OTT Best Practices

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Overview of OTT Best Practices

OTT is defined here as TV content delivered via an internet connection that is streamed on Mobile, Desktop, and Tablets ONLY.

The following is an overview of the best practices for setting up a successful OTT campaign on the platform:

  1. Run through Deals as opposed to the Open Exchange, as this will allow for premium, fraud free placements. Deal access can be requested in the ‘Inventory’ tab, then associated to the Line under ‘Targeting’. To ensure the Line only serves through selected Deals, DO NOT ASSOCIATE ANY EXCHANGES.
  2. Do not add frequency caps. Although Frequency Capping is available for OTT lines, it is often inaccurate and will severely limit scale as many OTT publishers do not consistently pass device IDs and user IDs across platforms.
  3. Enable the ‘Allow for Cookieless Users’ box. Cookies are not consistently passed by OTT/CTV publishers, and requiring them may prevent lines from serving.
  4. Target ‘Instream’ Inventory by selecting ‘PreRoll’, ‘MidRoll’ and ‘PostRoll’ video playback types.
  5. It is only recommended to use audiences from the providers TruAudience (Tru Optik), Lotame and Comscore. While these audiences are intended for OTT, they may still limit scale.

How to set up OTT using Deals

  1. Selecting Deals for an OTT Campaign
    • The first step in setting up a successful OTT campaign is to select the PMPs or ‘Deals’ that the Line will target. Read more on Deal Inventory here: Open Exchange vs. Deal Inventory
    • For OTT Lines, select Deals with the Inventory Type ‘OTT’ or ‘OTT/CTV’. As a best practice we recommend selecting and targeting every Deal that fits your campaign’s needs. There is no limit to the number of Deals that can be associated to the Line and due to the premium nature of this inventory the auctions can be very competitive. Selecting many Deals will increase the ability of the Line to scale. Additionally, for content that most closely mimics a linear TV experience, we recommend focusing on Deals with the formats ‘Live’ and ‘Long Form’ as this will display your ad either during live shows or full episodes. You can also use the pre-set ‘OTT Mobile/Desktop’ Deals lists. In the ‘Inventory’ tab, request access to the Deals you would like to use. Deal access will be approved in 1-2 business days and from there the Deals can be associated with a Line Item for targeting.
  1. Upload Creative
    • If you do not yet have an Advertiser created for this campaign, first create the Advertiser. Then open the Advertiser and upload one or more Creatives that meet the OTT/CTV Specs, see here: Pontiac CTV & OTT Specs
    • The Creative will need to pass the Creative Audit which may take up to 24 hours.
  1. Set up Line Item
    • Under the Advertiser, create a Line Item following these recommendations:
    • Inventory Type: OTT
    • Platform KPIs: Reach or VCR
    • Frequency Caps: Because device IDs and user IDs are not always available, frequency-capped CTV video campaigns can be more challenging to scale than desktop and mobile campaigns. For this reason, we recommend setting caps to 0.
    • Bid Strategy: The PMPs are real-time bidding environments with a specified price floor as defined by the publisher. This is the minimum CPM bid required to enter the auction. These auctions can be very competitive and typically PMPs will clear somewhere between 40-80% higher than the Deal Price Floor. Closing CPMs are on average in the $20-40 range. However, this will vary greatly according to the caliber of publishers and inventory selected, where the PMP falls in the publisher waterfall, the level of competition, the format (Live, Short Form etc), the time of year and more. In general, we recommend using the price floors for guidance and adding an additional 40-50% to start the bidding. If you are not achieving the desired scale, continue to increase bids.
    • Allow for Cookieless Users: Enable this feature, Cookies are not consistently passed by OTT/CTV publishers, and requiring them may prevent lines from serving.
    • Foot Traffic Attribution: This is available for OTT at a $4 CPM, add this additional cost to your bid CPM.
    • Exchanges: Remove ALL Exchanges
    • Deals: Select one of the ‘OTT’ Curated Deals lists or hand select Deals with the ‘OTT’ or ‘OTT/CTV’ Inventory type that meet your needs.
    • Geo Targeting: Zip Code, DMA, State, or Country
    • Device Types: Leave the Device Types set to ‘Mobile Phones’, ‘Tablets’, ‘Desktops & Laptops’
    • Operating Systems: Leave all operating systems selected.
    • Video Playback: Select from ‘PreRoll’, ‘MidRoll’,and ‘PostRoll’, recommended to include all three. Do NOT select ‘Outstream’.
    • Video Size: Do not select a size.
    • Viewability Threshold: NOT AVAILABLE
    • Ads.txt: NOT AVAILABLE
    • Creative: Associate a Creative that meets the OTT/CTV Specs.
    • Audience Targeting: It is only recommended to use audiences from the providers TruAudience (Tru Optik), Lotame and Comscore. These can be found by filtering by ‘Provider’ in the Audience tab. Associate the selected audience to the Advertiser, then to the Line Item under ‘Associate Segments’. Keep in mind that these audiences are intended for OTT, but they may still limit scale.
    • Conversion Attribution: The standard ‘Conversion Pixel’ cannot be used. To track online conversions driven by a CTV Line, you can use an IP Conversion pixel. Read more here: IP Conversion Pixels

How to set up OTT with Exchanges

  1. Create an App List (Optional)
    • If you would like to run through the Open Exchange, it is highly recommended that you target an app list to specify the apps/channels where you would like the Line to run. For OTT, if you do not supply an app list, the Line will run on ANY mobile/desktop application and will not be restricted to streaming TV content. For example, Mobile Games, Weather apps, News apps etc.
    • To create a custom OTT app list, go to the ‘Inventory’ tab and enter the app domains you would like to target. For example, in the Custom App List box enter ‘571711580’ to target the Apple A&E app. You must then add the App List to the Line.
  1. Upload Creative
    • If you do not yet have an Advertiser created for this campaign, first create the Advertiser. Then open the Advertiser and upload one or more Creatives that meet the OTT/CTV Specs, see here: Pontiac CTV & OTT Specs
    • The Creative will need to pass the Creative Audit which may take up to 24 hours.
  1. Set up Line Item
    • Under the Advertiser, create a Line Item following these recommendations:
    • Inventory Type: OTT
    • Platform KPIs: Reach or VCR
    • Frequency Caps: Because device IDs and user IDs are not always available, frequency-capped CTV video campaigns can be more challenging to scale than desktop and mobile campaigns. For this reason, we recommend setting caps to 0.
    • Bid Strategy: Closing CPMs are typically in the $15-25 range. However, this will vary greatly according to the caliber of the publishers and inventory being targeted. We recommend starting with bids in this range, and if you are not achieving the desired scale, continue to increase bids.
    • Allow for Cookieless Users: Enable this feature, Cookies are not consistently passed by OTT/CTV publishers, and requiring them may prevent lines from serving.
    • Foot Traffic Attribution: This is available for OTT at a $4 CPM, add this additional cost to your bid CPM.
    • Exchanges: Include the Exchanges through which you would like to purchase inventory. Under the ‘CTV/OTT’ Exchange category you will find the predominately CTV based Exchanges. It is recommended to select exchanges from this section.
    • App List: If you created an app list to target, associate this list to the Line as an ‘Allow’ list.
    • Geo Targeting: Zip Code, DMA, State, or Country
    • Device Types: Leave the Device Types set to ‘Mobile Phones’, ‘Tablets’, ‘Desktops & Laptops’
    • Operating Systems: Leave all operating systems selected.
    • Video Playback: Select from ‘PreRoll’, ‘MidRoll’,and ‘PostRoll’, recommended to include all three. Do NOT select ‘Outstream’.
    • Video Size: Do not select a size.
    • Viewability Threshold: NOT AVAILABLE
    • Ads.txt: NOT AVAILABLE
    • Creative: Associate a Creative that meets the OTT/CTV Specs.
    • Audience Targeting: It is only recommended to use audiences from the providers TruAudience (Tru Optik), Lotame and Comscore. These can be found by filtering by ‘Provider’ in the Audience tab. Associate the selected audience to the Advertiser, then to the Line Item under ‘Associate Segments’. Keep in mind that these audiences are intended for OTT, but they may still limit scale.
    • Conversion Attribution: The standard ‘Conversion Pixel’ cannot be used. To track online conversions driven by a CTV Line, you can use an IP Conversion pixel. Read more here: IP Conversion Pixels