Measuring Linear TV and OTT Conversions
Tracking Advertising in Linear TV vs. Connected/OTT Platforms
The advertising landscape is in a phase of dynamic evolution, and the tracking capabilities of various platforms play a critical role in this transformation. In the good old days of Linear TV, tracking was primarily limited to metrics like reach, frequency, and GRPs (Gross Rating Points). You’d set your budget, air your commercials, and keep your fingers crossed that the Nielsen ratings would show a favorable impact. Linear TV has long offered a broad audience but falls short when it comes to granular tracking or real-time adjustments. Essentially, it’s a shotgun approach: spray and pray.
Connected TV and OTT platforms, on the other hand, have significantly upped the ante. These platforms offer advertisers the chance to target specific audiences based on behavioral data, geographic location, and even purchase intent. The dashboard analytics are in real-time and allow for an agile response, something any media director worth their salt, like Paul Mosenson, would fully utilize to optimize campaigns for quality leads and sales.
Key Differences:
- Data Depth: Linear TV provides demographic information but lacks behavioral insights. Connected/OTT allows for deep behavioral targeting.
- Real-Time Metrics: Linear TV relies on post-campaign reports. Connected/OTT platforms offer real-time analytics.
- Cost: While Linear TV often requires a hefty minimum spend, Connected/OTT can be more budget-flexible.
- Audience Engagement: Connected/OTT platforms often allow for interactive ads, giving a direct measure of audience engagement which is mostly absent in Linear TV.
In conclusion, while Linear TV still has its place for certain broad-reaching campaigns, Connected and OTT platforms offer the kind of targeted, trackable advertising that’s gold for analytics-driven decision-making. It’s not just about spreading the message anymore; it’s about making sure it’s heard by the right people and acting on that data in real-time. This is where the strategic vision meets the rubber of tactical execution, and if you can master this, you’re not just playing the game—you’re changing it.
Understanding Incrementality in TV Advertising Tracking
The term “incrementality” in the context of TV advertising refers to the measurable lift or additional value that a specific ad campaign brings to key performance indicators (KPIs), such as sales, leads, or conversions, above and beyond what would have occurred without that campaign. Essentially, it aims to answer the million-dollar question: “What did my advertising actually achieve?”
In traditional Linear TV, assessing incrementality can be a somewhat murky endeavor. The lag in receiving viewership data, the broad nature of the audience, and the challenge of isolating variables make it difficult to measure true incremental effects. Usually, media planners resort to mixing historical data, market research, and econometric models to gain insights, but these are often approximations at best.
In Connected TV or OTT platforms, incrementality becomes a more precise science. Since these platforms often integrate with analytics tools, they can directly link ad exposure to user behavior, be it a website visit, a product purchase, or any other trackable action. This allows for A/B testing scenarios or control/experiment groups to directly measure the incremental impact of the advertising.
Key Considerations:
- Attribution Models: Advanced attribution models in Connected TV can track consumer touchpoints across devices, offering a more complete picture of incrementality.
- Time Decay: Incrementality isn’t a one-and-done metric. It’s crucial to assess how the incremental value decays over time, something which real-time tracking in Connected/OTT can offer.
- Quality vs Quantity: Incrementality doesn’t just measure lift in numbers but can also evaluate the quality of those numbers. Are you getting more leads, or are you getting better leads?
When managed by someone who really understands the analytics and can act on them—say, a Paul Mosenson type—the strategy shifts from being merely reactive to truly proactive. A keen focus on incrementality ensures that campaigns are not just generating noise or redundant touches but are driving genuine value. It turns advertising from a cost-center to a profit-center.
So, whether you’re dealing with the more traditional realms of Linear TV or the data-rich environments of Connected TV and OTT platforms, understanding incrementality is pivotal. It separates campaigns that simply “run” from campaigns that truly “perform,” and in a world increasingly driven by data, that’s a difference that can’t be ignored.
Tatari is a data-driven TV and streaming advertising platform, revolutionizing the way companies conceptualize and execute their ad campaigns. With a focus on real-time analytics and ROI, Tatari brings a granular, digital-like precision to the broad-reach world of TV advertising. NuSpark Media Group’s partnership with Tatari melds perfectly with this ethos, leveraging our in-depth expertise in analytics-driven media strategies.
Examples of Reports That Show Overall Traffic & Conversion Lift
Conversion & Event Tracking
Can certainly compare website analytics before and after media campaigns; and see the results of overall conversions, events, and website actions.
Organic Traffic Trends
If there’s a lift in organic traffic, typically your name as a keyword, during the media campaigns, then we can see the affects of the advertising, and prepare a “cost per lift” over a period of time.
Key Benefits of Our TV Attribution Solution with Tatari
Tech built for TV in one single platform
- AI powered media buying tools and best-in-class measurement
- Direct supply enables enormous efficiency gains in pricing
- Measures outcomes with modern metrics
- Buy Linear (both spot and upfront), + Streaming (Direct or programmatic)
Measurement Outcome-focused, digital-like, and uniform across all TV media
- Next-day reporting
- Immediate vs delayed
response - View-through vs incremental measurement
Performance Measurement
Measure beyond views or impressions and use closed-loop attribution to track outcome-based metrics such as CPV, CPI, and CAC; ultimately proving ROAS.
More Video Education on TV Tracking from our Tatari Partner
Learn more about the Incrementality Method of Conversion Tracking from TV.
Learn more about TV conversion measurement comparing incrementality and view-through (with pixels)
Example Screen Shots of TV Attribution Platforms
Measure the true incremental impact of your TV campaigns
Incrementality is achieved by measuring campaigns in a way that separates net new visitors, buyers or installers, from users that would have taken an action – such as visiting a site, making a purchase, or downloading an app
Immediate vs. Delayed Response
The easy-to-customize dashboards display network, daypart, or creative performance, the true incremental lift from an ad campaign, and when people take action on their website or app after viewing an ad—whether it’s minutes after viewing or 30 days later.
Customizable Reports
Reporting tools allow you to perform deep campaign analysis to see precisely how creatives, networks, and streaming platforms performed in a given week. Easily build, customize, and export reports to answer campaign performance questions.
