Unlocking DRTV Performance: Focus Ireland’s Data-Driven Approach to TV Attribution
Introduction
For Christmas 2024, Focus Ireland launched a fully integrated fundraising campaign across TV, Digital, Direct Mail, Email, and other channels. While the campaign was a success in terms of reach and response, attributing donations to specific channels, particularly TV, proved challenging. Many donations came through the website without a clear indication of what prompted them. Despite using QR codes and website drop-downs for attribution, only a small proportion of donations could be directly linked to TV.
Given the significant TV budget, and plans for future investment, Focus needed a more robust way to evaluate TV performance and understand its return on investment (ROI).
Method
Having already partnered with Sequoia for broader fundraising reporting and insights, Focus Ireland adopted the new DRTV Attribution Report via the Canopy platform to analyse TV impact.
The report correlates incoming donations from all channels against the TV broadcast schedule, attributing transactions that occur within a defined time window after each TV ad airs. By experimenting with different attribution windows, a five-minute window was found to provide the strongest correlation, indicating that an additional 1,000 transactions could be attributed to TV activity.
The report provides key performance metrics, including donation volume and value, and allows analysis by channel, programme, time of day, and other variables.
Results and Impact
The analysis provided clear evidence of the impact of TV within the Christmas campaign and highlighted opportunities to optimise future activity:
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- TV was responsible for an estimated €200,000 in revenue, delivering a 2:1 ROI
- Sky and Medialink channels delivered the strongest performance
- Weekday slots, especially around lunchtime and early evening, outperformed weekends
- 30-second ads were effective, but results improved when supported by longer 60-second spots
Summary
By using the DRTV Attribution Report, Focus gained a clear understanding of the true impact of their TV activity. The insights not only validated TV’s contribution to campaign income but also provided actionable guidance for future investment and optimisation.