The New Performance Model Is Built on Connection

Digital advertising has long been built around channel-specific systems, each optimized for its own role in the customer journey.

But consumers don’t move that way anymore. They discover, research, and decide across platforms and screens, and advertisers increasingly need a clearer view of how signals, media, and outcomes connect along the way.

This week, I sat down with Chip Jessopp, VP & GM of Programmatic Ads Sales at Pinterest, to discuss why the industry is moving from siloed optimization toward more connected ecosystems and why forward-looking intent signals could become one of the most valuable assets in performance advertising.

Moving beyond siloed performance

I kicked off our conversation with a question that gets at a bigger shift in advertising: are siloed systems still the model, or is the industry moving on?

According to Chip, “The industry is moving toward more connected ecosystems because advertisers are demanding clearer, cross-channel outcomes.” He explained that digital advertising has traditionally operated in silos. Search focused on capturing intent, social focused on engagement, and TV focused on reach and storytelling. That structure worked when performance was measured entirely within a single channel.

“But that starts to break down when the consumer journey moves across platforms and screens,” he said. Consumers may discover a product in one environment, research it in another, and convert somewhere entirely different. As a result, advertisers increasingly need a more connected understanding of how media exposure influences business outcomes across the full journey.

For Chip, that shift is part of what makes the launch of tvScientific by Pinterest so significant. “It reflects the broader direction the industry is moving in,” he explained. “You’re bringing Pinterest’s exclusive high-intent audiences beyond Pinterest and onto the biggest screen in the house: TV.”

And I couldn’t agree more. The opportunity is precisely about breaking down the traditional walls between intent signals and premium media environments.

Advertisers are thinking about the full journey

We then shifted to how advertisers themselves are approaching data, media, and measurement today. According to Chip, the most sophisticated advertisers are increasingly thinking in terms of customer journeys rather than individual channels.

“There’s growing recognition that intent forms in one place and converts in another,” he said. That shift is changing how marketers approach campaign planning and measurement. Many advertisers are now trying to connect first-party data, platform-level intent signals, and cross-channel measurement frameworks into a more unified system.

The challenge is that much of this work still happens manually. “A lot of brands are stitching these systems together through partial solutions,” Chip explained. “And that creates inefficiencies.”

The advertisers making the most progress tend to focus on three core areas:

• Signal quality: who they should reach
• Execution environment: where they should reach them
• Outcome measurement: what actually drove results

When those three layers align, marketers gain a clearer understanding of how advertising influences business growth across the full customer journey.

What I found interesting about Chip’s insights was how much our conversation shifted away from channels entirely. The focus wasn’t really on TV versus social versus search, but on how advertisers create continuity between them.

Where strong signals become measurable performance

From there, I asked Chip what role connected systems play in the next phase of performance advertising. His answer was immediate: “Signal, media, and measurement need to actually work together. Otherwise, advertisers are stuck optimizing fragments instead of outcomes.”

Teams may have access to enormous amounts of data, but much of it lives in disconnected environments that fail to create a unified view of performance.

But Chip was careful to point out that simply connecting systems isn’t the end goal. “The ultimate goal is better performance, and performance that advertisers can measure and validate.”

He explained how one of the core challenges in advertising today is not a lack of data; it’s that the data is often backward-looking. Most audience targeting still relies on the same familiar sources: behavioral data, demographic segments, or purchase signals that show up after the decision is made.

Pinterest, however, operates differently. “Pinterest’s signal is rooted in what people are planning, searching, and shopping for,” Chip emphasized. “It reflects what people are considering next, not just what they’ve already done.” That gives advertisers earlier visibility into emerging consumer intent.

Chip described tvScientific by Pinterest as the execution and optimization layer that translates those signals into TV environments. But the real value comes from connecting that layer with an advertiser’s own conversion data, preferred measurement models, and trusted measurement partners. That’s what creates the bridge between intent and outcomes at scale.

Reaching high-intent audiences earlier

Next, I asked where Chip sees the biggest opportunity for advertisers to drive stronger business impact. For him, the answer starts with timing.

“The biggest opportunity is reaching high-intent audiences earlier in high-impact environments,” he said. “It’s about turning intent into action.” For Chip, the advantage is not just identifying intent, but acting on it early enough to influence outcomes.

The scale of that intent is substantial. Every month, there are more than 80 billion searches on Pinterest.¹ Now, through tvScientific by Pinterest, advertisers can extend those audiences onto Connected TV and reach consumers earlier in their shopping journeys, on a high-attention screen, while decisions are still being shaped.

For Chip, that combination creates a meaningful shift in how performance advertising works. “The biggest gains come from connecting early audience intent signals to media environments that can influence decisions and optimize toward measurable outcomes.”

Rather than competing only for bottom-funnel conversions after demand becomes obvious (and expensive), advertisers have the opportunity to influence consideration much earlier in the process.

What’s still breaking across platforms

Of course, the industry still faces major friction points when trying to connect signals to activation across environments. When I asked Chip what continues to break in practice, he pointed to several issues that advertisers are actively navigating.

The first is fragmentation. “Data exists,” he said, “but it’s not always portable or actionable across environments.” Signals often remain trapped within specific systems, which limits advertisers’ ability to activate them consistently across channels.

There’s also a timing problem. Intent signals frequently emerge early in the customer journey, but activation often happens later, once intent is already obvious to competitors across the market.

Measurement remains another challenge. Brands still struggle to connect upper-funnel signals to lower-funnel business outcomes in a way that feels comprehensive and trustworthy.

And beyond the technology, organizational silos continue to slow progress. “Teams still tend to operate by channel (social, TV, search) instead of thinking about the system as a whole,” he said.

Transparency can’t disappear inside connected systems

As more signals begin flowing across environments, I asked Chip how advertisers should think about maintaining transparency and trust without recreating opaque black-box systems.

For him, transparency has to be foundational. “Advertisers should have clear visibility into what signals are being used, where they’re being activated, and what outcomes they’re helping drive,” he said. He believes the industry needs to evolve beyond a simple “trust the platform” approach, which really resonated with my own “trust but verify” mindset.

Chip also emphasized that advertisers should be able to validate performance through their preferred third-party measurement solutions and independent outcome verification frameworks. And optimization can’t feel like a black-box either. For Chip, “advertisers need to know what the system is optimizing toward and how performance is being measured.”

Measurement, in his view, should remain grounded in incrementality and business outcomes, whether that’s sales, traffic, clicks, or app installs. The goal is to create connected systems that advertisers can confidently understand, validate, and trust.

From capturing demand to shaping it

We wrapped up with the bigger picture: what a more unified performance ecosystem could mean for advertisers in the future.

Chip believes it could reshape how brands approach growth. “A fully connected performance ecosystem unlocks a better way to reach high-intent audiences earlier, before demand becomes saturated and expensive,” he said. Instead of competing for the same bottom-funnel conversions as every other advertiser, brands gain the ability to influence decisions much earlier in the consumer journey.

Over time, that creates stronger alignment between who a brand wants to reach, where it reaches them, and the business outcomes those interactions drive.

Chip also sees the long-term opportunity extending beyond any single channel. “It opens the door to a more unified cross-screen advertising experience,” he explained, “where intent discovered in one environment can drive action in another.”

That creates the potential for continuous learning systems where signals inform media, media drives outcomes, and outcomes feed back into optimization in an ongoing cycle.

Ultimately, Chip believes the future of advertising moves beyond simply capturing demand after it appears. “It enables a shift from capturing demand to shaping it.”

Stepping back from the conversation, it’s clear the industry is moving toward a model where connection itself becomes the competitive advantage: connecting signals to media, media to outcomes, and ultimately brands to consumers earlier in the decision-making process.