Over the past few years, we’ve seen many direct-to-consumer brands ‘graduate’ from social media to TV advertising. Yet many do so with lowered expectations, resigned to make compromises. 

TV advertising has a place — the thinking goes — but it’s no Instagram.

Now, I’m not suggesting that TV should add a photo-sharing feed and encourage viewers to make their own Stories. But the TV industry should take steps to recognize the needs and expectations of the kinds of brands emerging on platforms like Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, and TikTok.

These brands are accustomed to closed-loop marketing in its truest sense. They can target very specific audiences based on a deep pool of consumer behavior and preferences data. That means Instagram has both reach (it boasts of a billion users globally) and granular data by virtue of the way users like and share the content they enjoy. 

But social advertising goes well beyond targeting. It’s the ability to deliver real-time data, frequent optimization, and direct attribution that makes Instagram and its tech platform brethren stand out for DTC brands. They can see what’s working, move stuff around, and track their ROI down to the penny with a high level of confidence.

In this regard, traditional TV has some catching up to do on the backend. 

The creative canvas and consumer attention that the TV advertising format commands arguably exceeds Instagram. That’s why so many DTCs come to TV looking to complement their digital ad efforts. In some cases, brands like Caspers, Chewy’s and Smile Direct Club have gotten so big that they use TV to signal their evolution past other DTCs, and can look to more traditional channels to drive customer acquisition.

The TV ad industry would benefit greatly from demonstrating its ability to elevate DTC brands from the start as well as social networks can. The past half-decade of investment among TV companies in more data-driven sales channels is driving real progress. But traditional TV optimization and TV attribution both have time and precision lags compared to digital platforms.

That’s why the streaming boom stands to change everything. Linear TV remains a barrier to entry for many small brands due to it’s price and lack of real-time data-driven maneuvering. As CTV takes off, however, it’s allowing for more Instagram-first type brands to get their feet wet using digital entry points like programmatic DSPs. 

Yet even as media giants preach the use of first party-data, clean rooms and programmatic selling, they remain largely focused on big national brands and upfront selling...even for their streaming platforms.

The good news is that CTV enables many DTC brands to push into TV with a granular digital media approach. For starters, they can use CTV as a vehicle to buy audiences on the big screen. Brands can also purchase and evaluate TV campaigns using impression data, rather than ratings points and reach and frequency.

Of course, marketers and TV ad buyers have long had the ability to calculate impressions for a given TV ad buy. But CTV offers advertisers far more advanced measurement options. Thanks to ACR data from smart TVs, advertisers can know, on a second-by-second basis, who was watching their ads, how many watched to completion and what actions they took afterward.

Additionally, the ability to execute high-precision, local CTV ad campaigns on a national scale has resulted in valuable data that can be strung together to create device graphs encompassing more than 100 million households in some cases. This will go a long way toward advancing TV attribution. 

Sure, things like pricing and reach frequency management matter. But delivering outcomes and driving revenue acceleration is ultimately what drives this business. Especially for newer brands who have grown up on Instagram and wouldn’t know what to do with an upfront. So, the more the industry can tie TV ad exposure to web traffic, customer acquisition and sales, the faster brands can act to expand TV beyond an awareness channel. 

There is a lot of groundwork to be laid in terms of bringing real-time optimization to TV campaigns. But the foundation is there. It’s crucial that media sellers continue to educate these emerging brands, and shift the thinking about the potential of CTV.

Again, nobody expects TV to become Instagram overnight. But if the TV ad industry wants to be in the business of catering to these millions of IG advertisers, we need to start thinking like they do.