Proving CTV Performance — Without Last-Click Attribution

Last-click attribution is designed to give the highest value to the last trackable action before a customer converts. The problem with this arrangement is that it’s most common that a user would convert from retargeting ads, branded search visits, or paid search clicks, all of which don’t tell the whole story. 

In reality, a good marketing strategy uses multiple kinds of touchpoints, and connected TV (CTV) could be one of yours that doesn’t always seem to lead to a direct conversion. However, since this kind of touchpoint creates influence and builds awareness, you can’t simply look at last-click attribution rates to determine its value. When CTV is part of your plan, you have to remember that it is focused on branding and awareness, helping build up your brand in the background and encouraging users to move forward in your funnel and convert down the line.

Why Last-Click Attribution Consistently Undervalues CTV

Last-click attribution regularly undervalues CTV and other upper-funnel channels because it’s only made to look at the final action before a conversion. This arrangement penalizes channels that are an earlier part of the marketing funnel, such as CTV, some kinds of social media, and other touchpoints. While CTV or those other typically non-converting parts of your funnel are necessary, last-click attribution does not consider them, making it more likely that you’ll undervalue them when looking at your data. 

How CTV Impacts Behavior, Engagement, and Conversion Lift

CTV drives downstream search behavior, site engagement, and conversion lift despite not having any direct click paths. Here’s how it affects each.

Search behavior: With CTV, the goal is to increase brand recognition and reach your target audience. CTV introduces your brand (and reaffirms it) to the audience, building trust and increasing the likelihood of branded searches when the audience has a problem your brand can solve. 

Site engagement: With good brand awareness, you’ll often see better website traffic, longer sessions on your site, and a higher number of return visits. The reason for this is that CTV is essentially pre-selling your services or products. 

Conversion lift: Finally, with CTV, it is possible to build social proof that is necessary for conversions. Search, social, and display often perform better after CTV exposure because the leads become warmer. 

Top Measurement Approaches To Capture CTV Impact

The good news about gathering your data and reviewing metrics is that you can set up a process that considers CTV fairly. Giving credit where it’s due for assisted conversions is a must. 

Options include:
–Incrementality testing, which answers what happened because of using CTV versus what happens when it’s not used. Common options are using geo splits to have a controlled group that is/is not exposed to a new ad, audience holdout, and synthetic control. 
-Multi-touch attribution (MTA), which helps you identify and measure touchpoints across devices. This still isn’t a foolproof option, but it is often more accurate than last-click attribution if you want to look at upper-funnel impacts. 
–Brand lift and search lift studies, which look at metrics like awareness, intent, consideration, and ad recall. 

Performance Signals To Monitor

When CTV works correctly, you’ll see patterns across your full funnel. 

In the upper funnel, you’ll want to check that your reach is expanding and that the frequency of an ad appearing is monitored closely to avoid overexposure. Then, in the mid-funnel, you should consider watching for direct traffic increases, branded search volume increases, and higher engagement on pages like your pricing or booking landing pages. Finally, check for a lift in conversion rate in the paid search category and a shorter time-to-conversion, which can indicate that CTV is directly impacting sales. 

How To Build Internal Confidence in CTV Investment

Building internal confidence in CTV investment requires you to connect exposure data to real business outcomes instead of click-based reporting. Before you launch, remember to align on a measurement stack. Pick one source of truth for your executive team, whether that is to look at incrementality lift or supporting signals in branding/search lift. 

After that, take time to focus on translating CTV metrics into outcomes that your leadership team can really understand. You can show offline outcomes, like more visits to your brick-and-mortar stores, or improvements in branded search clicks and conversions. 

Finally, be prepared to repeat testing to demonstrate that running your ads on CTV helps over time and continues to deliver benefits (such as the ability to scale and grow your reach). Doing these things all helps prove value, so you can understand CTV’s true impact on your marketing efforts without relying on last-click attribution.

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