SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Roku is getting more creative and attempting to offer advertisers more certainty over outcomes, in a climate in which marketer spending is coming under pressure.
The company is one of the leading gateway platforms to connected TV programming, used by more than 70% of US cord-cutters, and has a large operation selling ads in that content.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Miles Fisher, Sr. Director, Ad Platform Sales & Strategy, Roku, paints a picture of the changing landscape.
Data-driven ads
Fisher says half of ads on Roku now involve the use of the data Roku holds about its own users.
“We have the Roku ad ID for advertising, which allows us to persistently understand the way that consumers are behaving on our platforms – one out of every two CTV impressions actually served on a Roku device,” fisher says
“So when we work with our brand partners and our publishing partners, that Roku identity layer allows us to deliver a much more impactful user advertising experience.”
Roku’s ID for Advertising (RIDA) exists at a time when Apple has limited iOS’ IDFA and Google is deprecating third-party cookies from web browsers.
Ads under pressure?
Roku’s Q4 2022 investor update, published in February 2023, noted a rare slow-down in what have historically been surging sales of ads across its platform, attributed to economic pressure.
“While Roku continues to benefit from the shift of advertisers from
traditional TV to TV streaming, that was largely offset in Q4 by the
pullback in overall ad spend,” the update noted.
Roku clocked $731.3 million in quarterly platform revenue, a number which includes ad sales, up 5% year-on-year.
In part, the slowdown was also relative to a big upward spike in the prior year’s quarter, caused by an influx of views to newly-adopted streaming services.
Roku gets rocking
Roku’s Fisher is aiming to build out OneView, Roku’s advertiser platform, further, to give marketers more certainty.
“How can we go beyond just reach and frequency … ultimately showing ‘how does that TV spot then deliver on other omnichannel formats and move towards other metrics like CPA or other ROAS signals?’,” he says.
The company has been rolling out a slew of marketing products, including:
- New ad formats.
- Content made with Roku Brand Studio.
- More inventory against Roku Channel original productions.
- Roku Recommends, a show facilitating both discovery and branded content.
- Shoppable ads, enabled for ecommerce with Roku Pay.
“The key differentiator for our One View platform is that identity layer. It really allows our marketers to connect the top of the (marketing) funnel to the bottom of the funnel.”
Fisher says, when a user turns on a Roku device, he wants them to see “large banner ads, tying that with retargeting, remarketing, click-to-purchase, tying that to mobile”.
“We’re investing heavily in that space and bringing that to the 15- and 30-second spots that TV advertiser are used to buying. That nexus is really kind of that next wave of connected TV that we’re hyper focused on.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat San Juan 2023, presented by LiveRamp, Madhive, Magnite, Paramount, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and VideoAmp. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page.