As viewers we’ve all experienced it: you’re streaming a show and feel a sense of déjà vu. Has the same exact commercial played during every ad break? Is it even being played back-to-back?
The oversaturation of ads in CTV platforms not only creates a less-than-ideal experience for viewers, but it also poses challenges for advertisers. Last week on the blog, we reported that viewers pay less attention to repeat CTV ads that air closer together. This week, we’ll dig deeper into how ad length impacts both attention and viewability when it comes to repeat CTV ads.
Note, these insights and more are available in our new report, The Impact of Repeat Ads on CTV Performance.
Assuming every second of ad time is priced equally, shorter ads may also deliver better ROI within CTV—especially when ads are shown less than five minutes apart. In this scenario, longer ads see a more dramatic drop-off in attention. Viewers paid attention to 45% of :15-second ads in comparison to 27% of :30-second ads and only 14% of :60-second ads.
It’s not just attention that wanders off when ads repeat—sometimes the viewers themselves take a stroll. While our study focused primarily on ad attention wear out, we also found that ads that repeated less than five minutes apart were overall 15% less likely to keep viewers in the room.
Similar to the trends we observed for attention, ad length also impacts viewability. After all, if viewers know exactly how long an ad is and what they’re about to watch, it’s easier to time a quick break before their program comes back on. TVision saw that when :30 and :60-second ads aired within five minutes of one another, viewers were 7-10 times less likely to stay in the room compared to :15-second ads.
The problem of repeat airings has yet to be fixed, but marketers can still take action to make the most of their CTV spend and avoid wear out. Here are a few quick tips:
Consider adding a wider variety of creatives to your rotation to reduce the risk of repeat ad wear out.
Viewers are less likely to tune out when shorter ads air repeatedly in a short period of time. Try adding some 15-second ads to your mix.
If the same ad is being distributed through multiple partners, frequency caps can reduce the chance of customers seeing it back-to-back.
For more details and additional insights on repeat CTV ads, download your copy of the full report here. And with 85% of US households now CTV enabled, don’t miss TVision’s new CTV Advertising Report for must-know insights to engage this connected audience.