Innovid study examines impact of measurement and optimization gaps across CTV campaigns

“As an agency investment lead or someone on the agency side who is a steward of their client’s money, they need to ensure that every dollar performs — and the optimization that we can do now is real time,” said Dave Fahey, vp of agency partnerships at Innovid. “A lot of times the optimization is happening well after the insights are gleaned.”

Additionally, the study noted that 66% of agency professionals said they are more likely to use separate platforms for measurement and optimization in converged TV campaigns. Three-fifths of the advertisers also said their converged TV campaign optimization falls short. Part of the issue is lack of better education on using these different tools for agencies and their clients, said Delia Marshall, COO at performance-focused agency Eicoff.

“There’s just an opportunity to educate brands and agencies that a tool like this that’s putting [measurement and optimization] together will help them get more from their dollars,” Marshall said. “If you have a dashboard that can show you exactly what you spent where, what you got for it, and what you did with it, that’s incredible transparency for not only procurement, but for CFOs as well.”

As more content and platforms have swelled the ranks of the CTV market, it has become more challenging for agencies to optimize their campaigns and adjust spending accordingly. Especially as uncertain economic conditions potentially continue into the next year, agencies need to justify the ad dollars and their campaign effectiveness, Marshall explained.

“A lot of different industries have been pulling back ad spend, cutting costs and staff and operations,” Marshall told Digiday. “Now is exactly when you have to know what you’re getting for every dollar you’re investing, whether it’s in overhead or media. … Understanding the performance of your investment is crucial.”

Even with the busy holiday shopping season upon the industry, there is some reservation going into 2024, said Stephanie Stanczak, vp of media operations for Ocean Media.

“Clients are keeping macro-economic conditions in mind as we head into 2024,” Stanczak said. “However it feels to be a repeat from early 2023 where clients want to plan for the year, but have contingencies in place so they can pull back on dollars if needed.”

As Greg Wolny, chief activation officer at Code3, also recently mentioned, this has brought the measurement conversation to the forefront for many agencies. “Measurement is always a topic, of course, but more granular measurement for each dollar spent has us thinking more about incremental lift and other non-ROAS focused KPIs,” Wolny said..