Perception is reality
Importantly, there are some safeguards in place to prevent ads from feeling a little too personal.
Though YouTube declined to comment, an Amazon spokesperson told ADWEEK, “Amazon customers can opt out of interest-based ads related to browsing and shopping history.”
Plus, various legislation, including the California Privacy Rights Act, limits the use and disclosure of how businesses can collect sensitive personal information such as ethnicity and race.
However—critically—it is the potential of personalization that changes the user experience, even though the majority of ads served on streaming services aren’t immensely more sophisticated than those on linear television.
“The idea that we’re going to move to a world where half the ads that you see on TV are for you is unlikely,” said Joseph Teasdale, head of technology at the research firm Enders Analysis. “But the fact that the medium does support targeting changes the way you think about it.”
Indeed, most CTV campaigns are still bought based on programming, genre and demographic, as well as standard run-of-network strategies, according to Harry Browne, the vice president of TV, audio and display innovation at Tinuiti. If you are seeing an ad for therapy, it is likely because of your age and location, not an indication that your browsing behavior is worrisome.
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However, CTV is still the Wild West of media buying. From nuances of programmatic buying to ads being served while the TV is off, it still has issues for advertisers. More than a decade of ad personalization has conditioned consumers to assume that the ads they are seeing are being shown to them for a reason—and sometimes they are.
“It used to be that regular people were unfamiliar with ad-targeting,” Milecivic said. “Now there is a greater vigilance and understanding around why certain people get served certain ads.”
Thus, pre-roll spots promoting sensitive products like medicines, wellness items and discrete services can seem to expose their audiences, rather than cater to them. Is your friend being served an ad for erectile dysfunction because of their search history or their demographic? Is the bourbon ad your uncle just saw a sign they are drinking again, or is it just a contextual placement?
For marketers, the potential discomfort these moments can create must be considered when crafting media strategies, according to Browne.
“If you’re an advertiser in a sensitive category, it’s a good time to be thinking about this,” Browne said. “The trend toward deeper and more robust targeting is real, so it could be a bigger issue in the future.”
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