Thanks to advances in tech and AI, the playing field has been leveled for companies of every size to compete, especially in local advertising. According to Peter Jones, Vice President of Revenue at CTV advertising platform, Premion, small and midsize businesses that once couldn't afford premium streaming inventory or sophisticated targeting across CTV (connected TV), now have access to the same tools, data, and measurement capabilities as larger national brands.
This isn't hyperbole. A local car dealership can now target consumers with the same precision as any OEM, even scoring big in arenas like live sports advertising. A regional furniture store can measure outcomes such as website visits and actual sales, with the same sophistication as a national retail chain. The technology exists. The inventory is available. The barrier to entry has collapsed and the rules of engagement for local TV advertising have been rewritten.
The question is whether those small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), the vendors, and the agencies serving them, know how to apply those rules and win.
They can acquire inventory on streaming TV platforms within their local markets, leveraging the same data partners and attribution tools that big national brands use for their nationwide campaigns. But given how fragmented the CTV marketplace is, with thousands of apps, publishers, and platforms with varying degrees of quality, advertisers without large teams or sophisticated buying capabilities could face the dreaded paralysis from analysis: Which inventory actually works? Which data providers deliver results? How do you ensure you’re maximizing your ad dollars?
In a recent interview on the podcast Insider Interviews with E.B. Moss, Jones offered answers.
Getting Smart About Curation
For Jones, who prides himself on the educational offerings his company makes available to the industry to “rise all boats,” three key factors are smart curation, omnichannel considerations and measuring outcomes. He explained that it’s more than simply curating content, but "smart curation" that’s critical. "Anyone can curate a lot of inventory or data providers," Jones said, but “smart curation is leveraging the data to determine which inventory set or which providers help drive the outcomes you're looking for."
In practice, this means using performance data to guide inventory selection rather than personal preferences or assumptions. It means forecasting what's available in specific markets for specific audiences. It means taking the heavy lifting off advertisers who just want to know their campaigns are running in quality environments that deliver results.
"We have the publisher partners that we know are going to work best for them," Jones explains. "We're forecasting what avails are going to be in their market to their specific audience, and we can measure on the backend."
It also means recognizing where the audience is consuming that content and enabling the brand to follow that consumption on any platform. Context applies when the message is delivered in sports or in news, on mobile or CTV. Because people don't experience media in silos. In sports, for example, they may stream a game on TV, scroll social feeds during halftime, and research products on their phones later that night. And yes, Premion has the tools to identify the usage and deliver appropriately.
The Omnichannel Reality
"The advertiser has to be responsible for following that consumer wherever they are," Jones says. "You can serve that message on CTV, but then how are you going to follow them when they're on their mobile device? Do you have retargeting? Do you have a display ad?"
This omnichannel reality requires sequential messaging -- telling a story across platforms rather than repeating the same creative everywhere. And it requires measurement systems that capture the full path to conversion, not just last-click attribution that gives outsized credit to the final touchpoint.
The Outcome Over Impression Philosophy
That’s where one message Jones emphasizes repeatedly comes in: outcomes matter more than impressions. It's a philosophy shift that many advertisers and agencies still struggle with.
"You can't measure if you don't set a goal," he says. "For any advertiser or any agency, whether it's simply reach and frequency, at least you have a goal you're trying to measure against. Or if you're trying to drive website traffic because you're a local business, or brand awareness because you're a bigger brand, so aim for brand lift studies or sales transactions, all these are different goals or KPIs that could be leveraged."
The tools to measure these outcomes can range from pixel placement for tracking website conversions and online transactions to attribution models that connect CTV exposures to consumer behaviors like in-store purchases. The real differentiator is having the right technology partner -- one that can help you redefine how you measure success.
Jones shared an example from the automotive vertical. "We'll layer on some additional tactics, going more mid to lower funnel to see if we're driving more sales from this market or another. We can tie back those actual sales transaction data and say, 'You moved this many SUVs or sedans in each market.' Then you're using data-driven decisions from that campaign to build out the next quarter or next month."
The Sports Score
Circling back to the sports example, Premion is betting on programmatic to further level the playing field.
"It's exciting that the inventory's being made available programmatically," Jones explained. And given CTV consumption habits added, "We're agnostic. We don't care what platform the game is being served on. We just want to be able to have access to that game and provide that access to the advertiser."
For SMBs, this represents a dramatic shift. Sports inventory was historically either too expensive or locked up in complicated deals with broadcasters who owned the rights. Now with Premion's programmatic live sports offering, which launched earlier this year, local businesses “get to be in the same live events as some of the big national brands," Jones said. "It helps their perception, it helps their credibility. It aligns them with their local community and engages with that fan base."
What to Look for in a CTV Partner
For agencies and advertisers evaluating CTV partners, Jones offered clear guidance: look for the TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) seal of approval, which indicates a partner's commitment to combating fraud and maintaining brand safe quality standards; and seek three strong offerings: inventory, data, and measurement.
For local advertisers willing to embrace these tools, set clear goals, and measure real outcomes, the opportunity has never been bigger. The playing field has been leveled. Now it's about who's willing to adapt.
Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.
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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.