Dive Brief:

• Captify and Magnite are partnering to enable advertisers to use data from the search bar on publishers’ websites to inform programmatic advertising decisions for connected TV (CTV) ad inventory, according to the two companies.
• Using Captify’s Search Intelligence tools, the company will analyze and categorize search terms from millions of publisher websites into profiles, interests and moments. It will then convert that information into audiences that can be activated on Magnite’s CTV inventory.
• The promise is that by combining the real-time intent fueled by search behavior with CTV content, advertisers will be better able to reach audiences searching for specific brands, products or services at the most opportune times.

Dive Insight:

The news from Captify and Magnite comes as advertisers are seeking alternative ways to reach potential new customers now that Google's deprecation of third-party cookies is underway. Search, the focus of the deal, can be a powerful tool in an advertiser’s arsenal because it offers the opportunity to reach a consumer through all phases of the funnel. Consumers now use search in a variety of different ways, from research to consideration to purchase.

In an example presented by Captify and Magnite, a consumer might search for honeymoon destinations on cosmopolitan.com, then rate iPhone vs. Galaxy cameras on techradar.com, and then price flights from New York to Maldives on booking.com. In such a case, Captify can collect that string of searches, look at the relationships between those searches and searches made by other consumers and create an audience profile based on that data. In such an example, the consumer segments might be “engagement,” “techies” and “travel.” At that point, media buyers could use that information to purchase those audience groups on Magnite’s programmatic CTV inventory.

The companies noted that Captify’s data is unique in that it is real-time, unprompted, specific and granular as well as comprehensive, drawing from a number of sources.

The timing of the partnership also coincides with what is expected to be a banner year for CTV advertising, which is the fastest growing major ad channel, per eMarketer.

“Captify’s Search Intelligence platform brings the audience data to power and fine-tune advertisers’ programmatic advertising campaigns,” said Andrew Bez, agency lead, Magnite, in a statement. “Bringing that to CTV is a huge step forward in an environment where audience-targeting has become more complex, with media owners keen to explore these new capabilities.”

Up-to-the-minute audience targeting and accountability is a hot topic among broadcast media companies. NBCUniversal recently showcased its plans to bring television in-line with its digitally powered ad channels at its One24 technology and developer conference.

“We want the behavior with TV to look more like digital. We want to look more like performance media,” said John Lee, chief data officer for advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, during a press briefing in advance of One24. “Think about how with a paid search, paid social or programmatic campaign, you’re optimizing up to the second — it’s one of the reasons to do it. You can course-correct while it’s still happening. I think that’s a pretty big behavior shift versus a set-it-and-forget-it, traditional mentality with TV.”