and pair it with publisher first-party data to deliver personalized ads without the use of third-party cookies or other ID technologies.
We’re also getting AI integrations
We’d expect nothing less from Google than for the new updates to include AI integrations. The media leader is putting AI front and center with its Audience Personas, Commitment Optimizer and custom bidding.
With Audience Personas advertisers will be able to define audiences through conversational prompts, and receive suggestions for refining targeting. The Commitment Optimizer will use AI to intelligently improve an ideal inventory mix across available deals, saving marketers time and increasing flexibility in plan and spend. Custom bidding lets advertisers indicate the highest priorities within an audience segment, and then DV360 taps AI to find these custom signals to focus on the impressions that deliver results from the most valuable customers.
Here’s a quick look at the Audience Personas interface:
Video credit: Google
Will it work?
It already has! A recent study by Nielsen showed that those who tested a consolidated and unified video ad placement saw 120% higher ROAS than those who purchased directly through individual channels.
Image credit: Think with Google
It makes sense, too, as we noted above that TV and video watchers often jump around for media consumption. Being able to bid and purchase through one central marketplace will help marketers maximize budgets, track ad performance across multiple channels, increase efficiency, improve data-backed insights, and boost collaboration across teams all while supporting customer privacy.
Streamlining video advertising
Google’s DV360 updates are significant and reinforce the understanding that marketers need to be able to have a unified approach to TV and video marketing across platforms and channels. The new features and AI integrations will no doubt provide additional clarity into ad performance, allowing marketers to make data-backed decisions on placement and targeting to increase ROAS.
Our media team is optimistic about the new DV360 features and looks forward to enhancing our marketing strategy with the updates to deliver the best performance for our clients.
Does your business need an agency partner? Learn how EXACTA MEDIA can help. We specialize in end-to-end media management from strategy through buy and optimization. Connect with our team of experts to learn more.
