Cynopsis Special Report: Closed-Loop Attribution with Premion

How Premion is optimizing streaming TV advertising performance with closed-loop attribution

Cathy Applefeld Olson

Understanding where your customers are coming from, how they heard about your brand, and how they’re interacting within a purchase funnel is table stakes for today’s data-driven marketers. With skyrocketing streaming TV viewership, CTV/OTT advertising is a highly attractive value proposition for advertisers to extend their reach, drive lift in brand awareness and achieve measurable outcomes. By combining the big screen TV viewing experience with the precision of digital targeting, advertisers are turning to CTV/OTT advertising to reach specific audiences that are most relevant for their business. As advertisers shift even more dollars to this medium, new attribution capabilities make streaming TV advertising even more compelling.

Today, advertisers are increasingly seeking the same attribution in the CTV environment as they are in traditional digital advertising. Premion, with TEGNA attribution capabilities, is helping CTV advertisers connect the dots between local spots and business KPIs like visits and sales, whether online or off-line.

“There are lots of companies out there now that are using real science around spikes in attribution. But what Premion is doing differently is closed-loop attribution,” says Jessica Daigle, TEGNA VP of Sales Intelligence. “We’re using granular data down to the IP address to connect viewership to business results. As in, this home saw the ad and these viewers went to the car dealership or the website.”

At its core, closed-loop attribution doesn’t leave the interpretation of results to chance—a business plan that brands can get behind. These new capabilities are further fueling the adoption of CTV from both traditional and digital-only advertisers.

“The flaw in the spike analysis measurement is that a million things can happen to cause a spike,” Daigle says. “Giving clients access to closed-loop attribution data helps them vet and believe in the numbers. They want to be confident their decisions are rooted in accurate data.”

One of those customers is Joel Bassam, Director of Marketing for Easterns Automotive Group, a collective of used-car dealerships in and around Washington, DC. Easterns uses Premion’s attribution capabilities for their linear and Premion OTT measurement.

Client Perspective

“I was looking to get to a point where we continue to sharpen the spend with real data instead of gut feelings,” Bassam tells Cynopsis. “I’ve been buying TV for so long, it’s been hard to say if it’s effective or not. This model allows me to get very specific on how I buy based on real data, and looking for these small increases in attribution and click-through rates will increase my business exponentially over time.”

The Premion attribution model enables Bassam and other clients to refine their targeting to reach untapped and qualified audiences. “I don’t want to limit my universe, I want to add on layers of targeting. And now I can do that more effectively by looking at performance attributes that I wouldn’t have been able to even consider before. I’ll be spending the same amount of money and getting a more effective reach, not necessarily a larger reach,” he says. “Now I can say this is how many people saw these spots and came to my website, which makes this Premion attribution capability incredibly powerful.”

Today, Premion is expanding its attribution capabilities and is now rolling it out as a core competency in every one of the 210 DMAs it serves. “It’s exciting,” Daigle says. “We are ensuring that every customer, whether you’re in Abilene or Dallas, Texas, has the opportunity to maximize their marketing spend.”

Read more on Cynopsis here.