Ampersand’s Automated Insights Tool will Revolutionize Tier 2 Auto Marketing

Ampersand believes that strong consumer data- with consumer privacy top of mind- is the key to driving better performance from all media. We’re investing in advanced technology to build on that, through unified connections of 1st- and 3rd- party audiences to drive precise targeting and performance metrics across all multiscreen TV executions.

The latest application is our next generation of TV insights that will revolutionize how dealer groups, OEMs and agencies plan, buy and measure local multiscreen TV. The tool gives brands a direct view into their recent or current campaigns to see where media strategies are falling short on efficiency or effectiveness. A process that once took weeks will now take minutes to hours, and the insights will be sent directly to marketer’s inboxes.

So, what are some of the inefficiencies we’re seeing in the local automotive industry that this tool will aim to fix?

The Age/Gender Media Buy is Rife with Inefficiency

There are three common probs with age/gender media buys across all TV.

1. Out-of-Target Homes
   65% to 95% of purchased impressions are delivered to the wrong households. This includes those that are not in your target audience, not in the market for a new vehicle, or may never purchase a new vehicle.
2. Excess Frequency of In-Target Homes
   30% to 50% of purchased impressions that are delivered to the correct households are wasted on excess frequency. At best, reaching the same consumers too many times is an unnecessary cost. At worst, it can have a negative effect on business outcomes, by creating a poor consumer experience with the advertiser.
3. Unexposed or Underexposed In-Target Homes
   As much as 60% of in-target households are under-exposed or missed entirely. Those are often “Light TV viewers,” who are selective about the content they consume and are often found in smaller clusters in niche programming. That’s a huge opportunity cost to Auto advertisers, and it presents a natural solution for the reallocation of the impressions being wasted.

 

The Wrong Programs are Being Purchased

The highest concentration of In-Market auto consumers are not found in the shows that are most heavily purchased – those with the highest ratings or lowest CPMs. By only focusing on age/gender metrics and CPMs as a measure of efficiency, the wrong programs/dayparts and networks will be purchased.

An Audience-First approach shifts the focus from the “delivery mechanism” (daypart, platform or medium) to the consumer. Go where the consumers are. Not where you’ve always gone, hoping the audiences show up. Viewers don’t see a distinction between cable, broadcast and streaming – so why should we?

The true cost of these three problems is greater than any advertiser or agency realizes:

To quantify this, let’s use a real campaign example – a recent local TV campaign by a large dealer association of a leading automotive brand in a major market. Our tools quickly calculated the amount of purchased impressions that were wasted on the wrong audiences as well as the excess frequency against the right ones:

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Total Effective Impressions (18%): 4,600,000

What the above shows you is that 82% of the dealer association’s budget was wasted on ineffective impressions. With only 18% of the buy reaching the right audience (In-Market for a new vehicle), the true CPM goes from $19.23 to $108.70 – nearly six times higher!

So Why Should You Care?

Using audience data to make minor shifts in how impressions are allocated can reduce the number of ineffective impressions and instead shift those impressions to areas with higher concentrations of new vehicle intenders. While those areas may have higher CPMs, you won’t have to buy as many impressions because a greater percentage of them are going to the right audiences.

We know TV is not a 1:1 medium, so aren’t all these wasted impressions and missed audiences baked into (your seemingly efficient) age/gender CPMs? This is how you’ve been doing things for decades and sales are fine. Why change what isn’t broken? You owe it to yourself to find out.

Even if you’re hitting all performance metrics, there will still be room for improvement. Or even cost savings. The only way to know what’s working is to identify what isn’t. Innovations in data and technology, like the tool Ampersand has just released, are making sophisticated measurement and attribution accessible to all advertisers and agencies which can make your media buys work much better, deliver more well-qualified leads and cost you less.

The net result: less waste, higher reach, better outcomes, all with the same (or lower) budget.

We would love to run a custom report just for you and your brand, with no obligations. Just fill out the form and we will be in touch with authenticated insights on your campaign’s performance and actionable solutions to better drive the efficiencies and outcomes you deserve.

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