Hulu is one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world. In 2023, Hulu exceeded 46 million paid subscribers. The streaming service has nearly 100 million total viewers.
Experts forecast that Hulu will continue to grow in 2024 and beyond. Hulu merges with Disney Plus at the end of the calendar year. This merger will give Disney Plus subscribers access to Hulu content, which will increase the number of total viewers.
Based on Hulu's popularity, many companies want to advertise on its platform. Read on for a comprehensive guide to Hulu advertising. Explore how Hulus competitors advertise and other topics such as audience targeting.
How Is Streaming Different than Traditional Advertising?
Advertising on streaming services is much different than traditional cable or radio. On cable television, advertising is all about finding the right network and program.
Time slots also play a significant role. Prime-time television in the evening attracted the most viewers and has the highest advertising costs.
The most popular live television events see the greatest demand for advertising. Take the National Football League Super Bowl as the perfect example.
The 2023 Super Bowl had more than 200 million viewers. Approximately 60% of the entire United States tuned into the game. An advertising time slot during the Super Bowl naturally costs companies millions of dollars.
How Is Streaming Advertising Different?
Streaming is different in that programs can be watched at any hour. Instead of consuming a weekly episode, viewers tend to binge-watch their favorite show. An obsessed viewer may watch 10 episodes all in a day or two.
As a result, time slots are no longer important. Networks like Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and National Broadcasting Company (NBC) also carry less importance on streaming services.
Instead, an advertiser's focus is on selecting a streaming service to partner with. After the right streaming service is selected, the advertiser's attention turns to the programs they want to advertise on.
What Are the Benefits of Advertising on Streaming Platforms?
Advertising on a streaming service carries many discrete advantages. For starters, you can select genres that are popular with your target audience.
The Good Doctor is one of Hulus's most popular television shows. The show attracts many viewers from the critical 18-49 age demographic. If your product or service is designed for this age group, the genre of medical shows may be appealing to your campaign.
While you cannot select a specific show to advertise on, genres are an area of focus. Companies can choose any genre from cartoons to classics for their campaign.
Streamers are able to collect detailed and accurate data on their viewers. This is the direct opposite of cable television programs. Cable TV viewership numbers are estimated via surveys.
The benefit to advertisers is that they can make data-based decisions. This leads to higher conversion rates to sales.
Another benefit is that Hulu collects performance data on your advertisements. They will show if your advertising campaign is working and recommend changes for improvement.
How Does Hulu Advertise?
Advertising on Hulu is simple. The first step is signing up for Hulus Ad Manager. This is where you can upload and manage your advertising campaigns on Hulu.
Once you have an account, you can set up a schedule for your advertising campaign. By providing a budget, Hulu helps you understand how long you can afford to advertise.
With a robust dataset, Hulu can also assist your company in targeting a specific audience. There are several different segments you can target. In addition to age, location and interests are two other ways to tailor your advertising campaign.
Gender and career are other ways to target your advertising campaign. Also, education and earnings are other filtering mechanisms.
Some products are geared towards college-educated, high-earners. This feature in Hulu Ad Manager allows you to reach these consumers.
Hulu even tracks milestones in its effort to find the right target audience. For example, married couples are a potential target. Also, those adults that have children or purchase a new home can be targeted.
Advertising videos are uploaded on the Hulus website. Their advertising team reviews and approves ads in as little as 72 hours.
Every streamer advertises a little differently. Hulu shows short advertisement videos during a program.
They will cut the program temporarily and then show the video clip. It is analogous to the way a traditional cable television commercial is broadcast. Your company's advertisement may be the only spot, or it may be accompanied by a second video.
How Do Other Streaming Services Advertise?
Some streaming services work a little differently than Hulu. Others operate in a similar fashion.
Disney advertising is a carbon copy of Hulu. This is unsurprising considering the two platforms have the same ownership and are merging soon.
There are streaming services that differ from Hulu when they play advertisements. For instance, Peacock plays an advertisement video before the show or movie begins.
This is an effective strategy as it guarantees that viewers will see the advertisement. How many times have you started a movie or television show and quickly decided it was not for you? When an advertisement video turns on halfway through a program, many viewers may never see it.
YouTube TV affords another opportunity to tailor your advertisements. Here, you can control costs by reducing the run time to 10 or 20-second video clips. Advertisers can upload videos of any length, but our expertsrecommend shorter clips to get the message across.
Your Guide to Hulu Advertising
You are now ready to start advertising on Hulu. Every day, households are cutting the cord and switching to streaming services. When this happens, it diminishes the effectiveness of TV ads.
Instead, your company can repurpose its marketing budget towards streaming ads. Here, you can tailor your advertising campaigns to a specific audience. This leads to data-based decisions and higher conversion rates.
Now is the time to start advertising on streaming platforms. If your company wants to start Hulu advertising, sign up today to get started with our team of professionals.