Ads That Click!

I led the design of new interactive ad formats that transformed TV ads into actionable experiences — allowing viewers to claim offers, set reminders, and purchase directly from their screens.

ROLE

Lead Designer

team

1 Designer, 1 Product Manager, 3 Devs

PROJECT TYPE

Improvements

Industry

TV Advertising

Revenue

$500M in 2021

Users

90M

Challenge

Roku set out to modernize TV ad formats to attract digital-first advertisers. I designed interactive formats that made ads actionable and documented best practices later scaled across Roku Ad Manager.

Results

We landed on two winning ad formats that increased CTR by 42%, helping drive Roku’s 2022 Upfront ad commitments up 50% to

$1 billion.

What makes a viewer pick up their remote and engage with an ad?

I collaborated with Research on three rounds of qualitative usability testing to uncover viewer preferences and deepen understanding of the Roku audience.

80%

responded to seasonal offers and time sensitive deals

64%

hesitated due to QR code mistrust and unclear instructions

49%

of older users need more intuitive prompts on interactivity

We identified the 3 pillars that prompted conversion action - brand trust, offer, interaction clarity.

Viewers engaged most when offers felt valuable, brands were trusted (this included perceived trust of the advertising brand and Roku to handle their information securely), and interactions were effortless and clear (no QR Codes, no ambiguity on how to claim the offer).

The native-looking, older ad formats performed best (1.0% CTR, roughly doubling typical OTT benchmarks) for familiar behaviors like set reminders/send text/send email. A newer format (squeeze-back) performed best for on-screen checkout (CTR 0.2-0.4%)

As a part of optimizing the entire user journey, I designed a brand-customizable data page that further boosted conversion by 28%.

Unlike competitors’ QR-based flows with high drop-off, our brand-oriented redesign built trust and boosted offer conversions.

"These new ad experiences are highly effective ways in which brands can talk to the consumer at a point where it is less disruptive, and more innovative than your traditional 15- and 30-second spots."

Louqman Parampath

VP | Roku Ads