Media Planning
CTV campaign reviews
Review a CTV campaign against its brief, delivery, spending, reach and original objective, then make a bounded decision about the next flight.
A CTV campaign review should establish what ran against the approved brief, what became of the original objective, and what decision the evidence supports for the next flight. Keep delivery, estimated reach, spending and outcomes separate. A favourable number in one part does not settle the others.
Rebuild the agreed baseline
Place the original objective, audience, Australian locations, dates, TV-screen requirement, inventory, creative versions and spending ceiling beside the booking. Record approved changes and when they took effect. Distinguish committed quantities from forecasts.
Ask suppliers for dated final reports and field definitions. Align the reporting period, time zone, currency and impression definition before comparing totals. Investigate differences between systems before calling them delivery failures.
| Review question | Evidence | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Did the approved buy run? | Booking, amendments and delivery by date, inventory, device and creative | Accept the delivery conclusion or investigate an exception |
| Did the audience approach hold up? | Targeting records, reportable audience fields and coverage gaps | Keep or revise the approach |
| Where did spending go? | Compatible cost and impression cuts, plus the invoice basis | Keep or change an allocation |
| What happened to the objective? | The measure and comparison method chosen before launch | Repeat, revise or gather better evidence |
Keep the inventory description specific
CTV delivery can include smart TVs, streaming devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV, and internet-connected gaming consoles. Preserve which devices and viewing environments the campaign actually included in the review; the label “CTV” alone does not identify the inventory behind the results.
Keep broadcaster BVOD distinct from broader CTV inventory. BVOD refers to video content from traditional broadcasters on their own digital platforms, such as Nine Now, SBS On Demand and Seven Plus. CTV also covers content on other streaming platforms, YouTube and Apple TV.
Use the settled booking and final reports to describe the mix in the campaign, not those examples as evidence that a platform ran. If broadcaster BVOD and other streaming inventory both formed part of the buy, retain that distinction beside the delivery and outcome conclusions.
Settle exceptions before interpreting outcomes
Record each material exception with its affected line, size, explanation and resolution. A targeting setting shows an intended rule; an impression does not identify who was in the room.
State what the delivery report verifies and what remains unknown. Use the settled impression reconciliation in this review rather than repeating the operational dispute.
Label reach by unit, period and covered inventory. Devices, households and modelled people are different measures.
Separate publishers’ unique-reach figures cannot be added into a campaign total without a method for overlap. Show delivery outside a reach method beside the estimate, without scaling that estimate to the whole buy.
In the conclusion, distinguish delivery and playback, brand response and business actions. Delivery and playback describe execution; a suitable brand measure addresses brand response; a defined business event addresses an action. An attributed action is credited under a method’s rules, not necessarily caused by the campaign.
Key CTV Metrics and Measurement Standards in Australia
- Reach MeasureDevices, households, modelled people
- Impression DefinitionStandardised across systems (e.g., Google Display & Video 360)
- Platform ExamplesNine Now, SBS On Demand, Seven Plus, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV
Record the next decision
Repeat within the measured scope when the objective remains relevant and the delivery and outcome evidence support another similar flight. Revise a defined audience, inventory, message, response or measurement problem when its remedy can be assessed. Hold or test narrowly when a coverage gap or weak comparison could change the spending decision.
Name the action, its owner, the evidence needed next time and when the choice will be revisited. Keep any unresolved reach or outcome limit beside the recommendation.
Outcome reporting may cover engagement, conversions and ROI. Keep them distinct in the decision record and identify which answers the original objective; a result for one should not silently stand in for another.
In this guide
- Auditing CTV delivery against the original audience briefCompare the original CTV audience brief with applied targeting, device, geography and delivery evidence without overstating who watched.
- Reviewing spending by publisher and creative versionBuild a CTV spending matrix by publisher and creative, reconcile the cost basis and leave unreportable allocations clearly unknown.
- Reporting CTV reach when household matching is incompleteReport measured household reach alongside unmatched CTV delivery, with clear units, inventory coverage and no invented whole-campaign total.
- Choosing whether a CTV campaign should be repeatedUse the original objective, delivery quality, measurement coverage and next-flight cost to decide whether to repeat, revise or test a CTV campaign.
