Advanced CTV Targeting: AI, Lookalike Audiences & Retargeting Strategies
Smart TV advertising's greatest advantage over traditional television is precision targeting. Advanced targeting strategies—including AI optimization, lookalike audiences, and cross-device retargeting—can dramatically improve campaign performance and ROI.
The Three Tiers of CTV Targeting
Basic demographic and geographic targeting:
- • Age, gender, household income
- • Geographic radius or zip codes
- • Homeownership status
- • Household composition
Best for: Brand awareness, broad reach campaigns
CPM: $15-$25
Behavioral and interest-based targeting:
- • In-market for specific products/services
- • Website visitation behavior
- • Purchase intent signals
- • Interest categories and affinities
Best for: Consideration and conversion campaigns
CPM: $25-$35
Machine learning and advanced data strategies:
- • AI-powered audience optimization
- • Lookalike audience modeling
- • Cross-device retargeting
- • Predictive analytics
- • Dynamic creative optimization
Best for: Maximum ROI, sophisticated campaigns
CPM: $30-$45
AI-Powered Audience Optimization
AI-optimized targeting uses machine learning algorithms to continuously analyze campaign performance and automatically adjust audience targeting to maximize your specific goal.
How it works:
- 1. Initial targeting: Campaign launches with your defined audience parameters
- 2. Data collection: AI tracks which audience segments perform best
- 3. Pattern recognition: Machine learning identifies characteristics of high-performing viewers
- 4. Automatic optimization: AI shifts budget toward best-performing segments
- 5. Continuous learning: Algorithm improves over time as more data is collected
Benefits of AI Optimization
Better Performance
30-50% improvement in conversion rates vs. static targeting
Efficiency
Automatically eliminates wasted impressions
Scale
Discovers high-value audience segments you wouldn't manually identify
Initial Targeting (Manual):
Homeowners, age 35-70, HHI $50K+, 25-mile radius
Results: 180 leads, $83 cost per lead
AI-Optimized Targeting (After 6 weeks):
AI identified best-performing segments:
- • Age 45-65 (not 35-70)
- • HHI $75K+ (not $50K+)
- • Specific zip codes (not entire radius)
- • Homeowners 10+ years (equity for financing)
Results: 267 leads, $56 cost per lead
Improvement: 48% more leads, 33% lower cost per lead
Lookalike Audience Targeting
Lookalike audiences are new prospects who share characteristics with your best existing customers. By uploading your customer list, AI identifies patterns and finds similar households to target.
How it works:
- 1. Upload customer data: Provide list of past customers (email, phone, address)
- 2. Data matching: Platform matches your list to household profiles
- 3. Pattern analysis: AI identifies common characteristics (demographics, behaviors, interests)
- 4. Audience creation: Platform builds new audience of similar households
- 5. Targeting: Your CTV ads reach these high-probability prospects
Types of Lookalike Audiences
Based on your entire customer list
Best for: Broad prospecting
Based only on your top 20% customers (by revenue, LTV, frequency)
Best for: Premium product/service campaigns
Based on customers from last 6-12 months
Best for: Current market conditions and trends
Challenge: Expand customer base beyond current regulars
Strategy:
- • Uploaded list of 3,200 loyalty program members
- • Created 5% lookalike audience
- • Targeted within 10-mile radius of locations
- • Budget: $12,000/month
Results (3-month campaign):
145,000
Lookalike households reached
4,800
New customers acquired
$30
Cost per new customer
6.2x
ROI
Key Insight: Lookalike audience converted at 2.4x the rate of standard targeting
Cross-Device Retargeting
CTV retargeting allows you to re-engage people who have already interacted with your brand by showing them ads on their Smart TV.
Common retargeting scenarios:
- Website visitors → CTV ads: Target people who visited your website
- CTV viewers → Display/social ads: Retarget CTV viewers on other devices
- Email list → CTV ads: Target your email subscribers on TV
- Store visitors → CTV ads: Target people who visited your physical location
Types of CTV Retargeting Campaigns
Strategy: Target households that visited your website but didn't convert
Use cases:
- • E-commerce: Retarget cart abandoners
- • Lead gen: Retarget people who viewed pricing but didn't submit form
- • Real estate: Retarget people who viewed property listings
- • Auto: Retarget people who viewed vehicle details
Performance: 3-5x higher conversion rate than cold audiences
Strategy: After someone sees your CTV ad, retarget them on mobile, desktop, and social
Use cases:
- • Drive immediate action (click, call, visit)
- • Provide more detailed information
- • Nurture consideration over time
Performance: 40-60% higher website visit rate when combined with CTV
Strategy: Target households that visited competitor websites
Use cases:
- • Steal market share from competitors
- • Position your brand as alternative
- • Capture in-market shoppers
Performance: 50-70% of competitor visitors are still in-market and persuadable
Challenge: High website traffic but low conversion rate (2.3%)
Strategy:
Phase 1: CTV Awareness Campaign
- • Broad demographic targeting
- • 30-second product showcase
- • Budget: $15,000/month
Result: 600,000 impressions, 12,000 website visits
Phase 2: Multi-Device Retargeting
- • CTV retargeting: Target website visitors who didn't purchase
- • Display retargeting: Retarget CTV viewers on mobile/desktop
- • Social retargeting: Retarget both groups on Facebook/Instagram
- • Budget: $10,000/month
Results:
4.7%
Conversion rate (from 2.3%)
$187,000
Revenue from retargeting
7.5x
ROI with retargeting
3.1x
ROI without retargeting
Key Insight: Multi-device retargeting created multiple touchpoints, dramatically improving conversion rates
Implementing Advanced Targeting: Step-by-Step
Start with standard targeting:
- • Run 4-6 week campaign with demographic + geographic targeting
- • Collect performance data (impressions, website visits, conversions)
- • Calculate baseline metrics (CTR, conversion rate, CPA, ROI)
This baseline is critical for measuring improvement.
Required for advanced targeting:
- • Install tracking pixel on website
- • Set up conversion events (form submissions, purchases, calls)
- • Integrate with CRM (optional but recommended)
- • Test tracking before launching advanced campaigns
Without tracking, AI optimization and retargeting won't work.
Based on your goals:
- • Goal: Acquire new customers similar to existing ones → Use Lookalike Audiences
- • Goal: Maximize conversions from existing traffic → Use Retargeting
- • Goal: Continuously improve performance over time → Use AI Optimization
- • Goal: All of the above → Use Combination Strategy
First 2-4 weeks:
- • AI algorithms are learning
- • Performance may be similar to baseline
- • Don't make major changes yet
Weeks 4-8:
- • AI optimization kicks in
- • Performance should improve 20-40%
- • Monitor and adjust budget if needed
Weeks 8+:
- • Fully optimized performance
- • Continuous improvement
- • Scale budget if ROI is strong
Advanced Targeting Costs & Budget Requirements
AI Optimization: $10,000+/month
Needs sufficient data for meaningful learning
Lookalike Audiences: $5,000+/month
Can work with smaller budgets, more budget = more reach
Retargeting: $3,000+/month
Depends on website traffic volume
Combination Strategies: $15,000+/month
Requires budget for multiple tactics, highest ROI
- • Standard Targeting: $15-$25 CPM
- • Intent-Based Targeting: $25-$35 CPM
- • AI-Optimized Targeting: $30-$45 CPM
- • Retargeting: $35-$50 CPM (smaller, more valuable audience)
ROI Consideration: Higher CPMs are justified by significantly better conversion rates.
Ready to take your Smart TV advertising to the next level with advanced targeting strategies? SmartTVAds.co, powered by Bravo Ad Solutions, offers all advanced targeting capabilities.
- AI-powered audience optimization
- Lookalike audience modeling
- Cross-device retargeting
- Expert strategy and optimization support