CTV Measurement: Why It’s Important & What You Need to Know

• It’s important to understand how to measure CTV performance before you invest in the channel.
• Reports like incremental reach, TV attribution, TV tune-in and foot traffic attribution are key to measuring your CTV advertising success.
• Viant’s CTV advertising solution makes it easier than ever to execute CTV campaigns in a self-service platform.

Not all that long ago, television advertising was totally siloed – after all, advertisers were well aware of linear TV’s measurement limitations and were content to rely on the estimated impression delivery figures standard across the industry.

That changed with the advent of connected TV (CTV) and CTV advertising. Today, thanks to the digital nature of CTV, television can be rooted in an advertiser’s omnichannel approach. CTV has been hugely valuable to advertisers, but as Arm Candy agency CEO John Lods recently told us, it is “only as good as its measurement and attribution.”

Here are some key concepts advertisers should keep in mind as they navigate CTV measurement:

You need to be able to tie your CTV efforts back to offline activity, like sales and in-store visits …

To truly measure your CTV advertising’s impact, you’ll need to be sure you’re able to close the loop by measuring attribution of your CTV strategy. Without being able to tie your campaigns to actual sales or store visitation, you’ll be lacking actionable data (and therefore not getting the true value from your CTV advertising spend).

There are a number of reports that are particularly beneficial when establishing the best ways to measure CTV advertising. More on that below.

Consider the number of demand-side platforms (DSPs) you’re using …

By working with multiple DSPs, as most marketers do, you’ll have to get acquainted with reporting across different platforms. That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but figuring out how to consider disparate reports can be extremely complex, and result in excess spend and media waste. For that reason, you’ll want to consider whether it’s worth it to operate in more than a few DSPs.

There’s also a risk that, by operating in too many DSPs, you could start bidding against yourself on CTV inventory and unintentionally escalate your media costs, especially if your brand is new to the CTV space.

There are a few reports that are key to CTV measurement …

Which CTV measurement reports should you be relying on? Here are a few:

• Incremental reach: The ability to understand increase in reach accomplished because of an additional channel (in this case, CTV). Forbes suggests it may be among the medium’s most important metrics. With such a report, for example, you can understand whether you were able to reach viewers via CTV you couldn’t reach on linear.
• TV attribution: With TV attribution, you can understand the impact your CTV advertising had based on a number of breakdowns, including the time of day viewers were exposed, whether their location played a role, the devices on which ad viewing drove the highest performance and more. Viant, for example, offers a full TV attribution suite.
• TV Tune-In: If your goal is to increase viewership to a TV show or broadcast event, this report can help you understand how successful your CTV advertising was at driving viewership.
• Foot Traffic Attribution: With foot traffic attribution, you can understand the effect your CTV ads had on driving traffic to any physical location – for example, your store.

ACR data is a game-changer …

Short for “automatic content recognition,” ACR is an identification technology that recognizes content played on a media device or present in a media file. What that means is, advertisers can truly measure their CTV advertising’s performance, because they’re actually seeing viewership. In addition, as reporting can be accessed in real time, ACR provides the ability to make adjustments and optimize your campaign on the fly.

When extending your campaign across channels, from CTV to, for instance, mobile, ACR also provides you with the ability to truly customize your messaging to every home. For example, a clothing brand delivers an ad for a coupon across a household’s personal devices after learning that household was exposed to its CTV commercial.

It’s important to seek a DSP that can accommodate your CTV team …

No two brands’ CTV buying teams are the same. Some incorporate CTV along with digital, while others group it in with linear, and still others have standalone CTV teams. Regardless, in order to get the most out of your CTV efforts and measure outcomes appropriately, you’ll want to work with a DSP that’s able to meet you on your level. Make sure customer service is a point of differentiation for any DSP you work with, to ensure you’re in a position to succeed even if your CTV campaigns require customization – an increasingly common occurrence these days.

Viant can help …

Leveraging our industry expertise, direct relationships with premium suppliers and Advanced Reporting suite, Viant’s CTV solution makes it easier than ever to execute CTV campaigns in our self-service platform, either on your own or with the help of our award-winning staff.

Learn more by reaching out to our team today.