Everything Wrong with TV Measurement: The Attribution Playbook for TV Advertisers

TV advertising’s been around since the 1940s. It’s one of the most iconic and visible forms of marketing. In fact, it’s the biggest offline channel by ad spend. So why is measuring its impact so difficult?  

Today, only 37% of TV advertisers say they’re very confident in their TV measurement. Half say that difficulty measuring TV has led them to invest more in other channels. 45% say either linear or CTV is the hardest channel to measure in their marketing mix.

So, how did we get here? How did we decide TV can’t be measured? And can we find our way back to feeling confident in our ability to prove the results TV drives?

As a TV agency, we work with marketers every day who are simultaneously confident in TV’s impact and working to understand it on a deeper level. But we know this isn’t the norm, so we’ve taken our knowledge from years of partnering with intensely smart marketers and highly critical analysts, conducted original research to see how that knowledge matches up with general practices around TV attribution, and compiled everything we’ve learned in a new report.  

Our hope is that it’ll provide a comprehensive playbook for advertisers on how to set TV up for measurability. And, of course, profitability.

In this TV attribution report, you'll learn:

1. Common perceptions of TV's measurability according to our survey of more than 300 marketing professionals. The survey connected with marketers working at companies with at least $50 million in revenue across B2B, B2C, and hybrid business models. Of the respondents, one third said they were the final decision-maker for how media dollars are spent at their company and roughly a quarter are current TV advertisers.
   
   

2. How TV advertising drives results across the funnel. One of the reasons TV is hard to measure accurately is because it affects so many areas of the brand and business. Learn how to think about these effects through the Micro, Macro, Business framework.
   
   

3. Why poor planning can doom your campaign's measurability long before you launch. The worst-case scenario after a TV test is simply not knowing how it performed. Unfortunately, without clear and intentional planning, that outcome is very possible.
   
   

4. How to use multiple attribution models to determine performance. Using multiple models, such as micro-attribution, ACR, on-site surveys, media mix modeling (MMM), and brand studies helps you analyze TV’s full impact and verify results presented by a single model.
   
   

5. Why skepticism is necessary for measuring TV. A little doubt about TV performance is a good thing. Challenging the status quo ensures you achieve better and more accurate results, especially when avoiding black box solutions in favor of a true TV partner.
   
   

6. How Connected TV attribution compares to linear TV. In many ways, CTV is even harder to measure than linear TV thanks to an extremely fragmented marketplace, a lack of universal standards, ad fraud, and still-developing technology. But even CTV can be measured with confidence—with the right approach.

Read the full TV attribution report to learn more.