How to Measure TV Advertising's Long and Short Results

TL;DR 

1. Last-click attribution over-credits paid search by 190% and under-credits TV by 90%, pushing budgets toward channels that look efficient but don't drive growth. 
2. Short-term signals like traffic spikes and calls prove TV is working immediately, but they fail to show what's building over time. 
3. Long-term effects like brand lift, cross-channel impact, and revenue gains emerge over weeks and months as TV builds mental availability and future demand. 
4. Measuring TV accurately means tracking both short-term response and long-term brand effects by layering multiple models. 

TV advertising often gets mislabeled. 

It’s either a “brand channel” or a “performance channel,” depending on who you ask. That false choice has shaped how TV ads are bought, evaluated, and too often, undervalued. 

When marketers try to force TV into a box, they miss half the story and leave real value on the table. To understand TV's full impact, you need to track both the immediate response after an ad runs and the gradual effects that accumulate over time.  

But most TV measurement systems aren't built to do that. 

 

Why TV Get Undervalued

Most attribution models are optimized for last-click metrics. That means they're great at tracking the final touchpoint before conversion, but terrible at crediting the channels that created demand in the first place. 

Research from Analytic Partners found that last-click attribution overestimates paid search performance by 190%. Meanwhile, TV gets under-credited by 90%. 

This creates a dangerous cycle. Budgets shift toward channels that look efficient in dashboards but don't actually drive growth.  

The fix isn't abandoning TV. It's measuring it correctly.  

 

The Short of It: Minutes, Hours, Days 

Short-term attribution focuses on what happens immediately after your spot airs. Web traffic spikes. Call volume jumps. QR codes are scanned. 

These micro impacts are crucial. They prove TV is working and give you data to optimize in real time. You can see which dayparts convert best, which creative drives the most response, and which markets are pulling hardest. 

Tools like Google Analytics, automatic content recognition (ACR), and on-site surveys help track this immediate response. If your TV ad includes a clear call-to-action, you can tie airings directly to behavior. 

Short-term attribution gives you speed and direction. But it only shows what TV does immediately, not what it builds over time. 

 

The Long of It: Weeks, Months, Years

TV’s most powerful effects unfold slowly. 

According to BERA.ai, equity-led marketing delivers a long-term multiplier effect. For every dollar of short-term return, there’s an additional 30–40% in long-term value. That’s the part most TV measurement models miss. 

Brand recall doesn’t peak the day your ad airs. It builds with repeated exposure. Mental availability grows over time. And many of the customers TV introduces to your brand today don’t convert until weeks or months later, after researching options or waiting for the right moment to buy. 

This is where macro and business impacts appear. Sustained TV investment drives shifts in brand awareness, consideration, and preference. It improves conversion rates across your entire marketing mix. It increases customer lifetime value and unlocks revenue growth that wasn’t possible before TV entered the picture. 

These long-term effects are measured by observing how brand and business outcomes change over time. Brand studies, customer lifetime value tracking, and media mix modeling help connect sustained media investment to demand, sales, and profit. 

 

How to Capture TV’s Full Picture 

Short-term signals fire in real time. Long-term value builds in the background. To capture both, you need to layer your measurement models. 

The most reliable TV measurement plans don't rely on a single approach. They combine tools designed for different timeframes, then look for consistent patterns across results. 

Here's what that looks like in practice: 

 

1. Track short-term response. Use micro-attribution, web analytics, and ACR data to understand immediate impacts. This gives you speed and direction. 
    
2. Measure incremental lift. Compare test markets to control markets. Or compare baselines from before launching TV to results while your campaign runs. This separates correlation from causation. 
    
3. Monitor brand health. Track shifts in awareness, consideration, and preference over time. These metrics predict future sales even when immediate response is flat. 
   
4. Cross-channel effects matter. TV amplifies every other channel in your mix. If paid search, email, or direct mail suddenly performs better after launching TV, that's part of TV's story too. 

 

Look for convergence across multiple models. When short-term response and long-term impacts all improve, you know TV is doing its job. 

 

Measuring Half Means Missing Half

Focusing only on short-term results leads to a doom loop. Performance targets squeeze budgets. Brand investment gets cut. Growth stalls. Then marketers double down on performance tactics that can't scale without a healthy brand fueling the funnel. 

Focusing only on long-term brand effects isn't better. You lose the ability to optimize, prove near-term ROI, or justify continued investment. 

TV works across the full funnel. If you only measure half of it, you’re only seeing half the value.

 

Ready to measure what matters? Download the TV as a Full-Funnel Channel report to explore the data and strategies behind building marketing systems that deliver today and compound over time.