Today we are going to take a deep dive into OTT advertising for personal injury lawyers.

We will cover the basics of what OTT advertising is, how much it costs, how to get started, and some tips on making effective OTT campaigns for personal injury lawyers.

What is OTT Advertising?

Basically, OTT advertising means having an ad on a streaming service.

Over-the-top refers to the delivery of video content in a way that bypasses traditional television channels. The OTT platforms are generally streaming services or apps. While there are over 350 independent OTT some of the biggest names are:

• Hulu
  
• Amazon Prime Video
  
• Netflix
  
• Disney Plus
  
• Peacock
  
• Paramount+
  
• Apple TV and more
  

Benefits to OTT Advertising:

People are watching. I would place a conservative guess that at least half of our listeners have canceled their cable subscriptions. At our house, we have Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ESPN, Peacock, and pretty much everything other than cable. So, people are watching. Also, since people go in and hand pick what they want to watch, fewer viewers are flipping channels during commercial breaks.

Audience targeting. What is really cool about advertising through these streaming platforms is that you have much more control over who is watching. Unlike traditional cable ads that go to everyone across the nation who is watching a show, you can pinpoint your target market by location, age, interests, demographics, etc.

This is huge. HUGE! Think about it…if you want to target more bike accidents, you can create commercials that are all about how to help bike accident victims and have them directly go to people who have a noted interest in cycling. Or pair a motorcycle accident ad with people who like to watch shows about tricking out their choppers. If done right, the possibilities are endless.

If done wrong, the investment is pointless. So please, please don’t invest in a blanket personal injury video and blast it out to all of America and expect to get cases.

Analytics. Another benefit of OTT advertising is that you can get some detailed analytics and reporting to track your ad performance. Most platforms offer metrics on impressions, completion rates, and click-though rates (if you enable interactive ads). This can help you evaluate your ads and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

How Much Does OTT Advertising Cost?

Since many of the streaming services are individual entities, they are naturally all at different price points. Also, the more you define your target market, the higher the cost of running the ad.

OTT ads are priced on a cost per thousand impressions basis. This is generally noted as CPM. So, if an ad has a CPM of $10, you are paying a penny every time someone views the ad.

Hulu tends to be the among the most expensive with rates falling between 20-40 CPM. Their ad inventory is relatively limited, and their audience tends to be more engaged than other services, so they can charge a premium price.

YouTube TV has a lower CPM, typically between 10-20 CPM, even though they still have a large audience.

Other streaming services like Sling TV, Roku, and others with smaller audiences might have even lower CPMs while still being able to target your selected campaign demographics.

Another factor that can influence the cost can include how long the video ad is – the standard is 15-30 seconds. As a broad generalization, a 15 second ad can be 5-25 CPM where a 30 second ad might fall between 10-50.

Also, on some platforms you can enhance your ads by making them non-skippable or interactive. You can also select whether your ad plays, before, during or after the tv program. These choices naturally impact the cost of the ad.

How to Start OTT Ads for Personal Injury Lawyers:

If you are seeking a done-for-you solution for OTT advertising, contact us today and we’ll connect you with an OTT advertising provider, if possible.

If you’d like to DIY: One option is to go to the individual streaming services and run your ads. This is a good idea if you are just wanting to test the waters on a few of them.

Hulu makes it pretty simple. Since Hulu and Disney+ are partnered up, you can run ads for both streaming services through one platform at Hulu Ad Manager.

With Hulu, you can start a campaign for a little as $500. All you need to do is create an advertiser account and have Hulu verify it. This generally takes 24-48 hours.

Once you create the account, you can start building your campaign, set you target audience, set your budget, get your video approved, launch it, and track your progress.

Other streaming services, like YouTube TV are more complicated. YouTube TV ads are run through Google Ads. In order to have your ad guaranteed to run on YouTube, you must work with an advertiser or agency to buy a reservation on a fixed CPM rate. Otherwise, you can bid on advertising space that might run on YouTube ads, but could also run on one of the partner websites.

The most complicated streaming service I’ve found is Netflix. You must not only go through an advertiser or agency, but there is a long wait and extremely high premium for ad space. Pair that with low metrics visibility, and you have a perfect storm for failure as a personal injury lawyer dabbling in OTT ads.

That being said, if you don’t want to go through the process of managing your ads in-house, it might be wise to find an advertising agency that is well-versed in OTT ads to help you in this process.

OTT Ad Campaign Do’s and Don’ts.

Now that we have gone through all of the basics, let’s end with some tips on making the most of your OTT campaigns:

Tip 1: Don’t be everything to everyone. Have unique campaigns that are targeted to different target audiences. This is the best way to take advantage of your demographic targeting. Have one bicycle accident commercial sent out to people who like biking. One motorcycle accident commercial to bikers.

Tip 2: Create compelling content that captures your audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds. Let them know that you understand them and their needs with the colors you choose, the background music, the commercial actors. Let’s go back to bikers – they want to see a cyclist – not a lawyer. They like motion, not a stuffy office. They like bright colors – not muted suits. Capture their attention then capture their needs with your message. Say “Since I know you, I know how to help you.” Not literally. That would be weird.

Tip 3: Track your campaign’s performance. Look at the data and see what is working. One method is A/B testing. You could have two bike accident commercials and see which one does better, then do more of that one. Or maybe compare the bike commercials to the motorcycle accident commercials. Or compare performance based on zip codes. There is so much data that you can use to inform your decisions. Make the most of it.

Tip 4: Don’t expect your phone to ring from the commercial itself. So many lawyers have run countless tv ads that all fall flat. Unfortunately, TV ads just don’t usually work in and of themselves. The odds of someone having an accident, seeing your commercial, and rushing to the phone is fairly low…even if they are literally watching the ad on their phone. However, the ad can contribute to a larger brand awareness campaign that will make them more likely to call you down the road if they see your name again.

Do You Need Help with OTT Advertising?

That’s all I know about OTT advertising. We specialize in SEO for Personal Injury Law Firms. If you’re interested in OTT advertising, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We may be able to give you a few names to check out. Multiple law firms we work with are testing the OTT waters right now, so we’ll have some success (and failure) stories to share soon.

See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.