The Power of Shoppable Advertising: Q&A With Roundel's Justin Haynes

Editor's Note: This interview with Justin Haynes, Senior Director of Product, Roundel, originally appeared in "CTV x Commerce: Data-Driven Insight to Reach Shoppers With CTV Advertising," a report produced jointly by Innovid and Roundel, Target's retail media network.

Q. Roundel's survey data shows that 60% of consumers look up products after seeing video ads. In light of that figure, what's your sense of consumers' acceptance of shoppable ads?

Justin Haynes: There is a growing opportunity with shoppable ads since these formats help streamline and make the purchase journey easier for consumers by directing them from the ad to destinations where they can learn more or purchase.  

We’re seeing more openness from consumers to engage with shoppable features like QR codes, as 1/3 of Target guests report that they would be likely to scan a QR code from their TV if they knew it would take them to a familiar site, up 3% from last year.

Another interesting nugget is that guests who reported they would scan a QR code on their TV are also comfortable spending an average of $17 more through their TV than those who reported being unlikely to scan QR codes on their TVs. We expect to see consumers embrace more shopping behaviors as shoppable features become more common.

Q. Based on Roundel’s experience with shoppable CTV so far, what kind of CTV creative formats have you seen work well for advertisers?

Haynes: When we first underwent alpha testing with shoppable CTV, we tested across various creatives to identify what would drive the strongest performance. From that testing, we ultimately chose to leverage canvas ad units for our CTV by Roundel shoppable creatives. To explain what the canvas ad unit is, it’s a unit where a video asset is scaled down to accommodate a larger QR code and prominent branding surrounding the video. We ended up using this ad unit for two reasons: 1) due to stronger results and 2) based off our partner feedback.

Roundel saw stronger sales performance and scan rates from leveraging the canvas ad unit compared to leveraging an overlay ad unit that places lighter branding and a smaller QR code on top of the video asset. We believe the canvas ad unit branding and stylization proved to generate more attention and engagement from guests. This also allows brands to lean into the “Target brand love” with the ability to highlight Target branding more prominently within the canvas ad unit, as we learned in a June 2023 Target guest survey that guests are 4x more likely to trust ads from Target over brands they have not purchased from previously.  

We also anecdotally heard from client feedback that they preferred the canvas ad unit to avoid cutting off imagery in the video with the QR code on top of the video asset as another factor that ultimately shaped how we rolled out this offering.

Q. What is your advice to brands exploring video shoppable ads — what the pitfalls, if any, they need to avoid?

Haynes: One of the biggest misconceptions we have seen around shoppable ads is the thinking that it only is applicable for conversion/sales-related KPIs. Shoppable ads can be used for a multitude of objectives, but it is important to understand what your KPI is, as that will indicate what your CTA should be. For example, if a brand is focused on driving new product awareness, they should leverage “Shop Now” as it will help consumers become familiar with the product.

In general, shoppable ads are still a new offering that consumers are getting used to seeing. As it continues to grow, the industry will gain additional learnings on how to better adopt and ways to avoid saturation. Until then, it is important to keep in mind the message you are trying to get across.

Q. To what degree do you think the rise of CTV and shoppable ads change TV and video advertising from an upper-funnel channel to a lower-funnel channel, or is that the wrong way to look at the evolution?

Haynes: From our POV, we believe that we shouldn’t bucket TV and video ads into only one aspect of the marketing funnel, as TV and video ads can make an impact across the full funnel. Different creative formats and targeting approaches can help tailor video ads to work well as an upper-funnel mass awareness driver or lower-funnel shoppable ad. That’s the beauty of video ads like CTV that offer both the reach of TV and digital capabilities to encourage actions.  

Advertisers should be looking at their reporting holistically to evaluate how CTV is making an impact on the purchase journey and leveraging that knowledge to inform optimizations. Video metrics like impressions, reach/frequency, and completion rate are valuable to evaluate, but don't forget the insights you can get through retail media networks now with lower-funnel metrics such as “new guest purchaser insights,” “scan rates,” and “add to carts” to close the loop. This gives brands an opportunity to have greater visibility into how CTV makes an impact across the funnel for them, as well as understand which messaging resonates with consumers to create increasingly desirable media experiences.  

We recently ran a campaign that paired multiple solutions across display, video and CTV, with 40% of total attributed purchasers seeing a CTV ad prior to purchasing. By including CTV as part of the media mix, we see a 20% reduction in time for a guest to make a purchase compared to when campaigns didn’t include CTV – in other words, we saw it would take 20% longer for guests to convert by purchasing after being exposed to an ad. Advertisers should keep a holistic “state-of-mind” in evaluating how CTV can fit within their larger plans, as we see CTV helping to make an impact to move consumers from awareness to conversion.

Q. What do you see as the next big trends in the current evolution of CTV creatives?

Haynes:  We’re observing that pause ads are gaining traction as more publishers are starting to offer this creative capability. Consumer behavior continues to adapt digital formats for discovering products even during other activities, especially with new generations as we’ve noticed in a 2023 Target guest survey that 76% of guests report using the Target App or Target.com while shopping physically in-store, but that number jumps to 93% when looking at Gen Z guests. Publishers will continue to test with new formats, especially as the new generation embraces digital formats that bring discovery and inspiration even as consumers are doing other everyday activities like streaming.  

Another trend we’re noticing is that streaming networks have started to get exclusive sporting events, leading to an increase in viewers streaming live sports. This will become a premium environment where brands will also be taking advantage of CTV and where we may see more formats appear.

For a deeper dive into the power of shoppable CTV advertising, download the full CTV x Commerce report.

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