Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and marketing departments across the advertising industry have been diligently navigating the complexities of media strategies, balancing media mix modeling with channels and testing. Theirs is a balancing act between the near term outcome-driven focus of Performance campaigns and the expansive, long-term benefits of Branding and Awareness initiatives. This balancing act is crucial, as measurability often determines the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing channels.
Our experts have identified another critical--and often overlooked--area, often referred to as the "soft spot," which focuses on the strategic integration of mid-funnel campaigns into the overall marketing plan. Mid-funnel activities are essential for supporting key performance indicators such as increasing foot traffic to physical store locations, boosting web visits to enhance online engagement with product/brand, and other intent metrics that signal consumer interest and potential conversion. By deliberately incorporating mid-funnel strategies, marketing teams can bridge the gap between initial brand exposure (upper funnel) and final purchase decision (lower funnel), ensuring a more comprehensive, successful marketing program.
The upper funnel--crucial for generating initial interest and awareness among potential customers--is often more expensive, and possibly less measurable, than the mid-funnel stage. We've seen "general audiences" splinter into many diverse groups over the last ten years. The lack of a mono-culture creates complexities for upper funnel-focused marketing, which used to typically involve broad-reaching campaigns aimed at capturing the attention of a wide audience. In an effort to offset this fragmentation, we developed our own ad tech using data-driven audience-based targeting for linear local TV, so that TV budgets can be directly attributed to specific results and campaigns, not unlike digital campaigns.
As a result--and in order to fully reach a significant portion of any audience--it is essential for marketing departments to strategically allocate budget dedicated to TV for the mid-funnel or consideration stage. This stage plays a pivotal role in nurturing leads and moving them closer to making a purchase decision, and TV campaigns targeting priority audiences in specific locations (sub-DMA) are highly measurable. While performance channels and their outcome measurement are heavily focused on the "last click" approach--the final interaction of a purchase, as on ecommerce sites--most customers and purchases require much more than just a few performance-focused ads to get to that point.
Measuring mid-funnel activity relative to a TV ad campaign is highly reliable and realistic, measuring activity by real people in real locations. The mid-funnel has been largely overlooked, yet it represents a rich source of data relative to budget allocation and campaign efficacy, as customers move between initial brand awareness at the top and the final performance-driven actions at the bottom. This mid-journey is critical for converting interest into actual purchases, is highly measurable with targeted TV ad campaigns, and is a powerful strategic opportunity to guide potential customers through the various stages of consideration and decision-making.
We've found there are three distinct types of TV campaigns that can significantly enhance Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) for advertisers, by strategically targeting specific audiences, locations and objectives.
1. Audience-based local campaigns that concentrate on TV households identified as loyalty program participants.
TV powerfully supports campaigns designed to engage viewers who are already familiar with the brand and have shown a propensity for repeat business in exchange for considerations like discounts, priority access, and so on. By delivering tailored content--such as special offers and localized messages--to where priority audiences are (vs where they are not), these TV ad campaigns succeed in deepening customer loyalty and encouraging further engagement with the brand.
MID-FUNNEL KPI: Effectively reaches loyalty card holders (a priority audience) with personalized special offers and localized messages, thereby strengthening brand affinity and encouraging repeat purchases.
2. Audience-based local TV campaigns that target viewers within a specific driving distance from a retail location, such as within a 3-mile radius.
Our research indicates audiences respond well to TV campaigns looking to attract local customers by highlighting the convenience and benefits of visiting nearby stores. By focusing TV media buys on proximity, these highly measurable campaigns can effectively increase foot traffic and drive in-store sales.
MID-FUNNEL KPI: With a tight focus on ensuring the TV ad campaign runs in only relevant locations--for budget (low waste), reach, and so on--this option successfully drives foot traffic to stores by appealing to local audiences with compelling reasons to visit.
3. Audience-based and nationally-scaled, locally activated TV campaigns drive website traffic for further investigation and consideration of brand/product.
Our audience-first, hyper-local multimarket advanced TV campaigns capture the interest of potential customers by finding concentrations of priority audiences wherever they live, and directing them to the brand's website. There they can explore products or services in more detail, and website traffic/activity can be directly aligned with TV campaign flight (day/daypart/etc). Incorporating interactive elements like QR codes into ad creative facilitates a seamless--and measurable--transition from TV viewing to online engagement.
MID-FUNNEL KPI: Measuring the lift in website visits, such as measuring QR code interactions or web traffic fluctuations, provides insight into the effectiveness of the TV campaign in generating online interest and consideration.
Advanced, audience-based TV ad campaigns with a local focus executed on a national scale are highly measurable, making your boss/CFO happy by delivering real campaign metrics. A properly executed advanced TV campaign effectively supports and enhances the other elements of a comprehensive marketing strategy, by ensuring that each stage of the customer journey--including and especially the mid-funnel consideration part--is addressed with measurable precision and relevance.
As we move into 2025 and beyond, we predict that understanding and interpreting campaign data from every media channel will continue to be critically important. Advertisers turning their focus to mid-funnel campaigns will be looking for the real results from their budgets that go beyond lower funnel performance numbers--because data on the “how” and “why” of consumer interaction with brands is becoming just as important as focusing on the “what”.