3 Tips for Geotargeting in OTT Marketing

Geotargeting is an effective OTT marketing strategy. It works by pushing videos to certain geographic locations or by publishing content that is more likely to appeal to the target region. Whenever an audience interacts more with your OTT content, OTT platforms are more likely to recommend that content to a similar audience. Geography is quietly a very powerful factor that can boost your viewership considerably. Here are a few ways to optimize your marketing strategy using geotargeting.

3 Tips for Geotargeting in OTT Marketing

1. Make Use of Metadata

Metadata is where you store information about the content you've uploaded. Every OTT platform has some capacity to intake metadata when you upload the content. YouTube asks where videos were recorded so that it can tag a specific geolocation. This may make it so that users in the area are more likely to get a notification about that content. Individuals searching for content about that geographic location may be shown a thumbnail of your video. Most platforms function similarly.

Look for ways to inject the location of your content into its description or titles as well. If you want to target a specific location with your content, tweaking the title or description to do so will make it much more likely that people from the target area respond with a click and long view. For instance, a restaurant review show covering an Indian restaurant in Ohio should use “Ohio” in that episode's title, attracting everyone in the state or who plan to visit.

2. Analyze Your Audience and Attack

When it comes to OTT content, your geotargeting decisions are only half the equation. The other half comes from your audience. Suppose you make an episode about surfing in California. While you might try to target Californian viewers by geotargeting, you may find that most of your audience comes from somewhere else. Perhaps you're attracting more tourists than local residents. How can you respond to these situations and maximize the outreach of your content? Use audience metrics to learn more.

Over time you will be able to see where your viewers come from. Platforms gather data and provide useful insights for you to target your specific audience. You might find that many of the viewers of your California episode are from a particular state or country. Small changes to the title or description could help pull even more. “New Yorkers come to California to surf at…” would naturally attract more New York viewers. Target your biggest source of views to amplify it.

3. Craft Content to Cater to Viewers

Now we're really thinking long-term. Once you have a clearer picture of your audience and have mastered metadata to get more views from your target demographics, you should begin to create content that appeals to your actual audience. You may have had a target audience in mind, but they may not respond as you expected. Don't fight the trend! Look at who is interested in your content and consider creating episodes that would appeal to those people.

When you market your OTT content properly, you help that content grow and increase your potential for long-term passive income as well as brand deals to inject money into your operations. For best results, use tools that help you reach multiple platforms and a wider audience. Visit Lightcast to request a callback and discuss your OTT marketing plans with us.