The Power of Always-On Attribution Reporting

By: Michele Stone, SVP, Advanced Advertising, Paramount

As the advertising landscape continues to evolve, the need for accurate, real-time attribution is Paramount. Video advertising is not just a top-of-funnel strategy anymore—it’s a powerful, trackable tool for brands to drive conversions and maximize ROI.

Historically, proving the impact of video advertising in real time, especially on traditional TV, has been difficult. While it’s easy to measure the reach and frequency of a campaign, linking that exposure to actual purchase behavior required sophisticated, often cumbersome methods, with results available two months after the campaign ended. This resulted in video advertising being somewhat of a “black box” when it came to real-time measurement of outcomes.

At Paramount, our extensive reach has positioned us as a powerful tool for building awareness, but we recognize that true success goes beyond media metrics. That's why we've spent years laying the foundation for innovative measurement capabilities, transforming from an awareness powerhouse into a performance-driven leader. We've also made significant investments in data, technology, and identity, all of which underpin our always-on attribution reporting, showcasing the effectiveness of video advertising.

A critical piece of this transformation was building strategic partnerships with leading measurement vendors—including Mastercard, EDO, Circana, and 605 | an iSpot company—to help us connect the dots between convergent video exposure and purchase behavior like never before.

These partnerships allow us to align with the most relevant performance metrics for each advertising category. We have set up direct data feeds with all of our measurement providers to continuously share exposure log data, in a privacy-safe way, across all campaign types—whether an ad is shown on a traditional linear TV or through a connected TV device. The exposure data is tied back to a performance outcome and the metrics are surfaced in an easy-to-use and always-available dashboard, giving our partners a simple and transparent way to monitor the performance of their investments.

This always-on attribution dashboard, featuring real-time metrics, provides agency partners with greater visibility into campaign performance and the opportunity to optimize campaigns across networks, dayparts and digital bundles with enhanced precision and greater lead time. In other words, we’ve removed the guesswork from video advertising and transformed it into a data-driven, performance-oriented channel.

The need for accurate, real-time attribution has never been more critical and we are proud to lead the industry in delivering multi-platform, always-on-attribution reporting that proves the real-world impact. Our investment in cutting-edge technology and strategic partnerships is helping advertisers unlock the full potential of their video ad spend, turning awareness into tangible, measurable action.