Ad technology may be complex, but ultimately marketers all want to know one simple thing: will my ad dollars convert to transactions? The brief way to sum this up is called attribution, where an ad can be directly connected to the sale of a good or service. Roku’s (ROKU) partnership with Shopify (SHOP) allows for the first time, on a grand scale, the ability to watch television on the big screen and with a push of the OK button, pause streaming (so as not to miss anything) and order directly from your TV remote. Imagine the convenience of Amazon style buying combined with the ad stitching capability of Connected TV (CTV). Then factor in Roku’s enormous and growing user base of over 72 million people, where an advertiser can do a targeted niche buy on a one-to-one level… at scale. This is huge.
How much would it be worth to UPPAbaby to reach all young parents in the northeast, running an actionable ad where if you “buy now” you get 25% off their newest stroller?
Can you guess what Domino’s might spend during the Super Bowl to run ads where you can order pizza and buffalo wings quickly from your remote?
What about those crazy Lexus commercials where people with expendable cash buy their partners new cars for Christmas. Well now they can do an impulse buy over television. Jewelry? Luxury vacations?
The possibilities are endless. Roku, through Shopify, will be able to target exact demos in geographic areas, at scale, and then immediately viewers can buy from ads. That right there is the Holy Grail of advertising attribution.
“It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.” –Jeff Bezos