How Reliable Attribution Works on Connected TV

4 Min Read

As television advertising evolves, attribution has gotten trickier. Attribution was essentially nonexistent for traditional television—and many marketing teams are under the impression that it’s the same for newer solutions. 

But that couldn’t be further from the truth. With the right approach today, the digital DNA of Connected TV (CTV) offers advertisers accurate attribution that can help them effectively measure their newest performance marketing channel. 

Jennifer Brickler, Customer Success Manager at MNTN, recently joined Adweek to discuss how CTV advertisers can use the right strategies to get the reliable attribution they need. Let’s take a look at some highlights of their conversation: 

A Look at the Performance TV Industry 

You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again: CTV is a performance marketing channel. In fact, we think of it as the next scalable marketing channel. Alongside paid search and social media, Performance TV creates a trifecta of digital marketing greatness.

While it has been impossible in the past, CTV brings performance strategies to TV campaigns. This allows brands of all sizes to reach their audiences at scale, generate measurable performance, and effectively attribute the right conversions to their campaigns. 

Marketing teams are beginning to understand this power, which has led to increased investments in ad spend on CTV. According to a recent report from eMarketer, some reasons why brands are increasing their investments in CTV include the ability to:  

• Precisely target their audience — 56%
• Achieve awareness and performance goals — 43%
• Reach a highly engaged, opted-in audience — 38% 

But even with these gains, modern TV advertising has still not seen the same budget as other digital channels. Since these features are practically impossible to replicate with linear TV advertising, many advertisers aren’t aware Performance TV platforms like MNTN have changed the game. 

With the same features as other digital marketing platforms, like precision audience targeting, CTV can help marketing teams reach their performance goals by advertising on the biggest screen in the home. 

Advertisers Need Good CTV Attribution

While all performance features matter a lot to TV advertisers, attribution is likely top of mind right now. 

According to a recent eMarketer survey, CTV attribution is still the number one area marketers want to see improvement. Without dependable attribution, brands can’t properly measure the success of their campaigns—much less have the confidence to invest more in CTV. 

Here’s the thing: reliable attribution does exist. 

But to get it, you have to use the attribution model that best fits your goals. And an overwhelming 77% of marketers believe they’re either not using the right attribution model or don’t know which to use. To help you understand which format is the best fit for your campaigns, Brickler explores some of the existing attribution models during the webinar. 

Verified Visits™: Attribution Made for Television

MNTN designed Verified Visits™, which is the proprietary cross-device attribution model that solves the problems of legacy CTV measurement solutions. It’s built to provide marketers with an accurate, deterministic way to view the unique performance driven by their CTV campaigns. So how does it work? 

First, MNTN leverages a unique, anonymous, and ID-agnostic understanding of 120MM+ connected households to serve Performance TV ads to the right audiences. 

Then, the platform tracks when a user visits a brand’s site on any household device within a determined window after viewing that ad, be it organically or directly from an ad. 

Finally, MNTN runs a diagnostic to ensure that visit wasn’t driven by another marketing channel (i.e. paid search, social, emails, blog posts, etc). You can hear Brickler’s in-depth explanation of this process by watching the webinar, but in a nutshell, it ensures Performance TV only takes credit where credit is actually due.

By solving concerns about ineffective CTV attribution, MNTN offers brands the insights they need to optimize their performance budget. 

Get the CTV Attribution You Deserve 

Trusting your gut works for a lot of things in life—but you shouldn’t have to rely on it for attribution. Whether you’re a seasoned TV advertising pro or you’re launching a CTV campaign for the first time, advertisers across the board need (and deserve!) accurate and reliable attribution to confidently measure success. 

Watch the full webinar here to learn more about effective CTV attribution.