Connected TV Is Not a Performance Channel, or Is It?

By Nick Rogers , Media Director

You’re selling yourself short as a marketer if you’re bucketing media channels as either “Awareness” or “Conversion” channels. Any agency worth its weight in salt should be holding itself accountable for performance goals across the funnel, from brand activations to conversion-driving media. A strong omnichannel media and creative approach should work holistically to drive full-funnel results. Elements like connected TV will absolutely increase your brand awareness and ad recall, but they will also increase your conversion performance when executed and measured effectively.?

In the back half of 2022, The Variable set out to prove it; the primary objective of the campaign was to drive online application submissions for a financial services client, and what happened was extraordinary. Over the course of the three-month test, there was a 78% lift in lower-funnel conversion rate. Yes, you read that correctly: a nearly 80% lift in cross-channel conversion rate. Consumers who were exposed to a connected TV ad prior to being served a display ad converted 78% more often than those who were only exposed to lower-funnel display messaging. Nielsen data also backs this up. Nielsen’s recently released ROI report found that the addition of upper-funnel tactics, such as connected TV, can grow overall ROI by up to 70% . Obviously, judging connected TV on outdated last-click conversion methodology will tank on a cost-per-acquisition metric; however, evaluating its performance based on its measured influence across the consumer journey will drive incredible performance.?

Success is all about perspective and, of course, appropriate measurement. Upper-funnel plan elements should provide the foundation of customers that a robust and healthy campaign needs to drive positive results across the funnel.