Performance TV Requires More Than Just Third-Party Measurement

Some CTV ad platforms are touting that they now work with any third-party measurement company.

We’ve worked with any third party from day one.

But checking that box misses the point. Working with third parties isn’t a benefit on its own.

For performance TV to work, you need to:

1. Invest in purpose-built CTV measurement (we’ve done this — and patented it).

2. Gain immediate access to the campaign feedback loop.

3. Use that real-time data to power a TV Outcome Optimization Engine (also patented).

That’s what makes it performance TV.

When we say “measurement,” we mean connecting a TV ad to an advertiser-declared outcome. That’s not the same as attribution, which assigns credit across media touchpoints. 

Once you separate measurement from attribution, third-party tools become useful as validation layers. But only if you get fast, usable data. Waiting 30 days for a Nielsen report doesn’t help a performance marketer.

Similarly, CTV measurement is specialized. Most MMPs conflate measurement and attribution, defaulting to last-click — which doesn’t work for CTV. Assuming mobile-first, last-click tools can handle TV is deeply flawed, and the best way to undercount TV’s massive impact. 

Spending money on CTV is really easy. Dynamically optimizing outcomes is hard, and it requires real-time outcome feedback.

Using only third-party measurement is like firing a cannon and waiting for a spotter to confirm the hit. You need a smart missile with real-time telemetry. That’s what our optimization engine delivers.

In performance TV, real-time measurement isn’t a luxury. It’s table stakes.

In short, neutral, third-party measurement is great (assuming they understand CTV). But if you can’t fully integrate real-time data into an AI system that dynamically optimizes campaigns to achieve advertiser-declared outcomes, you’re just spending the old-fashioned way.

That’s not performance TV. That’s legacy TV.

How Measurement Has Historically Worked

To understand the difference, consider how measurement has worked for decades:

• Identify your target audience based on what audience you think will buy your product

• Run a campaign

• Hire a third party to measure the results (often with flawed methods, like Nielsen panels)

• Wait 30 days for a report (Yes, this still happens)

• Digest the report

• Build a new media plan based on flawed and outdated data

• Run a new campaign

• Repeat the cycle (You get to do this roughly 12x a year. You should be doing it 10,000 times a millisecond!)

This is ineffective for a few obvious reasons:

• The methodology can’t be trusted

• The methodology is often removed from actual outcome data

• It takes too long to optimize

• It creates a vicious cycle where you’re constantly optimizing based on old, flawed learnings that are disconnected from the business outcome you are trying to achieve

You think you’re making progress, but you’re actually just flying blind.

The Performance TV Approach to Measurement

• Run ads

• Measure outcomes

• Begin the feedback loop on day one, minute one

• Adjust campaigns in real time with optimization technology

• Improve performance continuously as the algorithm learns

• Send campaign data to any third-party measurement platform as a “trust but verify” layer

That’s the measurement approach performance TV requires to actually… perform. It’s not just about neutrality. It’s about effectiveness, and that requires speed, accuracy, real-time action and a modern view of measurement that you can trust but verify.

And there’s only one platform built to deliver all of those things.