CTV’s growing popularity and the clear shift from traditional linear TV has reinforced its position as the future of advertising. In 2021 alone, 73% of CTV buyers planned to shift their budget from linear TV to CTV, representing a tangible change in the digital advertising market.

But what is driving this massive shift for advertisers from linear to CTV? And why should those in healthcare, specifically, be taking notice?

With the eventual deprecation of the cookie looming, a big focus for marketers in 2022 will be identity resolution. Healthcare marketers need to find innovative ways to harness privacy-compliant identity information to accurately track and measure audience engagement for their campaigns. Cookieless by design, CTV presents valuable opportunities related to identity resolution, something marketers will grapple with in 2022 and beyond as they adjust to this new era of digital advertising.

The Benefits of CTV and Why They Matter to Consumers
Before we dive into the pivotal roles that CTV identity resolution and measurement capabilities will play in 2022 and beyond, it’s important to note that the benefits of CTV (compared to Linear TV) are rather expansive. The benefits CTV provides advertisers include:

- Data-driven, precise, programmatic targeting to desired audiences
- Faster speed-to-market and flexible campaign management
- Ability to optimize in-flight campaigns
- Measurement capabilities that are accurate, actionable, and timely

These benefits, will only increase in importance as the disappearance of the cookie nears. This is yet another benefit of CTV, which operates independently of cookies. As a result of its superior data and targeting capabilities, CTV will avoid the impending upheaval in the identity space (for the time being, although there are a few initiatives in the CTV space to improve users privacy).

How does this benefit consumers?

When conducting a recent survey to understand consumer sentiment around pharmaceutical ads, DeepIntent focused on the importance of being able to effectively optimize campaigns and gain real-time, meaningful insights to impact consumers. We learned that when direct-to-consumer advertising is relevant, it can kickstart the patient research needed to establish stronger connections with their healthcare provider (HCP), which drives new prescription starts and increased adherence to prescribed treatments. Ultimately, this leads to better health outcomes for the patient.

An earlier DeepIntent survey showed patients are more likely to accept treatment recommendations for something they recognize from advertising and found that just 35% feel the pharmaceutical ads they see are relevant to them, which highlights the opportunity for advertisers to make an impact on patients’ wellness journeys As relevant, targeted information is distributed to both parties, patients will feel more comfortable approaching their HCP with potential treatment options, questions, and suggestions, resulting in more bidirectional conversations that lead to positive outcomes.

The Identity Resolution and Measurement Capabilities of CTV
When it comes to identity resolution and measurement capabilities, two options rise to the top: household IDs and automatic content recognition (ACR) data provide a clearer and more complete picture as to what content is being consumed on a given connected device. These tools will be valuable to healthcare marketers in driving efficient, targeted campaigns.

ACR data is integrated into most smart devices and used widely by marketers to target desired consumers with their ads. ACR data has also proven to be a valuable tool given its ability to measure ad frequency and virtually everything that hits the screen of a connected device.

For advertisers who want their linear TV and CTV campaigns to work in concert with one another, ACR data serves as that bridge, allowing for a direct comparison as to how campaigns are performing on both mediums. Overall, ACR data provides valuable insight for advertisers into understanding what content people are watching and how to capitalize on that knowledge and provide a clearer picture of the incremental reach they can achieve from CTV versus linear.

What’s Next?
Sooner rather than later, healthcare marketers need to start looking to CTV for reaching audiences more precisely than traditional linear TV would allow. Reaching the most relevant healthcare providers and patient audiences and tracking that success, is attainable using the features of CTV, and is necessary to ensure that the right groups are receiving the right information. CTV will only increase in popularity across all demographics, and present a valuable opportunity for healthcare advertisers to reach their target audiences and make a measurable, meaningful impact.