Savannah is a content marketer with editorial experience spanning several businesses. Specializing in social media and marketing trends, she loves talking about the latest developments in online marketing. When she’s not writing, Savannah loves traveling, hoarding books and coffee mugs, and adoring her cat. Please don’t ask her about famous true crime cases, or else she’ll tell you all about her theories and get absolutely no work done.
Hulu is home to some of our favorite shows, from Only Murders in the Building to The Handmaid’s Tale. But did you know, it could also become the home of your next video advertising strategy?
As one of the leading over-the-top (OTT) platforms, it’s imperative you know how to advertise on Hulu so you can showcase your brand in front of the streaming service’s 152 million ad-supported users and start gaining valuable leads.
Hulu is a popular streaming service that allows users to watch movies, TV shows, live sports, and live TV on demand from any Internet-connected device. Its basic (and cheapest) subscription plan includes regularly scheduled ad breaks during streaming.
While Hulu does offer an ad-free subscription tier at a slightly higher cost per month, its ad-supported plan is its most popular subscription option, with over 112 million active users.
Hulu and other streaming services like Netflix, Peacock, and Disney+ are OTT platforms. That is, they’re free or paid platforms that allow users to stream movies, TV shows, or videos to any device through the use of the Internet.
As one of the best OTT platforms, advertisers can reach a growing, diverse audience when they begin advertising on Hulu.
Whether you’re looking to reach users streaming content on their phones, tablets, or TVs via connected TV (CTV) advertising, OTT platforms provide the perfect opportunity to engage with a captive audience to promote your brand and grab new leads.
Advertising on Hulu is no problem when you’ve got a top-notch digital advertising agency like WebFX to help you. We know OTT platforms and can help you create and launch a winning Hulu advertising strategy that drives results.
If you’re looking for a more do-it-yourself method when figuring out how to advertise on Hulu, you can use Hulu Ad Manager.
To start advertising on Hulu, either log in to your Hulu Ad Manager account, or sign up for Hulu Ad Manager.
How to RSVP for Hulu Ad Manager
Hulu Ad Manager is a self-service advertising platform for Hulu that allows advertisers to connect with their audiences via streaming platform ads.
To get started with Hulu Ad Manager, you first need to submit an RSVP form. This form helps Hulu’s Ad Manager Beta Program get to know your business better.
You’ll indicate whether you’re an advertiser representing your own brand or an agency representing other brands, as well as some additional basic info about your business.
Once you get a confirmation saying you’ve been accepted, you can get started!
2. Identify your campaign schedule, budget, and target audience
Once you’ve set up your Hulu Ad Manager account and logged in, you’ll see a prompt to create a new campaign.
Start by indicating when you want your campaign to run by managing your schedule. Then, zero in on the target audience you want to reach.
Use Hulu’s targeting options to narrow your audience by location, viewer interests, streaming genres, demographics, and lifestyle. You can even indicate locations where you don’t want to run your ads!
3. Choose your Hulu ad format
Hulu has multiple ad format options available to advertisers, giving you plenty of opportunities to develop a creative Hulu advertising campaign. Take a look at a few of Hulu’s ad options:
Video commercial ads: Hulu’s video commercial ads are video ads that show during regularly scheduled breaks during the streaming of shows or movies on Hulu.
Binge ads: Who doesn’t love a good binge session on Hulu? Binge ads appear after a user has watched three consecutive episodes of the same series. They usually include phrases like, “Enhance your binge session with [product or service]” or “Enjoy this ad-free episode, presented by [brand].”
Pause ads: Pause ads appear when the user pauses the show or movie they’re watching. These non-disruptive ads usually appear in the bottom right corner of the paused screen.
Ad Selector: With Hulu’s Ad Selector, viewers can choose their own ad experience from a set of two to three commercial options, creating a more personalized ad break.
Branded Entertainment Selector (BES) ads: Viewers have even more control over their ad experience with Hulu’s BES ads, allowing them to watch an extended commercial followed by an ad-free episode or continue streaming with regularly scheduled ad breaks.
4. Create and launch your campaign
Once you’ve ironed out the details of your advertising campaign and chosen the right ad format, you can begin to actually create and upload it! You can develop any of the Hulu ad formats detailed earlier and upload them to Hulu Ad Manager to start running your revenue-driving campaign.
5. Monitor and evaluate your campaign performance
Now comes the fun part: tracking your Hulu advertising campaign’s success! Like other marketing platforms, you can keep an eye on the performance of your campaigns through Hulu Ad Manager’s performance metrics.
You shouldn’t pass up the ability to track the performance of your advertising campaign. By analyzing your campaign’s performance, you can capitalize on ads producing great results and improve underperforming ads to maximize your success rate.
Hulu advertising benefits
When you advertise on video streaming platforms like Hulu, you’re not just enjoying the benefit of exposure to a broader audience. Benefits of advertising on Hulu include the option to target your ads toward certain users and advertise to local audiences:
Targeted Hulu ads
With Hulu’s ad targeting options, you can better reach viewers who are more likely to interact with your ads, learn more about your brand, or make a purchase.
With Hulu Ad Manager, you can reach your intended audience by targeting factors like age range, gender, and interests.
Want to get even more in-depth? You can identify specific genres of streaming content you want your video ads to appear in. This way, you can better target audiences based on streaming interests that align with your brand.
Advertise locally
If you’re a business looking to increase brand awareness within your surrounding community, you can use Hulu’s local targeting feature.
With Hulu’s local reach option for targeting, you can isolate audiences by city, zip code, or designated marketing area (DMA). And don’t worry, you’re not limited to just one of these factors — you can use any combination of them for maximum reach.
How much does it cost to advertise on Hulu?
Advertising on Hulu costs as little as $500 to launch a campaign. Hulu Ads Manager is free to sign up and doesn’t have subscription, set up, or installation fees. Billing starts once your ad campaign is running.
Once a campaign is launched, advertisers typically spend anywhere from $0.02–$0.04 per ad view.
Hulu advertising tips
Before we go, take a look at some must-know Hulu advertising tips that’ll help you create a winning campaign.
Keeping your videos short and sweet — shoot for 30 seconds max.
Getting to the point quickly.
Ensuring your videos align with your brand’s messaging and voice.
Regularly monitor campaign performance
Success doesn’t happen overnight — regularly monitor your campaign’s performance, and use campaign insights to improve future ones. Look for patterns like:
Messaging that sparks more engagement
Ideal video ad lengths
Video elements that engage viewers
Conversions
And more!
By identifying elements of your campaigns that drive positive results, you can improve future campaigns and ensure that you’re always driving a positive return on investment (ROI) from your Hulu ads.
Utilize Hulu’s ad targeting features
If you haven’t already gathered, Hulu’s ad targeting features are a major asset to your campaign — use them!
By using these features to zero in on your target audience, you can generate a positive ROI from your campaigns and reach highly qualified audiences.
Keep your ads fresh
Finally, keep your Hulu ad campaign fresh by regularly uploading new ad content. Seeing the same ad gets old after a while, so keeping your ad content fresh helps keep audiences engaged with your campaign. Plus, creating new ad content means you’ll always have an up-to-date campaign that reflects your current ad goals and brand messaging.
Meet WebFX
Your world-class, tech-enabled marketing agency with over 3 million hours of combined expertise.
Step up your Hulu advertising game with WebFX
Are you ready to help your business grow with a Hulu advertising strategy? WebFX can help you identify the best OTT platforms your business should utilize and create a personalized Hulu advertising strategy that suits your brand.