Omnichannel advertising requires a strong identity foundation. When done right, media buyers can launch campaigns that grab attention across a variety of platforms and lead to conversion.
By integrating your omnichannel and identity strategies, you can connect with consumers in a way that’s personal, timely, and relevant — creating memorable experiences and encouraging long-term loyalty. That’s because different channels — whether digital audio, Connected TV (CTV), or digital out-of-home — require different IDs. Want to learn more? We’ll show you how to support your omnichannel campaigns with a strong identity foundation.
The impact of omnichannel on purchase decisions
On their own, omnichannel campaigns are 1.4 times more attention-grabbing and can even shrink the time between a customer seeing an ad and buying the product, according to research conducted by The Trade Desk Intelligence and PA Consulting.1
Advertisers across categories are seeing success with a connected approach. For example, an analysis of a major U.S. airline’s ad campaign found a reduction in customer conversion time by 32% after they added just one more channel.2 That percentage grew larger the more channels they added. Lessening the time it takes for consumers to make purchase decisions is essential for efficient campaigns.
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Connected omnichannel campaigns also had a positive effect on cost per action (CPA) and cost per household (CPHH) KPIs for campaigns running on our platform over the course of one year. Our platform analysis revealed a 14% CPA and a 21% CPHH reduction with each additional channel added to existing CTV campaigns.3
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The use of several integrated channels can also strengthen consumers’ emotional connections with your brand, as shoppers are 1.9 times more likely to feel connected to a brand presented through an omnichannel experience.4 Channels like CTV and display can boost storytelling and emotional impact, which can drive quicker, more meaningful purchases.
And with graph solutions like our Identity Alliance, as well as upgraded identifiers like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) that are designed to collapse the silos across channels, you can reach your customers in the moments that matter most.
4 keys to bolstering your identity strategies
An omnichannel campaign is only as successful as your ability to create a cohesive brand experience by connecting the dots between individuals across touchpoints and devices. To that end, you can leverage identity solutions across channels to deliver personalization and a seamless experience at every step of the purchase journey. Here’s how:
- Precise targeting: With a unified view of customer identity, you can accurately target customers across all devices and touchpoints, providing consistent messaging. The unified view gives you more choice and allows you to buy the right impressions.
- Efficiency: Frequency capping on both the individual and household levels can prevent consumer overexposure and reduce ad fatigue, helping you ensure your budget is spent more efficiently. It can also allow you to select the most efficient channels at a given time for a viewer, which can help you work toward shortening conversion time and reducing media cost.
- Measurement: You can measure and attribute sales and conversions across all devices to help you gain a clearer picture of ROI. With accurate cross-device measurement, you can understand which channel combinations are driving results and optimize campaigns in real time, based on the data.
- Data wealth: You can use the conversion and impression data to help improve campaign performance, utilizing real-time insights to refine the strategy available in our log-level data feeds. This can serve as a source of customer, campaign, and market intelligence for your brand and your business.
All of these capabilities are standard on our platform, but can be further enhanced by layering on durable IDs (like UID2 and RampID) into audiences to further stabilize the identity framework that a campaign needs to run.
"A strong identity framework starts with creating a unified customer view — one that can help you understand your audience, their preferences, and how they interact with your brand across different channels. This is possible through Identity Alliance, a coalition of the industry’s leading identity graphs where you can link various identifiers to an individual or household."
– Nate Walinder, Trading Analyst, The Trade Desk
A robust identity strategy can give way to a seamless omnichannel experience for you and your consumers. Together, identity and omnichannel can help you drive more value for your campaigns.
How to start combining your omnichannel and identity strategies
Begin with a scaled audience foundation: Building a well-defined audience base is the first step. You can either upload your first-party data or find quality third-party data in our marketplace to refine your targeting.
Pick the right KPIs: Because connected omnichannel campaigns work together toward the same goal, you’ll want to choose the KPIs that align with your campaign objectives. Reach is not the only indicator of success, so consider looking at other actionable metrics. Some KPIs to keep in mind include CPA, CPM, ROAS, time to conversion, etc.
Test and measure: Continuously test different variations of your campaigns across channels, optimize sequencing, and refine creative assets to measure performance and help you improve results over time.
Put these insights into action by contacting your account representative at The Trade Desk today.
Not yet a client? Contact us to elevate your advertising with omnichannel and identity strategies.
Sources:
1 The Trade Desk Intelligence and PA Consulting, The Untapped Opportunity of Omnichannel, U.S., U.K., 2024.
2 The Trade Desk, platform data, April 11,2023 to April 20, 2023.
3 The Trade Desk, platform data: “Global Analysis of Campaigns with CTV,” FY 2023, n=550,387.
4 The Untapped Opportunity of Omnichannel, 2024.