Now more than ever, tracking the impact of your TV dollars is possible.
It's confirmed, the category of Advanced TV is is one of the fastest changing areas of media delivery. So what can be expected? Detailed knowledge of audience segments, tracking where they are, along with knowing which media providers to use and at what cost. Transparency to the network level and validation of which premium channels the ads appear on can all be supplied. We expect more from TV and we make it happen for brands and agencies.
First off, we should level-set on what attribution in TV means. We define it as counting the number and location of house holds exposed to a commercial and then measuring a response and tracking sales performance at the ZIP Code level. Measurement and attribution for linear Targeted TV can be done to the ZIP Code level and in many cases to the household, but many advertisers don’t know where to put this information into their marketing plans. How do you coordinate and track thousands of media providers and blend it all together to make a cohesive campaign? Luckily it is now possible to have a full stack video comparison with a Targeted TV audience. It's important to look at all the options to provide an unbiased plan to achieve the greatest impact of TV dollars.
One key distinction to note: the difference between Targeting and Attribution is - Targeting asks the question, who’s your customer? While Attribution asks - What happened when a consumer was exposed? What it really comes down to is: what do you want to make happen? And more importantly, what action did a customer take after seeing your ads? When talking about how to compare all the data bases and count everything, it's important to look at all the options, Targeted TV, Spot Broadcast, Household Addressable, Network Cable.
2018 is the Year for TV Attribution at Scale.
The first step in attribution is to define the brands KPIs, or the actions they want to happen. Those "Key Performance Indicators" that are defined for the brand are a big part of the attribution process. For the creative many marketers now test commercials on video to see which resonate with consumers before placing them on TV. It's a great tactic to ensure the brand's message is being received well and is a great example of how digital video and TV work together.
Once the creative has been developed, it's time to apply the data segments, we find the audience locations and buy the right air time (as defined by MRI, comScore, LiveRamp or other data) to get that message into the right programming, and daypart. After that, we make sure the schedule calls for the right weight to get the frequency of exposure that will get the brand noticed and then use our historic pricing data to create an value target on the cost to that target audience. This will apply a factor to the price that allows our automated inventory buying platform to choose an optimized schedule.
Knowing exactly where and when those ads run, along with how many impressions they achieve, enables us to mark the window of the campaign flight and follow the actions taken by the audience during that time. The KPI can be different for different brands; it could be online purchases, or increasing inquires to a call center. It can be over a weekend--- over a month – over a quarter, or an entire year. The brand or agency can measure the fluctuation of purchases or sign ups. Then re-optimize the campaign driven by that response to create a successful feedback loop and ROI.
To give you a full picture of how quickly this works in reality –the response timing changes from only a few days for seasonal sales events like Fourth of July, or get down to an hour for a Video On Demand purchase. There can be lag times of two weeks, for larger complex purchases. We consider it this way, data goes into the process then information comes out of the process. Especially during the set up, when historical data is needed for the first fight, that’s where LiveRamp and Experian segments are applied or you could tap into mobile data or social. Once we’ve done a cycle or two it can be augmented by results to have even more impact. Using this 360 degree approach we start with the data segments (figure above) at bottom left or 7 o'clock. Two types of data that can be applied: Purchased 3rd party historical (i.e. Experian or LiveRamp), or what a brand has gathered or an action that took place such as sales receipts, or mailing list zip codes.
Then moving around the circle we apply that data to locations to find high value customer segments. Next, we match it up with appropriate content in an automated pool of inventory with over 605 million impressions a week of options around the country and at what price we want to pay. At this point the market does not know what we are interested in. Since we have been doing this so long we’ve track thousands of systems, and millions of spots with trending historical data that let’s us know where the campaign will be appropriate and where we can get it at an advantage, and sometimes where it’s just not worth it. Our technology platform spits out an Insertion Order and off it goes on it’s merry way.
The Importance of Re-targeting.
Now at the bottom of the circle (above) comes the Attribution and Re-targeting. What happened when a consumer was exposed? Did the web site visits go up? Did more people attend an event? Were more tickets sold?
What’s the unique data we bring to this process? The first thing is mapped out Census counts down to the census block level, which is how many people around the country these days? Over 323 million people as of 2016. We can overlay that with more than three thousand MVPD footprints with matching 43 thousand zip codes underneath and the universe numbers for each area. Combine that with more than 85 different networks with commercial breaks and historic costs of each spot to compare and choose the best option. Also included are all the standard Nielsen demos, Experian categories are on demand, and LiveRamp are our other data sources.
All that combines to create plans that give a brand the best advantage when deciding where to put their their TV dollars. Think of it this way, we tell agencies and brands what the media options in an area can provide and how they compare to each other. If there is data from other things the business does great, but even if the only information is the address of a single location, we can supply an analysis about what TV options are available in the area. If you’re working with a large scale advertiser, you can consider brand health studies to measure even more. Since we don’t sell media we can look at all the options and provide an unbiased plan to achieve the greatest impact of TV dollars.
