Connected TV isn’t always the superhero. Sometimes, it’s the sidekick.
On Wednesday, AppLovin-owned mobile measurement platform Adjust launched a product called CTV AdVision that attributes cross-device app install conversions tied to CTV ads.
Adjust’s measurement product launch is separate from AppLovin’s acquisition of the CTV ad platform Wurl.
Specifically, the new product tracks CTV ads that led to app installs on both connected and mobile devices, whether that’s CTV to mobile or CTV to CTV.
Although CTV is digital, it hasn’t been a great performance channel, in part because of the cross-channel measurement challenge.
If someone is retargeted online after searching for a mobile game they saw featured in a CTV ad, the attribution for a subsequent download would go to Google, for example, even if Hulu deserves some credit.
The ROI of CTV
Adjust’s solution is to determine the “assisting value” of CTV, Gijsbert Pols, Adjust’s director of CTV and new channels, told AdExchanger. Although some people do convert directly on their connected TV device, the bulk of CTV attribution is about connecting CTV ads to actions taken in other channels, which means following the consumer throughout their purchase journey.
The new tool has a dashboard that allows marketers to see how their CTV campaigns are performing and the impact they have on installs, app opens, revenue, return on investment and other KPIs.
CTV AdVision combines Adjust’s CTV to CTV and CTV to mobile offerings into a comprehensive platform that tracks data the ads generate on mobile devices, particularly app installs, which the company defines as the first time a user opens the app. Based on that data, the platform can determine if the CTV ad led to a direct conversion or if it “assisted” other channels, in addition to what those channels were. It’s essential to be able to compare both angles for a probabilistic match, Pols said.
Adjust, which launched in 2012, has always been in the mobile attribution game, but only broke into CTV a couple of years ago.
“Halfway through 2020, we saw the impact the pandemic had on CTV – growth figures were skyrocketing,” he said. “We integrated products with Roku, VIZIO and Samsung to make CTV apps measurable, and last year we launched our first solution to measure the impact of CTV ads on mobile apps,” he added, referring to the company’s CTV to mobile measurement product.
It quickly became clear that CTV ads could have a big impact beyond what’s happening on the screen on the wall (or in your lap, let’s be honest).
In January, Adjust says it tracked a CTV campaign for a gaming app that generated tens of thousands of new users over the course of a single month. But of those conversions, only 2.7% took action directly through the big screen. The other 97.3% of conversions were attributed to other channels, including Google.
“Traditionally, our industry has been very heavily focused on last-touch attribution, but CTV is almost entirely impression-based,” Pols said, meaning nearly all of the outcomes it helps drive occur on other screens. “We have to visualize that value for clients,” he said.
For example, the game developer he references above found that users who downloaded an app after seeing a CTV ad spent 30% more money within the app than organic users, as in people who found the app without ads.
“It’s not a guarantee, but we’re seeing a pattern,” Pols said. “Advertisers can get more incremental value when they reach out to the audience that spends more money in their apps.”
But what about linear measurement?
AdVision doesn’t include linear TV measurement because it’s purely performance based.
“We do have an ad solution for linear, but we work with partners that do the measurement for us because the interactivity isn’t a given,” said Pols, whereas for CTV and mobile, “we do the measurement ourselves.”
But Adjust does also partner with other CTV performance-based marketing platforms, including tvScientific.
