How to Set Up a Measurable TV Campaign

You’re preparing to launch a TV campaign. You have an incredible commercial that highlights your brand beautifully while encouraging viewers to act. You’re ready to share it across linear and streaming TV.

But one problem looms large: attribution.

Measuring TV’s impact is hard. There’s no silver bullet, no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why, at Marketing Architects, we build custom measurement plans for every campaign, making sure to focus on the metrics that matter most.

Building a plan usually begins with an introduction to the “micro, macro, business” framework for measuring TV performance. TV affects both short- and long-term outcomes, so understanding results across multiple timeframes is crucial for an accurate view of campaign effectiveness.

Micro Impacts. This is the immediate response your TV ad receives. Micro impacts can show up in the form of a surge in website traffic, calls, or app downloads post-airing.

Macro Impacts. This is about the broader effects of TV, including shifts in web traffic composition, conversion rates, and brand effects.

Business Impacts. How did your campaign affect your bottom line? This could appear as revenue growth, market share increases, greater brand awareness, or even new partnership opportunities.

That’s a lot TV can accomplish, and as a result, it’s important to clarify your campaign’s specific objectives. This will provide direction during strategy and media planning stages, but also make evaluating success post-campaign much easier.

What is your primary goal?

First things first. What’s the absolute, most-important, end-of-the-day result you’re hoping to see from your campaign? What single metric would allow you to confidently tell your CEO that the campaign was a success?

For performance-driven campaigns, this might be some version of ROI or ROAS. But whatever the metric is, it needs to be clearly defined and your north star through all stages of campaign planning.

What about secondary KPIs?

Of course, you don’t only care about ROI. While that primary metric reigns supreme, secondary key performance objectives (KPIs) can help track a wider TV’s comprehensive impact on your business. Some metrics that might be helpful include:

Cost-per-order
Cost-per-visit
Customer acquisition cost
Search trends
Share of Voice
Customer Lifetime Value
Email/text signups
Conversion rate
Brand awareness

However, there are endless options for KPIs, and choosing the right ones depends entirely on your business and what you’re trying to achieve on TV. We’ve found most advertisers find success when narrowing their list to 5-7 secondary KPIs. This lets you evaluate metrics beyond your primary KPI without straining resources.

What other questions do you need to answer?

Naturally, you’re also going to have some questions about TV’s impact that can’t be answered with a single metric but rather require a high-level analysis of several metrics or specific testing during your campaign. These should also be clarified and prioritized early in your planning process.

How does linear vs streaming TV perform?
Does creative spot length impact performance?
How do different audience demographics respond to the ad?
Will TV impact other channels in my marketing mix?
Does the customer driven by TV differ from customers driven by other channels?

Which attribution models best match your needs?

Now’s the point to start thinking about how you’re going to measure results. Based on the unique goals you identified in the previous stages, pick a mix of attribution models that will allow you to gather the data necessary to evaluate outcomes.

At Marketing Architects, our analytics team partners closely with advertisers to identify which models make the most sense for each campaign. Approaches we frequently recommend include the following.

Micro Attribution: Track immediate responses like web traffic spikes post-airing.

Automatic Content Recognition (ACR): ACR technology in smart TVs tracks content watched and IP-based response, allowing for more advanced tracking of reach and frequency.

On-Site Surveys: Asking site visitors how they heard about you can directly link TV exposure to website traffic.

Macro Lift Analysis: Incremental traffic and revenue compared to customized baselines established prior to launching your campaign.

Media Mix Modeling (MMM): This advanced statistical model quantifies how each marketing channel impacts revenue based on channel spend and other macro factors like seasonality.

Unique Reach Analysis: Evaluate unique impressions for campaigns that include both linear and streaming TV.

Local Heavy Up: Utilize test and control markets to isolate TV’s impact.

Finally, when will you evaluate results?

Timing can make all the difference. Not every type of outcome will show up if you only review performance in the first week of your campaign!

That’s why it’s important to agree on a timeline for check-ins both during and after your campaign. For example, for a month-long test on TV, you might conduct an initial analysis after two or three weeks and a full performance summary post-campaign to allow any lagging effects to reveal themselves.

Explore TV attribution with Marketing Architects.

TV attribution is far from simple, but it doesn’t have to be a headache. Learn more about how we evaluate TV’s impact or connect with our team to discuss what a measurable TV campaign could look like for your business.