Guide
Performance TV
Definition, benefits, examples
Performance TV is insights-driven streaming TV advertising that combines the engaging qualities of television with robust digital marketing capabilities. It enables brands to deliver targeted video campaigns across streaming solutions while providing real-time insights to measure campaign effectiveness.
Start using Amazon Ads to display your products and create campaigns.
If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.
Sponsored TV is a self-service advertising solution designed for brands to reach and inspire audiences on the largest screen in the home.
Streaming TV ads from Amazon Ads is a solution that appears alongside streaming content like shows and movies.
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What is Performance TV?
Performance TV is streaming TV advertising that specifically focuses on driving and measuring direct business outcomes. It combines the immersive impact of traditional TV with the targeting and measurement capabilities of digital advertising.
Performance TV solves the measurement challenges commonly faced in linear TV advertising by providing deeper insights into audience engagement, attribution, and conversion metrics. Through sophisticated ad tech solutions, brands can track measurable results throughout the marketing funnel, from initial awareness to final conversion, creating a more efficient and measurable advertising solution for today's media landscape.
What is the difference between performance TV, OTT advertising, CTV advertising, AVOD, linear TV advertising, and addressable TV?
Understanding Performance TV requires knowing how it fits within the broader TV advertising landscape. Here's how different types of TV advertising relate to each other:
Performance TV vs. Streaming TV ads
Streaming TV ads appear within streaming content environments. Performance TV is a specialized approach to streaming TV advertising that prioritizes performance measurement and optimization.
Performance TV vs. OTT advertising
Over-the-top (OTT) advertising, also known as streaming TV ads, represents any content that is delivered directly to viewers via a streaming video service over the Internet. While Performance TV operates within the OTT environment, it specifically emphasizes measuring and optimizing for business outcomes.
Performance TV vs. CTV advertising
Connected TV (CTV) advertising refers to all advertising delivered through internet-connected devices like smart TVs and streaming devices. Performance TV is a subset of CTV advertising that emphasizes performance marketing objectives.
Performance TV vs. AVOD
Advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) is a business model where audiences access free content supported by advertisements. Performance TV can be delivered through AVOD channels, representing one of several solutions through which performance-focused campaigns can reach audiences.
Performance TV vs. linear TV advertising
Linear TV advertising follows traditional broadcast schedules with limited targeting capabilities. Performance TV offers more accurate audience reach, real-time optimization, and detailed analytics that aren't possible with linear TV's broad reach approach.
Performance TV vs. local TV advertising
Local TV advertising enables businesses to reach audiences in specific geographic areas. While both linear and streaming TV can reach local audiences, Performance TV goes beyond by providing detailed insights about how audiences engage with ads. This enables advertisers to better understand and optimize campaign performance for local audience segments through advanced measurement capabilities.
Performance TV vs. addressable TV
Addressable TV uses ad tech to reach key audiences across television programming. Performance TV enhances addressable capabilities by focusing on measurable results through specific key performance indicators (KPIs), helping brands reach relevant audiences while tracking clear business outcomes.
How does Performance TV reach relevant audiences?
Performance TV reaches audiences using the same methods that marketers have come to expect from their digital marketing campaigns. Marketers can use insights to build audience segments that match their ideal customers. Campaign performance metrics allow advertisers to make dynamic adjustments based on audience response, test different audience segments, and manage frequency. As performance insights accumulate, budgets can be automatically redirected to the best-performing segments and viewing environments, driving improved campaign efficiency over time.
Reaching performance TV audiences with Amazon Ads
Through Amazon DSP, brands can leverage curated audience segments powered by billions of unique signals and use Brand+, an industry-first AI capability that predicts audiences likely to be in-market for products or services. Advertisers can also upload their own audience lists to the DSP or through Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) to reconnect with loyal customers or extend their reach beyond existing marketing channels. This combination of AI-powered audience prediction and first-party insights integration enables advertisers to build more sophisticated campaigns that reach relevant audiences throughout the marketing funnel.
How much does Performance TV cost?
Performance TV offers flexible purchasing options through streaming TV advertising solutions. Most streaming solutions operate on cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing models, with CPMs typically in the range of $5-50. Streaming TV advertising also requires investments in high-quality video content and targeted creative, but these expenses often yield better return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) compared to traditional linear television campaigns due to improved targeting capabilities and measurable outcomes.
How do you buy Performance TV ads?
Performance TV advertising is accessible through various streaming TV solutions, including Amazon Ads. Brands can choose self-service, managed service, or partner with a digital agency to execute their campaigns. The choice between these approaches depends largely on your brand's resources, expertise, and campaign objectives.
Self-service solutions
Self-service solutions, like Sponsored TV, give brands direct control over their streaming TV campaigns. Through these solutions, advertisers can manage budgets, adjust targeting, and optimize performance in real time using detailed analytics dashboards. This approach offers flexible minimum spend requirements, making it accessible to brands of various sizes. Self-service works best for companies with in-house advertising expertise who want to maintain hands-on control of their campaigns.
Managed service
Managed services, like Amazon DSP, provide comprehensive campaign support through dedicated strategists who handle all aspects of campaign execution. These experts apply advanced optimization techniques and provide ongoing guidance to maximize campaign performance. While managed service typically requires higher minimum investments, it offers invaluable support for brands new to streaming TV advertising or those wanting expert campaign management. This approach helps ensure optimal performance while freeing internal teams to focus on broader marketing initiatives.
Agency partnerships
Working with specialized digital agencies, like Amazon Ads partners, offers brands access to deep industry expertise and established platform relationships. Agencies excel at integrating streaming TV campaigns with broader marketing efforts and often provide creative production capabilities. These partnerships help brands develop sophisticated, cross-channel campaigns that align with overall marketing objectives. While agency relationships often require longer-term commitments, they provide valuable strategic guidance and comprehensive campaign management.
Benefits of Performance TV
Performance TV combines the emotional impact of traditional television advertising with the relevancy and measurability of digital marketing, creating a powerful tool for advertisers. The following benefits have transformed how brands connect with their desired audiences.
Advanced targeting capabilities
Unlike traditional linear TV, where advertisements reach broad demographic groups, performance TV enables businesses to reach audiences based on a multitude of signals like interests or behaviors. This capability helps advertisers reach the most relevant viewers, reducing wasted impressions.
Real-time measurement and analytics
The measurability of Performance TV campaigns represents a crucial advancement in television advertising. Advertisers can track key performance indicators in real-time, including video completion rates, conversion metrics, and ROAS. This level of insight enabling brands to optimize and adjust their campaigns based on actual performance rather than relying on post-campaign analysis common in traditional TV advertising.
Cross-device attribution
The cross-device observation capabilities of Performance TV provide valuable insights into the customer journey. Advertisers can understand how their TV campaigns influence online behavior, including website visits, product searches, and purchases. This connected view helps brands better attribute their marketing success and understand the true impact of their television advertising efforts.
Bridging brand and performance marketing
Performance TV effectively bridges the gap between brand and performance marketing. It combines the storytelling power and brand-building capabilities of television with the performance metrics typically associated with digital advertising. This fusion allows brands to build awareness while simultaneously driving measurable business outcomes.
Considerations and challenges
While the benefits are substantial, advertisers should be aware of certain challenges. These include the need for streaming-optimized creative, potentially higher production costs, and the learning curve associated with new channels. However, the benefits typically outweigh these considerations, particularly as the streaming TV landscape continues to mature and evolve.
Tips for creating effective Performance TV ad campaigns
Successfully launching and managing Performance TV campaigns requires a strategic approach that balances creative storytelling with performance metrics. Here are essential tips for maximizing your campaign's effectiveness.
Tip 1: Start with clear performance goals
Define specific, measurable objectives before launching your campaign. Whether focusing on brand awareness, direct response, or a combination of both, establish clear objectives and key results (OKRs) and KPIs that align with your business goals. This might include metrics such as video completion rates, cost per completed view, website visits, or ultimate conversion actions.
Tip 2: Optimize creative for streaming environments
Create your video with high production quality and include a clear call-to-action. One benefit of Performance TV is the ability to A/B test your creative easily. Consider developing multiple versions of your creative and use performance data to inform creative optimizations.
Tip 3: Use your first-party insights
Use your existing audience insights to inform engagement strategies and create lookalike audiences. Upload your contact database with streaming services to strategically reach high-potential segments. This approach helps improve campaign efficiency and enables more sophisticated strategies to reach relevant audiences.
Tip 4: Balance reach and frequency
Develop a frequency capping strategy that prevents audience fatigue while maintaining sufficient exposure to drive action. Monitor reach and frequency metrics across different audience segments and adjust your targeting parameters accordingly. Consider implementing cross-platform frequency management to optimize overall campaign exposure.
Tip 5: Monitor and adjust in real-time
Take advantage of the real-time optimization capabilities offered by Performance TV solutions. Regularly review campaign performance metrics and make informed adjustments to targeting, bidding, and creative strategies. Set up automated alerts for KPIs to enable quick responses to campaign changes.
Performance TV ad campaign examples
Case Study
Kia Country of Savannah partnered with CBC Automotive Marketing and Revive, an Amazon Ads partner, to enhance their digital advertising strategy and reach new local car buyers. The team implemented a 30-day trial campaign in October 2022 using Streaming TV ads and Amazon DSP, reaching potential auto buyers within a 20-mile radius of the dealership. The campaign exceeded benchmarks, achieving a video completion rate above 98% and outperforming the initial click-through rate goal by 120%. Following this success, Revive and CBC Automotive Marketing expanded their partnership to include seven additional dealerships
Case Study
Yamaha Boats and WaveRunners partnered with Marketwake to expand their digital marketing reach through Sponsored TV ads. The brand leveraged Amazon Ads audience insights to complement their existing paid search and social media campaigns. The marketing strategy resulted in significant performance improvements across channels, including a 55% increase in paid social click-through rates and more efficient connected TV advertising with 30% lower CPMs.
How to measure success of Performance TV
Performance TV advertising provides sophisticated measurement capabilities through multiple KPIs. Advertisers can track fundamental metrics like reach (unique viewers exposed to an ad) and frequency (how often viewers see an ad), while measuring deeper engagement through video completion rates and audience interactions. More importantly, Performance TV enables advertisers to connect viewing patterns to concrete business outcomes, such as website visits and purchases. With household-level insights, real-time analytics, and advanced attribution modeling, Performance TV enables advertisers to optimize campaigns mid-flight, adjusting creative elements, timing, or targeting to maximize return on investment.
One of the greatest benefits of buying streaming TV ads programmatically with ad tech solutions like Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud is that you’re able to actually measure the success of your campaign. With Household Reach and Frequency Reporting, advertisers can measure true audience reach and compare performance against linear TV campaigns in real-time. Brand impact can be measured through Amazon Brand Lift studies or third-party solutions like Kantar, while cross-channel measurement tools like Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) help quantify de-duplicated engagement across both streaming and linear TV. This closed-loop measurement system enables advertisers to track performance throughout the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion, providing actionable insights for campaign optimization and future media planning.
Video ads solutions from Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads offers comprehensive video advertising solutions to help businesses reach audiences across Streaming TV and online video services. From Prime Video and live sports to Twitch and third-party publishers, these solutions help brands connect with relevant audiences throughout their viewing journey.
Available to businesses whether or not they sell on Amazon, our video advertising solutions support various industries and objectives—from local restaurants and car dealerships to hotels and fitness studios. These flexible options help businesses of all sizes leverage the power of video advertising across Amazon's easy-to-use ad tech suite.
Streaming TV
Show up alongside the premium content your customers love with Streaming TV ads. These full-screen, non-skippable video ads appear before, during, or after video content like TV shows, movies and live entertainment across connected TV, mobile, and desktop. They can appear on Prime Video and live sports programming like Thursday Night Football, Twitch, Fire TV Channels, and top third-party TV publishers and broadcasters.
Sponsored TV
Sponsored TV is a self-service advertising solution designed for brands of any size to reach and inspire audiences on the largest screen in the home. Powered by billions of first-party shopping and streaming signals, these Streaming TV ads can help your brand connect with the right audiences, in the right time on streaming services like Prime Video and Twitch.
Online video
Online video (OLV) ads are in-stream (before, during, or after video content) and out-stream (in non-video environments between text and images) ads across desktop, mobile, and tablet. Online video ads appear on Amazon-affiliated sites including IMDb.com and Twitch, as well as top third-party publishers.
Conclusion
Performance TV allows advertisers to drive and measure direct business outcomes. Through platforms like Amazon DSP, advertisers can now track and optimize campaigns using real-time metrics across the entire marketing funnel. This insights-driven approach enables brands to measure true campaign impact through metrics like household reach, brand lift, and conversion rates, while making informed adjustments to maximize return on investment. Performance TV's advanced measurement solutions give advertisers unprecedented visibility into how their TV campaigns drive business outcomes, making television a more accountable and efficient marketing channel.
If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.