What is Omnichannel Marketing? The Bold Move You Need to Make TV Work for You

Everything is everywhere, all at once. This movie title best describes an omnichannel marketing campaign.

Building a successful ad strategy today means covering all touchpoints with your potential and existing customers. This includes interactions in all stages—from awareness to purchase via websites, socials, emails, YouTube mobile apps, and TV (both Connected and linear). Even offline presence matters.

Benefits of omnichannel marketing

Covering all marketing channels is definitely challenging and requires high budgets, so why is it worth the time, money, and effort?

• Improving customer experience. No matter where customers are looking for information, you are there, ready to support, explain, and interact. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Increasing engagement. Customers who interact with brands across multiple touchpoints in an integrated, multichannel marketing campaign tend to engage more deeply and are often more valuable.
• Growing conversion rates. Omnichannel marketing can increase conversion rates by providing relevant content at each stage of the buyer's journey, as customers receive timely information that influences their purchasing decisions.
• Increasing brand loyalty: Consistent messaging and personalized experiences foster trust and loyalty among customers, making them more likely to choose the brand over competitors.

TV’s role across the customer journey

Let’s examine the different stages of the customer journey to understand how TV ads can be included in every stage.

Awareness stage. At the top of the funnel, TV ads introduce the brand, educate the audience, and establish brand characteristics or value propositions. The creative focus is on conveying the brand’s story, feel, and differentiators without requiring immediate action. It's about getting the brand in front of a broad audience and building recognition.

Consideration stage. In the middle funnel, TV ads pivot to more detailed messaging, emphasizing why the product or brand is superior to others on the market. This stage reinforces the reasons that make the brand or product unique and aims to persuade the audience to consider the brand over competitors.

Purchase stage. As potential customers move down the funnel, the creative includes stronger calls-to-action (CTAs), such as QR codes, strong calls-to-action, and specific website links, to drive direct action. The goal is to encourage immediate response and make it easy for viewers to take the next step, reducing friction and pushing toward a purchase decision.

How to attribute TV Campaigns in a multichannel world

There are a few approaches that can help with this issue.

Multi-touch attribution vendors with proper device graphs. CTV campaigns must work with attribution vendors with robust household and device graphs. These vendors should be able to navigate multiple devices and tie TV exposure to other digital activities, such as desktop or mobile behaviors.

The right attribution model. Marketers should ensure the correct attribution model is being used. TV ads are rarely the "last touch" before conversion; therefore, models that only credit the last touch (e.g., paid search or social click-throughs) may not reflect the actual impact of TV exposure.

Incremental lift studies. One of the most effective ways to attribute TV campaign results is by conducting incremental lift studies. These studies isolate the population that has seen the TV ad from those who haven't while ensuring other marketing channels are equally distributed across both groups. By comparing the differences in behaviors between these populations, marketers can measure the lift and impact TV has on website visits, conversions, and other desired outcomes. This method captures the "halo effect" that TV advertising can have on other marketing channels, providing a more holistic view of its contribution to the overall campaign performance.

Smart budget allocation for TV and beyond

Start with your goals when planning your TV ad budget using an omnichannel strategy. Know what audience reach you want—whether 30% of a broad target demographic or 50% of niche enthusiasts. This will guide how much of the budget is allocated to TV.

Next, analyze where your audience spends their time. If they tend to be older, allocate more to linear TV. Younger audiences will be interested in connected TV and social media. Use forecasting tools to see how your TV budget fits within your overall strategy.

Think of your strategy as building a house: TV forms the strong foundation for brand awareness, and other channels layer on top for mid and lower-funnel activities. Balance your budget so TV enhances all channels without overshadowing them, and adjust as you see the results unfold.

Maximize TV impact without annoying your audience

Focus on maintaining frequency balance to optimize TV ad spend without causing overlap or ad fatigue. Overexposure to one channel, such as showing the same TV ad to a viewer multiple times within the same hour, can lead to irritation. However, overlapping across multiple channels isn’t necessarily negative unless egregiously overdone.

The key is to ensure that each channel supports a unified campaign strategy. All touchpoints—from TV to digital ads—should carry the same messaging and feel like they’re coming from one brand voice. This integrated approach strengthens your message without confusing or annoying your audience, making it more impactful and less likely to cause ad fatigue.

Also, remember that different channels complement each other. Seeing your brand deliver the same message across TV, social media, and banner ads can reinforce the message without feeling repetitive, as long as each placement feels contextually relevant and not overwhelming.