The Impact of Evergreen CTV Campaigns

If the Tortoise and the Hare taught us anything, it’s that the old adage is true: slow and steady wins the race. In Connected TV, as in anthropomorphic animal racing, steady effort drives big results.  A comprehensive study of our top 25% of clients, showed that they all took similar actions to put them in the top dog (tortoise?) position. One commonality we found is that those that maintained a yearlong presence with evergreen placements saw increased returns. Read on to learn how to make the most of an evergreen campaign.

An Always-On, Evergreen Approach 

Top advertisers aren’t only lighting up campaigns during key sales periods. Instead, they are launching campaigns (both prospecting and retargeting!) and letting them run through the year. These evergreen campaigns become an anchor for a brand’s strategy. It creates a regular line of messaging, developing a cohesive and continuous narrative throughout the year that keeps brands in that ever-important initial consideration set for their prospective clients.

Evergreen campaigns also provide a wealth of information to advertisers. It allows them to experiment with their campaign to see what works best for their brand, enabling them to then capitalize on these insights during key sales periods. Evergreen campaigns can even be used by brands to expand their targeting scope and find new audiences that resonate with their offering. On a creative level, CTV’s real-time insights make the evergreen campaign a perfect place to garner performance insights that can help inform the next round of creative refreshes.

While it’s important to maintain a regular presence, there will of course be key times that are important to any business. It may be a holiday (think Black Friday) or an industry-specific time of year (a certain major sporting event in February comes to mind). Adding seasonal campaigns on top of evergreen campaigns is the perfect way to amplify a seasonal offering while maintaining that consistent presence regardless of season. MNTN client Rumpl did just that, adding seasonal campaigns during key sales periods to the evergreen strategy that they ran throughout 2022. As a result, they maintained a steady ROAS throughout the year, with increasing returns boosted by their seasonal campaigns.

Rumpl’s Evergreen Approach Amplified the Holidays

Rumpl, an e-commerce company selling outdoor blankets, is an excellent example of the power of evergreen campaigns. In 2021, they turned to Connected TV to advertise their products during the holiday season. Their approach was opportunistic, taking advantage of the biggest sale season of the year. This drove strong results for them–the campaign exceeded their ROAS target by 64%–not too shabby! 

However, in 2022, they were looking for even bigger returns. They created a consistent presence on CTV with an evergreen campaign. When the holidays rolled around this time, they were ready to invest more, increasing their holiday campaign spend by 21%. This led to impressive results. Their 2022 campaign resulted in a 15% increase in ROAS and a 39% increase in revenue generated despite the added spend. They were able to achieve profitable scaling thanks to an evergreen + seasonal strategy. 

Evergreen Campaigns and Ever-Evolving Creative

Just because these campaigns are evergreen doesn’t mean that they are a “set-it-and-forget-it” strategy. Running the same ads month in and month out is not only annoying to potential viewers (see: ad fatigue) but also leads to ad blindness, meaning the target audience either doesn’t register or doesn’t remember the ad a brand has meticulously produced.

Top advertisers have a solution for this ad fatigue and/or blindness. They employ regular creative refreshes to keep their evergreen campaign engaging. Based on our data, an evergreen ad has an average shelf life of 59-64 days, meaning advertisers should aim to refresh their creative every 2-3 months. With real-time insights from the evergreen campaign, advertisers will be able to make strategic updates to the creative to ensure they are avoiding that dreaded ad fatigue and are generating the highest ROAS possible. 

A strategy worthy of the top 25% badge looks something like the below flywheel. Brands should activate evergreen campaigns, and supplement them with seasonal heavy-ups. They can then use the learnings from these campaigns to implement creative refreshes throughout the year, consistently testing and discovering new audiences. Finally they can apply these learnings to their evergreen campaigns, enjoy unparalleled growth, rinse, and repeat.

Consistent Growth From A Consistent Presence

Evergreen campaigns are a powerful tool to fuel any business’s CTV outcomes. This consistent approach creates a cohesive narrative and a touchstone for the brand. Within this campaign, advertisers can test new audiences and understand the impact of their creative, informing future creative refreshes. Evergreen campaigns also provide a base-level momentum for seasonal sales, catapulting results for key holidays and generating profitable scale. The investment in an evergreen campaign will return throughout the year.