Yahoo launches blended TV dataset
June 6, 2024
Yahoo Advertising has announced the launch of Unified TV Audiences – a blended dataset to offer advertisers insights into connected TV (CTV) and linear audience viewership. Unified TV Audiences enable advertisers to more effectively plan, activate and measure across 108 million US households in the Yahoo DSP. eBay has been an early adopter of Unified TV Audiences, leveraging it to boost CTV success.
“As the landscape of TV viewership data becomes increasingly fragmented and complex, advertisers face the challenge of adequately targeting and measuring their audiences across TV platforms and channels,” said Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Review Officer, Yahoo. “Unified TV Audiences solve for this by blending CTV and linear data so advertisers have a holistic view of the TV ecosystem, enabling them to more accurately reach their intended audiences, while optimising strategies, targeting and performance.”
Yahoo Unified TV Audiences combine extensive TV datasets, including automatic content recognition (ACR) and linear STB viewership data. The dataset is also enhanced by the Yahoo DSP user panel of more than 205 million logged-in US users, powered by Yahoo ConnectID, the company’s identity alternative to third-party cookies. Unified TV Audiences provide Yahoo DSP buyers a view of TV data, allowing access to valuable segments informed by both CTV and linear viewership behaviors.
eBay leveraged the vast dataset of Unified TV Audiences to enhance its CTV advertising. Unified TV Audiences enabled the advertiser to position eBay Motors — a marketplace to find new and used vehicles as well as parts — prominently within the auto parts market by identifying audiences exposed to NASCAR programming and insurance commercial audiences on linear TV to extend the reach of those audiences in CTV and digital channels.
“CTV represents an immense opportunity for us to target relevant audiences and thanks to the Yahoo Unified TV Audiences, we were able to see successful, full-funnel results,” said Nidhi Gupta, Global Head of Paid Media, eBay. “Leveraging their unique, combined data allowed us to significantly extend our campaign’s reach and ultimately amplify eBay Motors’ visibility within the auto parts market.”
After running a campaign using a single-source TV data segment strategy, the eBay team compared it to a subsequent campaign that employed the multi-sourced Yahoo Unified TV Audiences available only in the Yahoo DSP. The analysis showed that Unified TV Audiences led to an average 52 per cent increase in campaign reach across devices and audiences, significantly enhancing eBay’s ability to connect with more viewers. eBay also saw that their CTV campaigns outperformed the benchmark set by their attention measurement provider by 7 per cent. Additionally, Unified TV Audiences helped eBay achieve 49 per cent higher conversion rates versus consumers who were not exposed to eBay’s CTV ads.
Yahoo DSP features access to valuable connected TV viewership data directly from CTV providers and publishers, and linear viewership data. Yahoo sources ACR data from providers like VIZIO Inscape, which captures any content that ‘hits the glass’ on a smart TV, and the company also has access to STB data from providers. These datasets build on Yahoo’s own consented, first-party data from direct relationships with its users. The Yahoo Unified TV Audiences will also continue to integrate more data from an expanding roster of partners.