Products Used
- Amazon DSP
Goals
- Measure full contributions of Streaming TV (STV) campaigns
- Understand site visits, search behaviors, and conversions for car dealerships
Approach
- Deploy Headless Analytics Tags [HAT] across dealer sites to gain insight into visitor behavior, traffic sources, and key actions
- Add creative pixels to Connected TV (CTV) campaigns via Amazon DSP to track ad exposures
Results
- 26% of all site traffic was influenced by programmatic video ads
- Visitors exposed to an STV/CTV ad were 5x more likely to complete a desired action
What was the challenge?
Force Marketing, a leading tech-enabled automotive advertising agency, recognized that Streaming TV is an essential part of the local car dealership’s digital marketing mix. Combining the power of grassroots and targeted efficiency, STV allows dealerships to be dynamic storytellers and offer personalized creative based on inventory and engagement.
The only problem? Most dealerships are faced with black-box measurement that limits visibility into direct and influenced outcomes. Traditional analytics tools typically only track direct click-based traffic (last click attribution), completely missing how STV contributes to key actions and the omnichannel mix.
This measurement can lead advertisers to cut STV first when budgets are tightened—a decision based on incomplete data rather than actual performance. And a decision that can completely compromise your marketing funnel without a complete insights picture.
How did Force Marketing solve it?
Force partnered with [cognition] to solve this attribution problem by combining delivery using the Amazon Ads DSP and Headless Analytics. By using the Headless Analytics Tag (HAT) to connect Streaming TV ad exposures to on-site engagement, Force Marketing built a comprehensive STV strategy using the [cognition iCAN] platform to activate across premium inventory and 1PD.
Here’s how it worked:
- Ads were delivered across Prime Video and other premium streaming apps via Amazon Publisher Direct
- Campaigns were localized to each dealer’s geographic area for relevance and efficiency
- Targeting was based on first-party signals, Amazon Garage data, and life-stage audiences
The [HAT] installation tracked:
- Visitor behavior like SRP and VDP views, click-to-call, and lead form submissions
- Reclassified traffic sources based on the originating ad exposure
- Creative tags added to STV campaigns tracked ad exposures using view-through cookies, IP caching, and impression-stitching techniques
What was the workflow?
The [HAT] technology matched site visits to Streaming TV exposures that took place less than 24 hours prior to that key action on site. This enabled Force Marketing to reclassify previously misattributed direct and search traffic, ensuring accurate attribution of STV’s influence.
Additional data was aggregated into actionable insights, giving Force a clear picture of how STV is impacting the buyer’s journey and allowing them to better advise their partners on strategy and channel allocation.
The Results
The findings were revealing:
- 26% of all site traffic measured was directly influenced by a programmatically served Streaming TV video ad—traffic previously misattributed to direct or search under traditional analytics.
- Visitors exposed to a Streaming TV ad were 5x more likely to complete a key action than website traffic that hadn’t seen an ad on Streaming TV, adding to the efficacy and quality of the traffic from STV.
- 6% of all lead submissions were directly attributable to campaigns delivered through the Amazon DSP.
Having these insights proved that Streaming TV isn’t just a valuable tactic to have— it proved STV is among the highest-performing channels and should be considered foundational to any modern media plan. Traditional analytics tools have been significantly undervaluing the impact of Streaming TV, but these advances challenge linear and streaming budgets not being managed using the Amazon Ads DSP and Headless Analytics.
