Social Media Marketing VS. OTT Marketing: What’s the Difference?
Advertising your business and products is one of the key strategies to ensure success. So, how do you go about it, and which advertising method is best for you?
As the world keeps evolving and technology makes everything available at our fingertips, people are moving further away from consuming content via linear television. This means that people are turning to smart TVs, streaming devices, streaming platforms, and even social media to get the daily fix of their favorite content.
Of course, as consumers move to social media and other streaming channels, advertisers and marketers shift advertising tactics and focus more on these channels as well. An estimated 92% of marketers use social media for marketing campaigns.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Times are changing, and there’s more to adverting now than slapping together content and sharing it on various television channels.
Social media advertising is a term for online marketing which involves various social media platforms. Brands can take advantage of the ever-growing popularity of social media to advertiser their brands, products, and services.
Thankfully, social media marketing is easy to master once you get the hang of it, but don’t think it’s all about posting on your Facebook and Instagram daily.
Social media marketing involves careful strategizing and creativity, which is one many businesses hire social media managers and creatives to handle their business pages.
What is OTT Marketing?
Over-the-top marketing is the term for delivering ads through online video streaming. OTT streaming is done through connected TVs, smart TVs, and other devices connected to the internet. If you have streamed video content on Netflix or YouTube, you have consumed OTT video content.
It is known as OTT marketing when marketers promote their business through these services. This form of advertising takes place on streaming devices and services like Roku, Hulu, YouTube, Disney+, Netflix, and others.
Most of these platforms charge their subscribers a fee to access their content and display ads between shows or programs. Businesses that invest in OTT advertising enjoy the benefits that come with showing their ads to the audience who spend time on these platforms.
When OTT is appropriately used, this marketing strategy can do wonders for your business, including increasing brand visibility, reaching your target audience, and boosting sales.
Why is Social Media Marketing Important?
Businesses that include social media in their marketing strategy often come back with success stories, and many can’t deny the positive effects of social media advertising in business.
Builds brand awareness
At the heart of every marketing strategy are these goals – brand awareness and recognition. That’s because brand recognition is one of the key motivators that drive customers to patronize a business. For example, when we talk about fried chicken, the brand that would come to most people’s minds is KFC, but numerous other businesses make fried chicken.
Social media allows for effective brand building, leading to loyal and long-term customers. If your business can master the art of using social media to reach the right people at the right time, you’ll stay relevant to your audience.
It helps you identify your target audience
Once you identify your target audience, their likes, interests, and what they want, you’d be better able to serve them.
Social media makes it so much easier for brands to identify these people. You can see what trends your customers are following, what kind of content they like, what they talk about, and their problems. You can use this information to refine your content to benefit them.
Encourages conversations
With social media platforms constantly encouraging people to share what they are doing, thinking about, or where they are, it’s no surprise that people constantly talk on the platforms.
An excellent social media marketing strategy should keep your brand at the center of some of these conversations. This is why hiring social media strategists and people who understand how social media works is essential. You must consider different things: what time to post, what kind of content to post, and how to keep the conversation going.
Why is OTT Marketing Important?
OTT is an advantageous advertising method because you can connect with your audience via different OTT advertising platforms.
It helps you reach your ideal customer
OTT advertising does something traditional television advertising does not – it offers audience targeting features.
Target-specific advertising means that your brand receives valuable data on the audience, including their age, gender, geography, interests, and more. You can use this information to your advantage and ensure that your ads are sent to the demographic interested in your product. This strategy cuts your advertising budget and results in higher leads for your business.
Measure ad performances
With some other advertising platforms, you can’t tell if your ad is doing well or if it’s just sitting there.
However, with OTT, you can quickly review your ads and analyze your campaigns to know what works and what doesn’t. This means you can use previous ads to determine which campaigns work best, which platforms to use, and which ad types drive the best return on investment.
Social media marketing vs OTT marketing: engaging content
OTT adverts are known for engaging, whether with unskippable ads that ensure users sit through ads or content targeted at the specific customer’s interests.
With OTT ads, viewers have a more memorable ad experience, and they are more likely to remember seeing an ad and might even rate it as enjoyable.
Which Advertising is Best for You?
While the question has popped up many times with people speaking in favor of both sides, there is no denying that both advertising methods are incredibly effective.
Social media is a great way to reach a wider audience because everyone and their dog is on social media these days. However, OTT advertising has one advantage over it, and that is the means to track how well posts and other content are doing in terms of generating leads.
If you have weighed the advantages and disadvantages and are still unsure which to use, you can try both and see which works best for your business.
