The beginning of a new year presents a fresh start for brands to reset goals, try new marketing strategies and tactics, and plan for the future. After the whirlwind of Q4, when campaigns focus heavily on volume and visibility, Q1 is the perfect time for advertisers to reconnect with target audiences in a less cluttered media environment.
Historically, categories such as health care, financial wellness, and insurance see high consumer spending during Q1. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose 3.4 percent in Q1 2024, showing consumers are still willing to spend after the holiday season. Therefore, brands can immediately re-engage with consumers and win market share.
Below are six winning strategies designed to optimize CTV advertising efforts in Q1. Which ones will kickstart your 2025?
1. Prioritize programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising is a foundational strategy to help brands make the most of their ad dollars.
Programmatic advertising allows for cost-effective, algorithmic media buying. Complementing the strengths of managed-service demand-side platforms (DSPs), programmatic buying provides added flexibility by allowing buyers to adjust budgets in real-time. This flexibility ensures that every dollar is spent efficiently, prioritizing value in developing market conditions.
2. Reach desired audiences with addressable advertising
Addressable or personalized advertising boosts advertisers' return on ad spend (ROAS).
Brands can deliver tailored messaging to custom, hyper-relevant audience segments by leveraging household-level CTV and mobile data, behavioral insights, and contextual alignment. This level of precision allows advertisers to connect with audiences based on demographics, interests, and even real-time actions, ultimately leading to greater resonance with desired audiences.
Learn more: Eight Methods for Audience Targeting on CTV
3. Leverage shoppable ads
CTV is transforming into a powerful retail platform. In 2024, over 50 percent of consumers spent between $100 and $499 on TV-inspired purchases, per eMarketer. Shoppable media promotes spontaneous buying behavior, driving immediate sales. As second-screen usage grows, CTV offers an intuitive shopping experience, turning internet-connected TVs into virtual marketplaces.
Shoppable ads offer brands an immediate way to fulfill the growing consumer demand for convenience, savings, and instant gratification. These high-value CTV ads seamlessly connect advertising creative with digital storefronts. Shoppable ads may include features like QR codes and product galleries within customizable ad experiences.
4. Dive into FAST for high visibility
Sixty-six percent of America’s TV viewers stream FAST channels monthly, accessing them on smart TVs, mobile devices, and gaming consoles, according to Horowitz Research. This growing audience presents an opportunity for advertisers to engage highly attentive viewers on platforms where they are actively watching content.
FAST channels offer advertisers a new way to reach their desired audiences while maintaining visibility in the CTV space. Their widespread accessibility enables brands to reach and engage consumers with scale.
5. Utilize CTV to complement linear ad spend on tentpole events
CTV is a strategic and incremental media asset that can complement tentpole sponsorships purchased through other mediums, such as linear TV. Q1 includes the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year, and March Madness, to name a few!
Many brands prioritize these blockbuster events through upfront linear spending. Complementing linear campaigns with CTV is a fantastic way to maximize ad revenue and drive additional results, especially considering the Super Bowl’s price tag, which was $7 million for a 30-second ad in 2024, per Digiday.
Learn more: CTV Sports Playbook: A Strategic Guide to Fan Engagement
6. Lean into campaign and audience analytics
Campaign and audience analytics are valuable tools for brands. Analytics can inform strategies and serve as a catalyst for impactful results. Campaign and audience measurement may validate ad spending and allocation while revealing which channels, campaigns, and audiences drive the most value.
App Science®, Sabio’s proprietary analytics arm, allows advertisers to measure CTV ad campaign effectiveness across publishers on one seamless platform. Its cookie-free 55 million household graph allows brands to track KPIs such as reach, engagement, and attribution to better understand key audience segments and inform future campaign strategies.
Win Q1 with Sabio
Sabio is a leading CTV partner, specializing in helping brands reach, engage, and validate streaming audiences for a diverse mass market.
Whether brands want to optimize managed and/or programmatic ad spend, utilize shoppable media, or drive campaign efficiencies through analytics, Sabio has the tools and expertise to drive results.
Partnering with Sabio provides access to prime audiences in Q1, including:
- Super Bowl Audiences: Reach over 48 million NFL fans and 24 million Super Bowl households in anticipation of the largest tentpole sporting event of the year.
- March Madness Audiences: Engage over 46 million college basketball fans and 23 million March Madness households before, during, and after this high-energy tournament.
- Fitness, Health, and Wellness Audiences: Inspire over 20 million health enthusiasts across 10 million CTV households as they pursue their New Year’s resolutions.
- Black History Month Audiences: Resonate with over 2.5 million Black viewers across more than a million CTV households through authentic and impactful messaging.
- Lunar New Year Audiences: Connect with 7.4 million AAPI audiences across nearly 4 million CTV households as they honor this vibrant cultural tradition.
- Valentine’s Day Audiences: Share the love with over 58 million Valentine’s Day audiences across 29 million CTV households.
Connect with Sabio
Connect with our team of CTV experts to discuss how to maximize CTV advertising in Q1.