Connected TV advertising has grown rapidly over the past few years, giving local businesses access to the kind of video advertising that was once limited mainly to larger companies with traditional television budgets.
At Shores Media, we began working with CTV advertising more than two years ago, before it became as widely used and accepted as it is today. Since then, we have tested multiple platforms, campaign types, targeting options, and creative approaches to better understand what works best for local businesses. Our experience has included platforms such as Vibe, YouTube, Hulu, and other streaming environments.
Better Targeting Than Traditional TV
One of the biggest advantages of CTV is the ability to target ads much more precisely than traditional broadcast television. Campaigns can be built around geographic areas, household demographics, interests, behaviors, and other audience characteristics. This allows local businesses to focus their advertising dollars on the people most likely to become customers instead of paying for broad exposure outside their service area.
We also work to structure campaigns efficiently and improve targeting over time, with the goal of achieving the best possible cost per thousand impressions, or CPM, while still reaching a qualified audience.
Using Existing Social Media Video
Another major advantage is the ability to reuse video content that a business may already be creating for social media. Vertical videos originally developed for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, or similar platforms can often be adapted for CTV campaigns. This can significantly reduce the time and expense involved in producing traditional television commercials.
It also gives businesses much more flexibility. Instead of relying on one commercial for months, we can create or adapt video ads around specific services, products, promotions, events, seasonal offers, or other marketing priorities as needed.
More Flexibility for Local Campaigns
CTV makes video advertising much more practical for local businesses because campaigns can be adjusted as marketing needs change. A retailer might promote a weekend event or seasonal sale. A service business might highlight a specific service during its busiest season. Another company may simply want consistent brand exposure throughout its target market.
This flexibility allows CTV to work alongside search marketing, social media, geofencing, and other digital advertising rather than operating as a standalone strategy.
Experience Matters
As CTV advertising continues to grow, more platforms and campaign options are becoming available. Not every platform, targeting method, or campaign setup will make sense for every business. Our experience over the past two years has allowed us to test different approaches, compare platforms, refine targeting, and better understand how to build cost-effective CTV campaigns for local businesses.
We have seen strong results and continue to view targeted video advertising as an increasingly valuable part of the local marketing mix. Interested in learning whether CTV advertising makes sense for your business? Contact Shores Media to discuss available platforms, targeting options, campaign ideas, and pricing.
