How to go beyond delivery-oriented KPIs in CTV advertising

In the rapidly evolving landscape of Connected Television (CTV), it's critical to distinguish between delivery metrics and true success indicators. While KPIs such as Completion Rate, Household Frequency, Reach, and Cost Per Viewable Completion (CPVC) are essential for understanding where and how budgets are spent, they can fall short of reflecting the actual impact of campaigns. 

This article explores the necessity of moving beyond delivery-oriented statistics to embrace success metrics that genuinely measure the return on investment and effectiveness of CTV advertising efforts.

Limitations of Traditional KPIs:

• Completion Rate: Measures if an ad was fully played, but not necessarily watched or engaged with by the viewer.
• CPVC: Assesses cost-efficiency but overlooks the ad’s impact on brand perception and consumer behavior.
• Viewability: Ensures the ad is seen but doesn’t measure if the ad content was compelling or memorable.
• Frequency: Tracks how often an ad is shown but not its effectiveness in driving consumer action.
• Reach: Indicates the number of unique viewers but doesn’t capture the depth of engagement or conversion potential.
• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Focuses on acquisition cost without understanding the quality of leads or long-term value.

The Need for a Broader Objective Cascade:

To create a more holistic approach, it’s crucial to adopt an 'objective cascade' that reflects the entire customer journey, from initial awareness to final activation. This approach ensures that each stage of the funnel is optimized for maximum impact.

Objective Cascade Breakdown:

• Awareness:
• Objective: Increase brand visibility and recognition.
• Metrics: Brand recall, ad recall, reach, Time to First Fixation
• Argument: Awareness is the first step in the customer journey. It’s about making potential customers aware of the brand or product. High reach and ad recall rates indicate successful penetration into the target market.
• Education:
• Objective: Inform and educate potential customers about the product or service.
• Metrics: Engagement rate, time spent on content, content interaction.
• Argument: Educating the audience builds a foundation of knowledge, helping them understand the benefits and features of the product. Metrics that track engagement and interaction provide insights into how well the content is resonating.
• Consideration:
• Objective: Encourage potential customers to consider your product as a viable option.
• Metrics: Click-through rates (CTR), website visits, content downloads.
• Argument: At this stage, the aim is to move the audience from awareness to actively considering the product. CTR and website visits are indicators that the audience is seeking more information, showing a deeper level of interest.
• Preference:
• Objective: Develop a preference for your product over competitors.
• Metrics: Brand sentiment, repeat visit rate, social media mentions.
• Argument: Building preference involves fostering positive brand sentiment and loyalty. Metrics that reflect brand preference and social media engagement show how the audience perceives the brand relative to competitors.
• Intent:
• Objective: Drive the intent to purchase.
• Metrics: Add-to-cart rate, lead form submissions, quote requests.
• Argument: Intent metrics indicate that the audience is ready to take action. Tracking these actions helps in understanding the effectiveness of campaigns in driving potential buyers closer to conversion.
• Activation:
• Objective: Convert interest into action, such as a purchase or sign-up.
• Metrics: Conversion rate, sales data, new customer acquisition.
• Argument: Activation is the ultimate goal where the audience completes the desired action. This is the culmination of all previous stages, and success here is the true measure of an effective campaign.

Embracing Creative Innovation: The Key to Success in CTV Advertising

At Origin, storytelling is at the heart of our CTV advertising approach, with creative innovation serving as a vital form of key performance indicator (KPI).

By partnering with cutting-edge data analytics firms like LoopMe and TVision, we build dynamic creatives that are not just flexible enough to speak to specific DMAs or geographic insights but are truly dynamic and agile in their core message and story.

We enhance the effectiveness of our campaigns by incorporating advanced analytics such as Favorability, Respondent Counts, Audience Analysis, Geo Insights and Time to First Fixation. These metrics provide deeper insights and actionable data, allowing us to strike a balance between cost per impression and performance metrics.

A recent case study with Travel Alaska , which saw a 261% lift in viewer attention and a 31.4% increase in consideration, demonstrates how our commitment to moving beyond traditional KPIs can move the dial.

Our fixation with creative innovation and real-time analytics ensures that we continually refine and optimize ad experiences, making storytelling the ultimate benchmark of success that we are excitedly still uncovering.

In conclusion

For CTV advertising to evolve and deliver on its promise, marketers must shift their focus from traditional delivery metrics to success-oriented KPIs.

While completion rates, household frequency, reach, and CPVC provide valuable insights into budget allocation and campaign reach, they do not capture the true essence of advertising success.

By prioritizing metrics that measure engagement, conversion, and long-term brand impact, marketers can ensure their campaigns not only reach audiences but also resonate with them, driving meaningful and measurable results.

This paradigm shift from delivery to success is essential for maximizing the potential of CTV advertising and achieving lasting marketing effectiveness.

Other articles written by Origin about delivery vs success vs performance on Connected TV:

• Why performance in CTV advertising is complex (and exciting).
• The standards every CTV advertiser should require for measurement and attribution.
• Webinar discussion on ROAS for CTV advertisers.