Roku has always believed that its platform can make advertising unmissable in TV streaming, according to Louqman Parampath, VP of Product Management, Advertising.
While Roku helps marketers make the most of traditional 30-second TV ads, he says the company is also driving innovation with new shoppable ad formats to transform TV streaming into a powerful commerce channel.
We spoke with Parampath to hear the latest on Roku’s commerce initiatives, best practices for shoppable ads, and how this format is setting the stage for Roku’s next generation of action ads.
Can you tell us about your background and your experience moving advertising forward in TV streaming?
I've been at Roku for eight years now. I'm responsible for Roku's advertising technology stack, which means all of our ad serving, programmatic, targeting, measurement, and ad experiences. This includes new, innovative formats like shoppable ads.
How do shoppable ads work for an advertiser and for a viewer?
For advertisers, it's just straightforward as buying any other advertising with Roku. You can run shoppable ads through a direct insertion order or programmatically through OneView, our ad platform built for TV streaming.
For viewers, when they stream programming, like on The Roku Channel, they come to an ad break with a 15- or a 30-second ad slot that shows them a video ad. Through our partnership with Walmart, if Walmart or Walmart's suppliers are promoting a product, we can make the advertisement for that product interactive. We can show an overlay on top of the video telling the user how to purchase. If we already have the user’s credit card information through Roku Pay, they can click once more and have the product sent to their home by Walmart. It’s incredibly simple and delightful for the consumer.
What have you learned so far about shoppable ad campaigns?
We launched this product capability in the middle of last year. Since then, we’ve run many campaigns and gained valuable learnings and insights.
The video creative should be direct in telling the viewer what they can purchase now. Brand-focused ads are very different from performance-focused ads. We’ve been partnering with marketers directly to create custom creatives that encourage shopping behaviors.
There is also the sweet spot product price range to get consumers to engage and buy. Usually, this is under $100. If it is too expensive, some viewers may not buy immediately and the ad is more about building the brand. If it is too little, it may not be worth a singular purchase. Our data and research helps to make the most of the opportunity for our partners.
What other factors make a shoppable ad work well?
The second aspect is the user experience. Consumers often fumble over QR codes. A clear image of the Roku remote telling the viewer that they can click the OK button to make a purchase has helped brands improve response rates by 4x.¹
Third, our Roku Pay platform helps make conversion easy. Consumers don’t get lost along the way trying to punch in their credit card or billing address becasue it’s all right there.
How are you thinking about effective measurement for shoppable ads?
We look at key data points like how many homes were exposed to the ad, how many clicked on the ad for the first interactive overlay, and how many made the purchase directly from the TV. We look at the entire funnel to figure out how many consumers went through the funnel and ultimately converted.
What’s on the horizon for Roku’s shoppable ad formats?
We're looking at not just adding the interactive capability on top of video ads, but also on content. If you have a cooking show where a product is being promoted, we can add these interactive shoppable overlays. The viewer can buy the product directly from the content they're watching without waiting until the ad break.
It’s a great opportunity for marketers to get even more of what they love in TV and make not just their ad, but the sale, unmissable for streamers.
Finally, what are you streaming?
The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. I highly recommend it!
Want to learn more about Roku’s shoppable ad opportunities? Tune in to Roku's NewFront on May 2 or subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
¹ Source: Comparison of SMS vs QR - Early alpha results in Walmart native checkout with more recent brand-specific videos, where the latter were much more geared around driving a call to action. | Methodology: Multiple A/B tests from August ‘22 through Feb ‘23