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Roku is going after a piece of the mobile app marketing pie.
The connected TV platform, which reported 75.8 million active accounts in the most recent quarter, has struck up a partnership with the cross-platform game engine Unity to bring performance-based mobile app ad campaigns to TV.
As part of the partnership, which is currently in beta, advertisers using Unity’s Luna ad platform can purchase Roku ad inventory for campaigns designed around app installs and downloads, Miles Fisher, Roku’s senior director, head of emerging and programmatic sales, said.
Ads for mobile apps that run on the platform will have the option for viewers to use their Roku remotes to either send themselves a text with a download link, or go directly to an app store to initiate a download, Fisher told us.
Earn, baby, earn: Through the partnership, Roku is aiming to increase the number of mobile app marketers spending on its platform “exponentially,” Fisher said.
“A lot of the mobile app marketers that are advertising on Roku today are really focused on brand KPIs,” he told Marketing Brew. “This taps into a really diverse set of advertisers that we historically haven’t worked with, and an entirely new set of budgets.”
Rewind: For more than a year, Roku has been steadily increasing investment in performance-based ads that encourage consumers to take action, like purchasing items from Walmart and Shopify, or ordering delivery from DoorDash. The company has also announced new measurement pacts to try to tie ads to outcomes like purchases.
Last quarter, the company reported 20% YoY revenue growth, which was driven in part by what Roku Media President Charlie Collier said was a “solid rebound” in video advertising. It’s a promising sign after a less-than-rosy year for the TV industry that has, at least at Roku, included layoffs.