Can you measure TV advertising ROI? Yes, absolutely. Many methods and tools exist to help you figure out if your TV ads make you money. This guide tells you how. It shows you ways to check how well your TV ads work and if the money you spend on them brings in more money for your business.
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Why Check Your TV Ad Money?
Putting ads on TV costs a lot. You want to know if that money is well spent. You need to see if your TV ads lead people to buy things from you. Checking this helps you spend your money better. It shows you which ads work and which ones don’t. This way, you can put more money into the ads that make you more money.
What is ROI for TV Ads?
ROI means Return on Investment. It is a way to see how much money you make back for every dollar you spend. For TV ads, it means figuring out if the sales you get because of the TV ads are more than the cost of running the ads.
The basic idea is simple:
ROI = (Money Made from Ads – Cost of Ads) / Cost of Ads
We will talk about how to figure out the “Money Made from Ads” part, which is the tricky bit for TV.
How to Figure Out If TV Ads Work
Checking how well TV ads work is not always easy. People see a TV ad. Maybe they do not do anything right away. Later, they might remember your brand and buy something. Connecting that sale back to the specific TV ad they saw can be hard. But there are good ways to do it.
Direct Response Checks
Some TV ads ask people to do something right away. They might say, “Go to our website now!” or “Call this number!” This makes it easier to check.
- Website Visits: You can watch your website traffic. When your ad plays, do more people come to your site? Tools like Google Analytics can show you this. You can look at the times your ad was on TV and see if you got a spike in visits.
- Special Phone Numbers: You can use a phone number just for your TV ads. When someone calls that number, you know they saw your ad. This is a simple way for tracking phone calls from TV ads.
- Promo Codes: You can give a special code in your TV ad. People use this code when they buy something. This tells you they came from the TV ad.
- Special Web Page: Send people from the TV ad to a unique web page address (URL) only shown on TV. If someone visits that page, you know they saw the ad.
These methods give you direct signals. They help you see immediate actions people take after seeing your ad.
Connecting Ads to Actions: TV Ad Attribution Modeling
Attribution modeling is like being a detective. You try to figure out which ad caused someone to buy something. For TV, this means connecting TV ad airings to actions like website visits, sign-ups, or sales.
It is harder than checking clicks on online ads. A TV ad does not have a clickable link. People see the ad, then maybe hours or days later, they go online or go to a store.
Attribution models use data to guess the link. They might look at:
* When your ad was on TV.
* Where the ad was shown (which TV show, which area).
* When people visited your website or took other actions.
They look for a pattern. Did website visits go up when your ad was playing? Did sales increase in the areas where your ad was shown?
Advanced TV ad attribution modeling systems use a lot of data. They look at things like:
* TV viewing data (from set-top boxes or smart TVs).
* Website visitor data.
* App usage data.
* Sales data (online and offline).
These systems try to match views of your ad to later actions. They might say, “Someone in this house saw your ad at 7 PM, and someone from that same house visited your website at 7:15 PM.” This is a powerful way of measuring television ad impact.
Checking if Sales Go Up: Lift Analysis TV Campaigns
Lift analysis is a simple but strong way to see if your TV ads work. It checks if your business results “lifted” or improved after your TV campaign started.
Here is how it often works:
1. Look at your sales (or website visits, or leads) before the TV ads started. This is your base level.
2. Run your TV ads.
3. Look at your sales (or other results) during and after the TV campaign.
4. Compare the numbers from before and after.
If your sales are much higher during and after the campaign than before, and you did not do anything else big (like a huge sale), you can guess the TV ads caused the “lift.”
You can also compare places where your ad ran to places where it did not. If sales went up more in the areas with TV ads, the ads likely caused the extra sales or “lift.” This is a key part of TV ad effectiveness analysis.
Tracking Phone Calls from TV Ads
Getting phone calls is a common goal for TV ads, especially for local businesses or services. How do you know if the call came from your TV ad?
- Unique Phone Numbers: The easiest way is to use a different phone number in your TV ad than the one you use everywhere else.
- Call Tracking Software: Special software can give you temporary phone numbers. When someone calls this number, the software sends the call to your real number. It also records information about the call. If you link this software to your TV ad schedule, it can often tell you which ad airing led to the call. This gives good data for measuring television ad impact.
- Asking Callers: You can simply train your staff to ask, “How did you hear about us?” This is low-tech but can give you clues.
Using unique numbers or call tracking software gives you solid data to include when calculating return on ad spend TV.
Numbers to Watch: Television Advertising Performance Metrics
To figure out ROI and see if your ads work, you need to look at key numbers. These are your television advertising performance metrics.
- Reach: How many different people saw your ad? Seeing your ad once might not be enough.
- Frequency: How many times did the average person see your ad? Seeing it multiple times helps people remember your brand.
- Impressions: The total number of times your ad was shown. If 100 people saw your ad 3 times each, that’s 300 impressions.
- Website Traffic: How many people came to your website? Look for increases right after your ad airs.
- Website Actions (Conversions): Did people do what you wanted them to do on your website? (e.g., sign up, buy something, fill a form).
- Phone Calls: How many calls came in through your TV ad number?
- Store Visits: Did more people visit your physical store? This is harder to track directly from TV but lift analysis can help.
- Sales: The most important number. Did sales go up? Track both online and offline sales.
- Cost Per Lead (CPL): How much did it cost to get one potential customer (a lead) from TV?
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): How much did it cost to get one paying customer (an acquisition) from TV? This is also called Cost Per Sale. Cost per acquisition TV campaigns is a very important metric for ROI.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): This is like a simpler version of ROI. It is just (Revenue from Ads) / (Cost of Ads). It does not include the cost of making the product or running the business, just the ad cost. Calculating return on ad spend TV is a direct way to see revenue return.
You need to pick the metrics that matter most for your business goals. If your goal is website sign-ups, track those. If it’s sales, track sales and CPA.
Doing the Math: Calculating Return on Ad Spend TV
Let’s break down how to figure out your ROI for TV ads.
The Basic ROI Formula
Remember the formula:
ROI = (Money Made from Ads – Cost of Ads) / Cost of Ads
To make this a percentage, multiply the result by 100.
ROI (%) = [(Money Made from Ads – Cost of Ads) / Cost of Ads] * 100
If your ROI is positive (more than 0%), you made more money than you spent on ads. Good! If it’s negative, you lost money.
Figure Out the Cost of Ads
This part is easy. It is the total money you spent on:
* Buying the TV air time (running the commercials).
* Making the commercial itself (production costs).
* Agency fees (if you used an agency).
Add up all these costs for the TV campaign you are checking.
Figure Out the Money Made from Ads
This is the harder part. You need to estimate how much of your total revenue came because of the TV ads. This is where your tracking methods and attribution modeling come in.
Let’s say your TV ads ran for a month. During that month, and maybe for a week or two after (the “halo effect”), you look at your sales data.
- Using Direct Tracking:
- Count sales from the TV promo code.
- Count sales made by people who visited the special TV-only web page.
- Count sales that started with a call to your TV-only phone number.
- Add up the revenue from these direct sources.
- Using Lift Analysis:
- Look at sales during the campaign period.
- Compare this to sales before the campaign (or in areas without ads).
- The difference is the “lift” you can attribute to TV.
- Example: If you normally sell $10,000 a week, and during the TV campaign, you sold $15,000 a week, the “lift” is $5,000 per week. If the campaign was 4 weeks, the estimated revenue from TV is $20,000.
- Using Attribution Modeling:
- Your TV ad attribution modeling system will give you an estimate of how many conversions (sales, leads, etc.) were influenced by TV.
- Multiply the number of conversions by the average value of a conversion (Average Order Value for sales).
- Example: If the model says TV influenced 500 sales, and your average sale is $100, the estimated revenue from TV is $500 * $100 = $50,000.
This “Money Made from Ads” number should be the profit from those sales, not just the total revenue. Profit = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold. Using profit gives you a truer ROI. So the formula is really:
ROI = (Profit from Ads – Cost of Ads) / Cost of Ads
If you cannot easily figure out the profit per sale, using revenue is okay for calculating return on ad spend TV (ROAS), but be clear that it is ROAS, not true ROI.
Example Calculation:
- Your TV campaign cost $50,000 (air time + production).
- Using lift analysis, you figure your sales went up by $70,000 during and right after the campaign.
- Your average profit margin is 40%. So, the profit from those extra sales is $70,000 * 40% = $28,000.
Now, calculate ROI:
ROI = ($28,000 – $50,000) / $50,000
ROI = -$22,000 / $50,000
ROI = -0.44
As a percentage: ROI = -0.44 * 100 = -44%.
In this example, the campaign had a negative ROI. You spent $50,000 but only made $28,000 profit because of it. You lost money. This means you need to change the ad, change where it runs, or maybe TV is not the best channel for you right now.
What if the lift in sales was $150,000?
Profit from sales = $150,000 * 40% = $60,000.
ROI = ($60,000 – $50,000) / $50,000
ROI = $10,000 / $50,000
ROI = 0.20
As a percentage: ROI = 0.20 * 100 = 20%.
This time, you made 20% more money than you spent. Good job! For every dollar spent, you got $1.20 back ($1 original investment + $0.20 profit).
Hard Parts About Checking TV Ads
Measuring television ad impact is complex. Here are some reasons why:
- Other Marketing is Happening: You are probably doing other marketing too (online ads, social media, email). How do you know if a sale came from TV or from an email people got the same day? This is why cross-platform attribution is important but hard. You need ways to try and give credit to the right marketing effort.
- Time Delay: People do not always act right after seeing a TV ad. They might see it today and buy next week. This makes it hard to link the ad view to the action directly.
- Lots of People in One House: A TV ad is shown to a house, not one person. Many people might see it. Which one took the action? Attribution models try to guess, but it is not perfect.
- Data Problems: Getting good data on who saw your ad and what they did later can be tricky.
Despite these problems, using the methods discussed (direct tracking, lift analysis, attribution modeling) gives you much better answers than just guessing.
Tools That Help: TV Advertising Analytics Tools
There are many tools that make measuring TV ROI easier. These are your TV advertising analytics tools.
- Web Analytics (like Google Analytics): Shows website traffic, where visitors come from, and what they do on your site. You can look for spikes in traffic that match your ad airings.
- Call Tracking Software: Provides unique numbers for your ads and tracks calls. Can often link calls back to the specific ad spot and time it aired.
- Attribution Platforms: These are advanced systems designed for TV ad attribution modeling. They use complex math and data from different sources (TV viewing data, web data, sales data) to estimate the impact of your TV ads. They help with cross-platform attribution by trying to figure out TV’s role compared to other marketing.
- Lift Measurement Tools: Some companies specialize in measuring the lift in sales, website visits, or store traffic directly caused by TV campaigns.
Using a mix of these tools gives you a much clearer picture of your TV ad effectiveness analysis.
Steps to Check Your TV Ads
Ready to measure your TV ad ROI? Follow these steps:
1. Set Clear Goals
What do you want your TV ads to achieve?
* More website visits?
* More phone calls?
* More online sales?
* More store sales?
* More leads (people signing up or asking for info)?
* Just make more people know your brand (brand awareness)? (Note: Measuring ROI on brand awareness is very hard, focus on actions for ROI).
Your goals will decide which metrics (television advertising performance metrics) you track.
2. Pick Ways to Track
Based on your goals, choose the best ways to measure:
* If calls are key: Use a special phone number or call tracking software.
* If website visits/sales are key: Use web analytics, unique landing pages/URLs, or promo codes.
* For overall impact: Plan lift analysis TV campaigns or look into TV ad attribution modeling tools.
3. Set Up Tracking
Make sure everything is ready before your ads start.
* Set up your web analytics goals (like a “thank you” page after a sale).
* Get your special phone numbers or call tracking software working.
* Create the unique web pages or promo codes.
* If using attribution software, connect all your data sources.
4. Run Your Ads
Start your TV campaign. Keep a close watch on when and where your ads are airing. This schedule is very important for matching ad views to actions later.
5. Look at the Numbers
Gather data from all your tracking methods.
* Check website traffic for spikes.
* Look at the number of calls to your special number.
* Track usage of promo codes or visits to unique URLs.
* Collect all your sales data (online and offline).
* Get data from your attribution platform if you are using one.
6. Do TV Ad Effectiveness Analysis
Now, make sense of the numbers.
* Calculate your Cost Per Acquisition TV campaigns (Total TV cost / Number of customers gained).
* Do your lift analysis. Compare results during the ad period to before.
* Use your attribution model results to see which actions TV is getting credit for.
* Combine the data. Look for patterns. Do ad airings lead to quick website visits or calls? Do certain ads or channels bring in more customers?
7. Make Changes
Use what you learned to improve.
* Stop running ads that are not working.
* Put more money into ads, channels, or times that bring good ROI.
* Test different ads or offers to see what works best.
Measuring is not a one-time thing. You need to keep checking and changing your plan to get the best results from your TV ad money.
TV Ads Today: Old vs. New
TV advertising is changing. It is not just traditional broadcast TV (linear TV) anymore. Now there is also Connected TV (CTV), which is TV watched through the internet on smart TVs or devices like Roku or Apple TV.
Checking Linear TV
Measuring linear TV (the old way, watching live shows as they air) is harder for direct tracking because it’s broadcast widely without direct digital links. This is where lift analysis TV campaigns and sophisticated TV ad attribution modeling are most used. You rely on seeing overall trends and using data to make educated guesses about TV’s impact. Tracking phone calls from TV ads with unique numbers is also very common for linear TV.
Checking CTV (Cross-Platform Attribution)
CTV acts more like online advertising. You can often target specific households or people. You can sometimes get data faster. It is also part of the digital world, making cross-platform attribution easier.
Cross-platform attribution means checking how TV works together with your online ads, social media, and email. Did someone see your ad on CTV, then click a Facebook ad later, then buy? Attribution models try to give credit to all the steps in that journey. Measuring television ad impact on CTV can feel more precise because you can sometimes connect the ad view (or impression) to a specific household or device, and then see if that household or device later took an action online.
Many TV advertising analytics tools now handle both linear TV and CTV data to give you a full picture.
Putting It All Together
Measuring TV advertising ROI is key to knowing if your ad money is working hard for you. It is not always simple, but using the right methods gives you clear answers.
Start with your goals. Choose how you will track things like website visits, calls (tracking phone calls from TV ads), and sales. Use metrics like Cost Per Acquisition TV campaigns and track key television advertising performance metrics. Figure out your revenue and profit from the ads, using direct tracking, lift analysis TV campaigns, or TV ad attribution modeling. Then calculate your ROI or calculating return on ad spend TV.
Use TV advertising analytics tools to help you gather and understand the data. Keep doing TV ad effectiveness analysis and make changes based on what the numbers tell you. Whether you use linear TV, CTV, or both, focusing on measurement helps you spend wisely and grow your business.
Questions People Ask
What is a good ROI for TV advertising?
A “good” ROI depends on your business goals and profit margins. Any positive ROI (above 0%) means you made more profit than you spent on ads. However, many businesses aim for a higher ROI, like 2:1 (meaning for every $1 spent, they get $2 back in profit) or more, to cover business costs and make real growth. A low positive ROI might mean you should try to improve the ad or targeting.
Is TV ad attribution modeling accurate?
TV ad attribution modeling uses data and statistics to estimate impact. It is not perfect because it cannot know exactly what every single person did or thought after seeing an ad. But it is one of the best ways to connect mass-reach TV campaigns to actions and gives a much better estimate than guessing. Its accuracy depends on the quality and amount of data used by the model.
How quickly can I see results from TV ads?
Some results, like spikes in website traffic or direct calls from tracking numbers, can happen very quickly, sometimes within minutes or hours of an ad airing. However, the full impact on sales and brand awareness often builds over weeks or months. Lift analysis TV campaigns often looks at results over a campaign period (like 4-12 weeks) to see the true effect.
How do I track sales from TV ads that happen in my physical store?
This is hard but possible. Lift analysis is key here – checking if overall store sales went up in areas where ads ran. Some advanced TV ad attribution modeling tools can also try to link ad views at a household level to later visits to a physical store using location data, if people have opted into sharing it. Promo codes used in-store can also help.
What’s the difference between ROI and ROAS?
ROI (Return on Investment) uses profit in the calculation: (Profit – Cost) / Cost. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) uses revenue: (Revenue – Cost) / Cost. ROAS is easier to calculate because you do not need to know the profit margin for every sale, but ROI gives a clearer picture of your actual financial gain. For calculating return on ad spend TV quickly, ROAS is often used first.
Can small businesses measure TV ad ROI?
Yes! While advanced attribution tools can be costly, small businesses can use simpler methods like unique phone numbers (tracking phone calls from TV ads), special web pages, or promo codes mentioned only on TV. They can also use simple lift analysis by tracking sales before and during a local TV campaign. The key is setting up tracking before the ads start.