What is Local TV Advertising: Types, Benefits & Costs

For businesses aiming to conquer specific geographical markets, local TV advertising emerges as a proven medium for success. 

By tailoring messages to resonate with regional audiences, brands can establish a strong local presence, foster community engagement, and generate online and in-person traffic.

Local TV advertising can be highly effective for a wide range of businesses, such as:

• Restaurants and Cafes
• Retail Stores
• Automotive Dealerships
• Real Estate Agencies
• Healthcare Providers
• Professional Services
• Community Events and Organizations
  

In TV advertising, it's crucial to recognize that not all approaches are equal. As streaming viewership surpasses cable, businesses must be proactive in reshaping their local media buying strategies to keep pace with changing consumer habits.

Cord-cutting has dealt a significant blow to traditional pay-TV providers, leading to a loss of millions of customers each year from 2019 to 2022. 

The trend shows no sign of slowing down, with a staggering 2.3 million customers leaving cable TV in the first quarter of 2023 alone.

As these statistics underscore the shift in how viewers consume content, connected TV (CTV) advertising has emerged as a pivotal solution for businesses seeking to maintain relevance and impact.

Moreover, the advent of CTV has further accelerated the transformation, letting viewers access streaming content on their smart TVs, blurring the lines between traditional TV and digital media.

Amidst this dynamic shift, businesses seeking to capture the attention of local audiences must adapt their advertising strategies to match the evolving habits of consumers.

In this blog, we delve into the world of local TV advertising and explore how it seamlessly aligns with the modern TV viewing experience.

Table of Contents

• What Is Local TV Advertising?
• What Are the Benefits of Advertising on Local TV?
• Types of Local TV Advertising: Linear vs. CTV
• How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Local TV?
• Why CTV Advertising is Key to Local Efforts
• How to Buy Local TV Ads Programmatically: Best Practices
• How Strategus Can Accelerate Your Local TV Advertising Efforts

What is local TV Advertising?

Local TV advertising is the process of promoting products or services on television within a local market. Unlike national advertising, local TV advertising targets viewers in a particular city, town, or region.

Tailored to captivate specific areas, local TV advertising allows businesses to connect with a more focused audience, making it a valuable marketing tool for companies looking to increase their visibility and customer base in their immediate vicinity.

While broadcast TV has often been used interchangeably with linear TV, the surge in streaming viewership and the capability of CTV to target beyond a DMA level have brought opportunities for businesses to reach customers in their own towns, counties, and zip codes.

To illustrate, picture a Miami-based home installation service. Through the precision of CTV, this service gains the ability to meticulously reach its target market, leveraging granular measurements and focusing on specific audiences defined by zip codes. As a result, it exclusively captures the attention of viewers in Miami.

The synergy between local TV advertising and CTV embodies unparalleled efficiency. Imagine a scenario where limited budgets meet maximized impact — a reality shaped by the ability to minimize waste — optimizing engagement and outreach that redefines the boundaries of effective marketing.

What are the Benefits of Advertising on Local TV?

As we reminisce about the classic TV ad breaks dating back to our childhood, one cannot deny their impact on consumer behaviors. 

Television commercials have seamlessly woven into the fabric of our entertainment culture, leaving a lasting impression on viewers to explore more about the showcased brands.

For local businesses looking to reach a targeted audience, TV advertising proves to be a compelling choice for several reasons.

• Audience Reach & Engagement: Local TV advertising holds the unique opportunity to target specific demographics and geographic areas. Furthermore, ad-supported streaming services reward viewers for watching commercials, allowing them to continue their uninterrupted TV experience.

• Creating a Visual Identity for Your Brand: You can underscore your brand's significance within the community, making a memorable impression on the audience. Whether you're spotlighting local collaborations, emphasizing community engagement, or presenting exclusive offers tailored for local viewers, your brand emerges as an authentic part of the community.

• TV & Digital Working Together: Despite the era of multiple devices, viewers remain highly engaged with TV content. While advertisers vie for their attention during favorite TV shows, viewers often switch to their mobile devices after ads to seek more information, creating a powerful synergy between TV and digital marketing.

• High Credibility: Brands that utilize local TV advertising bolster their credibility by reaching their desired audience while they engage with programming that holds significance for them, whether it's the news, entertainment, sports, and more. The targeted exposure through local TV ads fosters trust by aligning with viewers' preferences.

• A Level Playing Field for Smaller Brands: With the strategic placement of local TV ads using CTV, smaller brands connect directly with their customer base within the local market. This empowers them to access untapped customers on par with larger brands, transcending the previously limited TV advertising space.

Above all, TV advertising offers a cost-effective way for small business to broadcast their message to a receptive and engaged audience, unlocking limitless growth opportunities.

Types of Local TV Advertising: Linear vs. CTV

Linear TV advertising and CTV advertising hold significant potential for local businesses aiming to reach their target audiences effectively. 

Understanding the unique strengths and capabilities of each helps make informed decisions about advertising strategies that resonate with local viewership.

In this section, we’ll cover the key points of differentiation between these two approaches as they relate to local TV advertising. 

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Local TV?

Advertising expenses on local TV can exhibit considerable variation, based upon the nature of the campaign and the intended audience. 

Let's delve into some additional factors to gain a more comprehensive understanding:

• DMA Scaled Campaigns vs. Targeted Buys: In DMA (Designated Market Area) scaled campaigns, where the reach is broader, the cost of advertising on local TV can be justified. However, when advertisers focus on specific regions like cities and counties, the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on traditional TV can be expensive compared to other options.
  
  
• Comparing Costs: Although linear TV advertising may appear cost-effective in specific DMAs or larger purchases, the undeniable truth is that CTV advertising consistently showcases an elevated level of cost-efficiency. Through its capacity to accurately target your preferred audience, CTV eradicates wasteful costs, leading to heightened efficiency and an increased level of measurability.
  
  
• Audience Targeting: Through CTV, advertisers can construct audiences composed of individuals who exhibit a higher likelihood of engaging with their offerings. In contrast, when navigating the terrain of linear TV, audience selection lacks transparency, making it harder to align the audience and the product or service being promoted.
  
  
• Changing Landscape: The effectiveness of traditional TV advertising has decreased over time due to a decline in viewership and an inability to offer competitive pricing. with CTV, especially when data targeting capabilities are taken into account.
  
  
• Decreasing Budgets: Some media buyers are experiencing budget constraints, as they need to buy a certain number of rating points in a market. However, as linear TV households decrease and ratings drop, the rates for commercials on traditional TV tend to increase. As a result, budgets are being diverted to CTV, which offers more targeted and efficient advertising opportunities.

With a rising number of consumers shifting, several linear TV companies are now providing their inventory programmatically, granting access to this valuable resource. Presently, local news stands out as one of the most efficient sources of inventory for advertising.

Why CTV Advertising Is Key to Local Efforts

Marketing a local business requires the strategic capture of nearby audiences. As television viewing evolves, advertisers find themselves at a crossroads between traditional linear TV advertising and the digital arena of connected TV (CTV) advertising.

Despite the paradigm shift in TV viewership towards digital channels, many local advertisers still cling to the familiarity of linear TV advertising.

This reluctance to embrace CTV could come at a cost, as the trajectory is clear: cord-free viewers are set to surpass pay TV audiences by the end of 2024.

Not to mention, Leichtman Research Group estimates that 80% of homes in the US have at least one connected TV device. And when it comes to streaming content, nearly 40% of adults watch daily, and 60% watch weekly.

Capitalizing on the effectiveness of CTV advertising, these tools enable audience-centric targeting, allowing you to craft tailored messages, and deliver distinct commercials directly to your desired audience:

• Geo-targeting Capabilities: Reach specific zip codes and households
  
  
• Cross-device Tracking: Monitor engagement across various devices
  
  
• Audience-based Targeting: Utilize look-alike audience modeling, behavioral personas, and demographics
  
  
• Digital Tactics: Provides insights into local consumer reactions, across paid search, display, and paid social strategies

Furthermore, CTV advertising seamlessly integrates the dynamics of live, linear-style programming and on-demand content. 

Various platforms, like those offering free ad-supported streaming, provide a more traditional channel-surfing feel.

The best part is that these CTV platforms require no subscription fees. Designed to align with the unboxing of smart TVs, manufacturers like Samsung, Vizio, and LG are deeply invested in CTV, allowing users to effortlessly access these channels with an Internet connection, unburdened by pay TV subscriptions.

How to Buy Local TV Ads Programmatically: Best Practices

In this section, we embark on a dry run of the key considerations and best practices that Strategus employs when guiding customers through CTV advertising.

Identify Your Audience

The first crucial step in running successful CTV ads is identifying your target audience. Who are the people you want to reach with your advertising campaign? This involves understanding their demographics, behaviors, preferences, and viewing habits. 

A comprehensive audience analysis will help you tailor your messaging to resonate with your audience. Take into consideration factors such as age, gender, location, interests, and lifestyle to create a detailed audience profile. 

Then, you can effectively craft your CTV ads to speak directly to their needs and desires.

Identify Your Key Performance Indicators (Kpi)

Defining your KPIs is essential for measuring the success of your CTV advertising campaign. What specific outcomes do you want to achieve? Whether it's brand awareness, website visits, video views, or conversions, your KPIs should align with your overall business objectives. 

By setting clear KPIs, you provide a measurable benchmark for evaluating the impact of your CTV ads. 

Leverage existing data to identify the specific metrics that matter most to your campaign's success, ensuring that you have a solid foundation for assessing performance and optimization.

Plan Your tactics

Once you have a well-defined audience and established KPIs, it's time to plan your tactics. 

Consider the most effective ways to reach your target audience and encourage them to take the desired action. Will a mix of video ads and interactive elements work best? How can you create a seamless viewer experience that guides them toward your goal? 

To measure the success of your tactics, you need to establish a clear system for tracking and analyzing user interactions. Utilize robust reporting tools and gain deeper insights into how your audience engages with your CTV ads.

Develop Your Creatives

Tailoring ads to your audience has evolved into a finely tuned process, where hyper-targeting and dynamic customization have become the cornerstones of success.

This is particularly true in the world of CTV, where the fusion of technology and creativity allows for a level of personalization that wasn't possible before.

Imagine a scenario where your CTV ads are not just broadcasted to a generic mass but are dynamically designed to speak to each specific market.

As a result, this localization of creative content connects with audiences from diverse backgrounds.

Consider Your budget

Your budget allocation should reflect your priorities and the potential impact of different tactics. Take into account factors such as ad placements, frequency, creative production costs, and any additional expenses.

A well-thought-out budget ensures that you're maximizing the value of your investment while achieving your desired outcomes. In the context of your overall campaign strategy, you can make informed decisions that lead to successful CTV advertising campaigns.

How Strategus Can Accelerate Your Local TV Advertising Efforts

After following the outlined steps, brands and agencies face a choice: self-service or the hands-on expertise of Strategus.

Self-service demands full-time commitment and complexity, while Strategus provides unmatched advantages in CTV advertising.

Your next local TV advertising campaign is within reach — connect with us today to get started.