Digiday+ Research: Marketers ramp up their TV ad spend, with Amazon holding growth potential

Digiday+ Research surveyed brand, retailer and agency professionals in the second quarter of this year to find out exactly how marketers are mapping out their TV ad spend during such an important year for the channel.

To start, Digiday’s survey found that more than half of marketers are already investing in TV advertising, including streaming. Fifty-eight percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said that, as of Q2, they were putting ad spend toward TV.

For context, 46% of marketers told Digiday in Q1 of this year that they were investing in streaming video as an ad channel. And, as of Q3 of last year, just 22% of marketers said they spent at least a very small portion of their marketing budget on TV and streaming ads. (Although it’s important to consider that 22% could be an outlier — more than 50% of marketers told Digiday they spent at least a little on TV ads all the way back through Q1 2022.)

Clearly, there has been growth in the space in recent years — and Digiday’s survey found there is more likely to come. This is specifically in the area of the ever-present tech giant Amazon.

Just this year, Amazon began offering advertising for its Prime streaming service. That’s on top of its Freevee streaming service, through which the company already offered advertising. As of Q2, nearly half of marketers (42%) told Digiday they had purchased video ads on an Amazon streaming platform. And that percentage is poised to grow.

About two-thirds of brand, retailer and agency pros (66%) said they’re planning on purchasing video ads on an Amazon streaming platform in the next six months. The gap between this percentage and the 42% who said they are already buying video ads through Amazon shows there’s significant potential for growth in Amazon’s streaming TV ad channel, specifically.

So, what types of ads are marketers spending their money on in the TV and streaming space? Digiday’s survey found that almost all marketers who are investing in streaming TV ads are focused on ads that drive impressions and branding. Ninety-seven percent of brand, retailer and agency pros told Digiday that they were investing in impression- and branding-focused streaming TV ads as of Q2. Meanwhile, about half were investing in QR code ads (53% of marketers said they were investing in this type of ad) and shoppable ads (44% said they were investing in these ads).

Marketers’ focus on impressions and branding in the TV space is unlikely to change in the coming months. Sixty-six percent of marketer respondents told Digiday they would be investing in or focusing the most on ads that drive impressions and branding in the next six months.

Shoppable ads show the next-highest potential for growth in TV advertising, but at a much lower margin. Twenty percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said they would focus their TV advertising the most on shoppable ads in the next six months. Just 14% said QR code ads would be their biggest focus for TV.

Marketers’ focus on TV ads that drive impressions and branding makes sense when we look at how brand, retailer and agency pros are measuring the success of their streaming TV ads. Nearly half of marketers (43%) told Digiday that impressions are their main measurement of success for streaming TV ads, making it the top success measurement in the channel, according to Digiday’s survey.

Conversions came in second, with nearly a quarter of marketers (23%) saying they are the main measurement of success for their streaming TV ads, followed by watch time or completed watches, which 20% of respondents said is their main measurement of success for streaming TV marketing.