The CTV measurement conundrum that creates more questions than answers

In a complex landscape that includes streaming platforms, it’s harder than ever for marketers to get a solid grip on how their ads are performing on CTV.

Brett Tabano

May 10, 2021

In a complex landscape that includes streaming platforms and connected devices – all of which have their own approaches to media buying and ad measurement – it’s harder than ever for marketers to get a solid grip on how their ads are performing on CTV. So, here’s what you need to know about the current state of ad measurement in CTV, and what’s to come.

The challenges of accurate CTV ad measurement

Jason Fairchild, co-founder and chief exec at CTV platform tvScientific, agrees that this issue of divided consumer attention impacts marketers’ ability to measure attribution with accuracy. “We live in a world where the last click from search or social claims all of the attribution credit, but we’re seeing a different truth emerge as CTV advertising is scaling up,” he says. “Users see a CTV ad and respond via a second screen. This ‘second screen behavior’ often leads to a search, but it was not caused or inspired by the search – the search was inspired by the CTV ad.”

In search of a solution

To industry players, it’s clear that things need to change in more than one way. Many believe the solution is making CTV look more like digital advertising. “With the majority of TV viewing happening on streaming services versus linear, we don’t need to retrofit the new era of TV with a panel-based measurement model from the 1950s,” says Fairchild. “I think the new era of TV measurement will be very similar to search and social, where we can leverage sophisticated digital targeting on a one-to-one basis and measure actual outcomes instead of outcome proxies like delivery of reach and frequency against target demos.”

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