The Converged TV Disconnect is Magnified for Media Buyers and Creatives

Have you heard of the converged TV disconnect? It’s the gap between the amount of time advertisers spend measuring the performance of their converged TV ad campaigns and the significantly less time they invest in optimizing them. 

Innovid uncovered the existence of this troubling chasm in a recent survey of more than 250 brand and agency professionals. The survey also found that the converged TV disconnect may be magnified — and therefore pose a larger problem — for the media department compared with the creative department. 

Let’s take a closer look at the data and what the implications are for both media buyers and creatives. 

Ad campaign optimization falls short

First, media buyers and creatives say optimizing their converged TV campaigns is challenging. Media professionals are less satisfied, with 62.9% saying their optimization efforts fall short. Just 53.9% of creative professionals describe their efforts in the same way.

Despite this relative lack of satisfaction in their optimization efforts, both media buyers and creatives plan to spend more on converged TV advertising in 2024. Most media buyers (70.7%) say they will increase their budgets next year, while slightly fewer (62.3%) creatives will spend more in 2024. 

It’s clear that CTV will be an increasing part of this ad spending. CTV is projected to jump in the coming years, rising from $25.1 billion in 2023 to $40.9 billion by 2027, according to eMarketer. 

In addition to money, both media buyers and creative professionals are investing significant time in optimizing their campaigns. Innovid’s research shows that 64.2% of media buyers spend more than half their time optimizing campaigns. Staffers in the creative department invest slightly fewer hours optimizing campaigns, with 55.4% spending more than half of their time optimizing campaigns. 

Media buyers optimize campaigns far less frequently than they measure them

As those figures imply, both media buyers and creative professionals are measuring their campaign performance frequently — although significantly less often than they optimize their campaigns. In an ideal world, the frequency with which advertisers optimize their TV campaigns would equal the frequency with which they measure them. 

That, however, is not the case with media buyers. (To a lesser degree, it’s not the case with creatives, either).  

Innovid’s research shows that 75.9% of media buyers measure their converged TV advertising campaigns at least weekly, but only 58.6% optimize the media in those campaigns at the same frequency. That almost 17-point gap between measurement and optimization means that media buyers potentially leave a lot of ROI on the table. 

However, to a lesser degree, the creative department also optimizes its campaigns less frequently than it measures them. Our research indicates that 77.0% of creative professionals measure their converged TV advertising campaigns at least weekly, but only 63.9% optimize the media in those campaigns at the same frequency. 

Do siloes magnify these issues for media buyers? 

These numbers are the converged TV disconnect in action. It’s a problematic issue. If optimization lags behind measurement, both media and creatives are airing underperforming ads for too long. 

Part of the reason that the converged TV disconnect is magnified for media buyers may be that they are more likely to use separate platforms for measuring and optimizing (65.9%) compared with creatives (60.0%). Using one platform to measure campaigns and another to optimize often reduces efficiency and shrinks ROI.

How to fight the converged TV disconnect

Platforms exist today that can aid media buyers and creative professionals in increasing the effectiveness of their optimization. This technology enables measurement and optimization on the same platform, delivering increased efficiency and improved performance. It’s one sure way to fight the converged TV disconnect. 

Innovid is the only platform that can connect converged TV ad measurement with the ability to automatically optimize to drive results — all in a single, fully integrated platform. Innovid can help advertisers turn insights into action, and action into results. 

Download the Converged TV Disconnect infographic 

*Innovid’s Converged TV study was conducted online by PureSpectrum and surveyed more than 250 brand and agency professionals in North America in August 2023. Marketers surveyed included both brand (55%) and agency (45%) professionals across various industries, including auto, retail, entertainment, and finance.