Standardized Addressable Reporting Creates Smarter Marketing

The most exciting time to be in the television industry is right now. Data and technology are changing the game, and we are rewriting the rulebook. Brand marketers are finally beginning to understand the value of addressable advertising.

This new world of TV advertising brings transparency. We can now understand what works, and we can leverage that data to optimize future buys. Addressable television makes it possible to identity and reach only high-value, relevant households. At the end of an addressable-TV campaign, marketers should have a ton of actionable insights.

Five years ago, if a partner asked a marketer where first-party data was kept, they might be met with a blank stare. Today, that data-competency gap is starting to close. Marketers know where their data is, and they’re hiring talent with skills necessary to understand their customers’ paths to purchase. Now, more than ever, marketers are starting to understand how television augments digital-campaign performance, and they are eager to get the highest return on their investments.

It’s time for brands and agencies to take their data strategy into their own hands. Marketers should challenge their partners to work together and organize their reporting in a meaningful way, holistically connecting television and digital-campaign performance.

More buzzwords, more problems

Data has been a buzzword for as long as digital marketing has been around. Everyone is checking the box and saying they want more data. But finding data that is actionable, and unifying targeting and attribution across channels are difficult tasks—and this is what we need to work toward.

The only way to get meaningful data from addressable television advertising and other channels is by thinking beyond buzzwords and working with partners that are committed to standardizing reporting. Understanding campaign performance and ROI depends on the strength of the relationships between marketers and their partners. Marketers can get full utility of their data when their partners make it possible.

Currently an advertiser typically executes campaigns across a few providers, and the post-campaign analytics they get back are not unified. This is a problem for marketers who want meaningful and actionable results. From an addressable advertising standpoint, standardized reporting helps marketers understand what CPM they should pay to maximize ROI, which networks perform best and at what point the campaign frequency reaches diminishing return. Post-campaign analytics can provide profiles of the most responsive customers, and these insights can be used for future linear and addressable campaigns.

Taking a step further, addressable TV advertising reporting should bridge the gap with digital analytics. We can now measure TV and digital advertising in the same way. For instance, if an advertiser works with PlaceIQ to measure foot traffic from a digital campaign, the addressable advertising partner should also work with PlaceIQ for attribution so the marketer can compare apples to apples and take action on that data across future linear, addressable, IP and connected TV campaigns.

The goal of standardized addressable reporting is to better understand the impact of cross-channel campaigns. With full transparency into how TV compares to digital performance, brands and agencies can recognize when they should allocate more to digital or more to their addressable spend. They can also optimize their linear television schedules by creating smarter national TV buys. Ultimately, standardized addressable reporting will lead to a more transparent TV ecosystem and better ROI for marketers.

Reaping the full benefits of addressable

As we start to bridge the gap between TV and digital, more sophisticated targeting will become available. Continued transparency in television will be vital. Information on what isn’t working in a campaign is as valuable as what is working.

To marketers embracing data-driven marketing across channels: Putting pressure on your TV clients is a good thing. Take data into your own hands, make sure you’re challenging your partners and get actionable reporting.