Roku Launches Ads Manager: CTV Ads Made Simple

Here we speak with Peter Hamilton, Head of Ad Innovation at Roku, to talk about the new Roku Ads Manager.

How would you describe Ads Manager in a couple of sentences?

Growth marketers now have access to Roku streamers with a self-service ad platform that’s custom-built for performance. Brands run ads alongside premium content and top ad-supported channels to meet their audience where they’re already engaged.

Reach your audience on Roku

Okay, Peter, Roku Ads Manager is out of beta—how do you feel knowing that all those late nights and coffee-fueled work sessions are finally going to pay off for growth marketers? Are you ready for the flood of eComm founders who think they can master TV ads after one click?

Absolutely….let the dam open; we’re excited to see how marketers use the product! We expect this to be massive. We have a new self-service tool that marketers can use as their own. Performance marketers…THIS IS FOR YOU! We have the engineering support to listen to your feedback and make this the best platform FOR YOU. We will continue to iterate and build what you need.

So, let’s cut to the chase: For marketers used to the ease of Facebook and Google ad platforms, why should they dip their toes into CTV with Roku Ads Manager? What’s the ‘aha!’ moment for them?

Well, we certainly heard from marketers that expanding their toolset is challenging. Attribution is vital and many of the marketers we worked w/ in the beta have been looking for that 1-2-3 punch with TV. We, as humans, aren’t naturally Direct Response Engines that can be turned on and off like many believe us to be. TV is typically hard to enter. Minimums are usually so cost-prohibitive, and It’s largely been difficult to pair attribution with TV buying: difficult to run multiple creatives, difficult to test creative, and previously it’s been a slower process to test and learn. With Roku Ads Manager, you go at your own pace, your own scale, and your own budget to develop actionable campaigns.

Roku is America’s #1 TV streaming platform—impressive! But with all these premium channels and Roku Originals, how can a DTC brand on a $500 budget actually stand out?

We price this media on a CPM. We are very good at executing against budgets. All campaigns will be fulfilled and we have amazing audiences to match the scale of any budget. All ranges of budgets will perform, and we can apply optimizations towards specific goals you have (sign ups, conversions, etc) that Performance Marketers are used to - just setup the campaign parameters and allow Roku to run your campaigns. Your budget will go further with Roku than anywhere else because we own the inventory. Going direct w/ us removes all audience and 3P fees. Our O+O is directly sold through our platform which allows for efficiency and price conscious budgets. 

Let’s talk Shopify—shoppable ads sound pretty futuristic! Do you think viewers are really ready to shop from their couch using just a remote? Or is this going to be a test of how lazy we can get?

With this announcement comes something brand new for CTV. We’ve provided the ability for Shopify merchants to link accounts and launch campaigns on the fly. This is an industry first; we’re going to be learning and improving together to on ways to drive performance w/ shoppable ads via Roku. What we know, from our beta and extensive research, consumers love this form of optionality and engagement. Comparing a video ad w/o this kind of shoppability, we see there is higher recall for the brand, more measurable intent from consumers who engage, and higher sales lift overall. At the end of the day, the power that Roku is offering to marketers is the ability to make self-serve ads that are personalized. We’re providing access for marketers to create experimentation and opportunities for  consumers to lean forward and press “okay” on their Roku remotes. Never before has a marketer been able to be in full control of their creativity within the CTV space.

AI upscaling sounds fancy, but for marketers out there who are more used to resizing their creative for Instagram, how exactly does this tech work? Will it make my DIY ad look like a Super Bowl commercial?

Well, I’m going to turn that question around and ask what a SB commercial needs to look like. So, riddle me this, What does a SB commercial need to look like!? (laughs)  Our AI upscaler tool is designed to take your creative assets used on web or mobile to look and perform in a television environment. This is a simple way to get marketers to access CTV quickly w/ their assets on the fly. 

Let’s get real for a second: We all know performance marketers want results yesterday. How does Roku Ads Manager help them hit their KPIs faster? And what metrics can they obsess over?

It really depends on their goals but certainly paying attention to conversions and engagement on web and mobile are the most important for marketers. We provide pixels and measurement w/ the proper tools and instrumentation to achieve actions that the marketer is looking for. Ultimately, Roku’s machine learning optimizations will help each marketer figure out which users are engaging the most and converting…and then we’ll find similar audiences to auto optimize campaigns. 

Now that Action Ads are here, should brands be rethinking their engagement strategies? Can you actually get a viewer to interact with your ad while they’re binge-watching their 10th episode of a show?

What we’ve found from user research is that our viewers prefer interactivity. They’re almost confused that advertising on TV does not provide this capability. It does turn out that frequency can be your friend w/ “Action Ads” (a user to press “okay” on the remote that will send a text w/ a link for their phone). The more a user is exposed, the more likely they’ll try it. This does allow viewers to continue watching the show while they explore your brand on the phone. We’ve also seen this kind of engagement of users coming back the following day or day(s) to open the text, engage with the link, and continue down the conversion path. We’ve seen higher conversion rates from revisiting the texts; it’s sticky.. The numbers and activity has been amazing for our beta marketers and users are enjoying the playfulness w/ interactivity. 

Everyone’s talking about diversifying beyond walled gardens—do you think we’re at the point where CTV is the next obvious frontier for DTC brands? Or are we still in the ‘early adopter’ phase?

I genuinely believe that CTV is the next great targetable and measurable channel for marketers. TV is the holy grail for mass messaging and the most effective for at brand awareness, recall and impact for broad viewer psychology. Now we can build, target, and measure the outcomes along w/ the impact to other channels. We’re also finding that marketers are wanting to explore what the combo of both brand and performance ads look like within our Roku Ads Manager. CTV is the ultimate bridge that connects performance and brand advertising. 

Give me your elevator pitch: Why should growth marketers who have never used a DSP before feel confident using Roku Ads Manager for CTV?

If you’re using a DSP to buy CTV today, you might not be the best candidate for the Roku Ads Manager. This is specifically built for those buying search and social, when you log in this will feel VERY familiar to what you’re used to. Campaign setup will follow the same flow- from budgeting to setting up audiences, measurement, and adding creative. Everything is based on simple form inputs (yes/no toggles). You can set up a campaign, upload ad creative in 3 minutes, and get it approved and tested within the same day. There is absolutely nothing standing in your way to test us and see immediate results. 

In one sentence, why should a performance marketer be excited to hop into Roku Ads Manager today? 

This is access, in its simplest form, to CTV with all the foundations you’ll need to develop the next great consistent channel for ROI.

Reach your audience on Roku

About Roku

Roku pioneered streaming on TV. We connect users to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers.