Make the Most of Measurement: In the Battle Over Currency, Don’t Lose Sight of Outcome

When a CMO sits down with their C-suite colleagues at the end of each month, the first question isn’t, “On what currency did we transact our media against?” The CEOs and CFOs of brands are looking to understand how their marketing investment drove sales – the details surrounding currency methodology are secondary. 

On a recent panel of the Joint Industry Committee, a comment was made that right now, 90% of effort and ad spend is focused on currency and counting, with only 10% going to outcomes and sales lift. While the innovation in the currency space is significant, smart buyers and sellers are simultaneously building pipes, people, and processes around another key development in TV – the ability to track more precise outcome-based measurement. As the tactics and methods from digital are bleeding into TV, so are the precise targeting and measurement solutions. 

Advertisers now can understand both household reach and frequency, as well as how their TV dollars are driving incremental foot traffic, automotive sales, and in-store sales lift, among other KPIs. Brand marketers can precisely understand what TV spend is driving cash register sales, and how to best optimize and improve efficiencies against the outcomes that are most important to their business.  

Key Terminology 

Before we go too far down one path, we feel it’s important to clarify the differences between measurement currency and business outcome-based measurement.  

• Measurement Currency: Currency is the financial unit of value for buying and selling TV ads based on measurement data. (AdExchanger) 
   
• Business Outcome-Based Measurement: Outcome-driven metrics are measures of operational and business outcomes that provide a direct line of sight back to the outcomes on which they depend, and with outcomes that are dependent on them. (Gartner) 

Measure Campaign Performance Against KPIs 

Cadent unveiled measurement marketplace, a feature of Aperture Audience Studio, earlier this year to power outcome-based measurement solutions and support better currency performance.  The solution was designed in direct response to industry feedback that measurement has become too complex – – causing operational burdens and leading to choice paralysis. With more data than ever and various options for systems and partners, the TV measurement landscape is challenging to navigate. It adds complexity to proof of performance, optimization, and cross-screen measurement processes.  

“CTV measurement has come a long way in just a few short years. We, along with partners like Cadent, are investing in advanced measurement capabilities to enable advertisers to delve deeply into measuring outcomes. From tracking website visits to connecting CTV viewership with sales with our Sales Conversion Attribution solution, we’re helping advertisers to truly understand the ROI of each impression in their campaign,” said Dave Marquard, Head of Product at Premion. 

Since launching measurement marketplace, there have been a few critical learnings for marketers:  

• Determine if outcome-based measurement will be used – well before the campaign starts 
• Align the audience targeting strategy with measurement goals 
• Use the same graph solution for both targeting and measurement to increase data fidelity 
• Create test and control groups pre-campaign 
• Engage with the measurement providers early and often about feasibility and deliverables  

TV marketers are improving their ability to understand and optimize against key business outcomes, leaving behind competitors who aren’t innovating. Smart TV networks, distributions, broadcasters, and OTT publishers, are doing the same, offering up smarter TV solutions and winning more marketing dollars from competitors with precise measurement solutions.   

“Affinity is seeing more advertisers shift to outcome-based measurement in Advanced TV, making their TV dollars more efficient, and accountable said Ken Barbieri, SVP, Business Development. “We expect that growth to continue, as smarter marketers realize the potential”.   

Currency and outcomes-based measurement go hand in hand, and the winners in the market will be savvy buyers and sellers who are building up tech stacks around both now.   

Learn more about the measurement partners available through Aperture Platform.