How Cognition Digital and HAQM Ads helped car dealers measure the impact of Streaming TV ads

Force Marketing wanted to measure the full contributions of STV campaigns and how they connect to on-site actions. To achieve this, they worked with HAQM Ads partner Cognition Digital. The solution presented was to deploy their Headless Analytics Tag (HAT), a powerful tool designed to illuminate the full impact of STV/CTV campaigns on customer behavior. Cognition Digital’s HAT technology enabled Force Marketing to connect CTV ad exposures to key on-site actions, offering unprecedented visibility into the customer journey.

Force Marketing built a comprehensive Streaming TV ad strategy that leveraged HAQM’s unique inventory and data. Within HAQM DSP, ads were flighted across Prime Video as well as other premium streaming apps offered by HAQM Publisher Direct (APD) integrations. Campaigns were localized to each dealer’s zip codes and set up to engage highly qualified shoppers by leveraging HAQM first-party, in-market auto signals, HAQM Garage, as well as HAQM life-stage audiences.

The HAT was installed across multiple dealer websites to observe visitor behavior, classify traffic sources, and record key actions such as form submissions and click-to-call events. This tag worked seamlessly across all site visitors to ensure comprehensive insights. HAT creative tags were added directly to Force Marketing’s CTV campaigns via HAQM DSP and other programmatic platforms. These tags highlighted ad exposures using advanced methods such as view-through cookies, IP caching, and proprietary impression-stitching techniques.

The HAT matched site visits to prior CTV exposures, identifying whether an ad was viewed within the preceding 24-hour window. This allowed Force Marketing to reclassify previously misattributed direct and search traffic, ensuring accurate attribution of STV/CTV’s influence.

Cognition Digital aggregated the data into actionable insights, providing Force Marketing with a clear picture of STV/CTV’s role in driving traffic, conversions, and overall performance across their campaigns. By implementing this methodology, Force Marketing gained clarity into how CTV impressions impacted real-world dealership results, bridging the measurement gaps that traditional analytics tools leave behind.

The insights gained through Cognition Digital’s HAT tag were eye-opening. Force found that 26% of all site traffic had been influenced by programmatic video ads.¹ These site visits, previously misattributed to direct or search traffic under traditional analytics, were revealed to have originated from STV campaigns. Visitors exposed to an STV/CTV ad were 5x more likely to complete a desired action, such as submitting a form or initiating a call, compared to those who had not been exposed.² For one dealer, HAT revealed that 6% of all lead submissions were directly attributable to HAQM DSP campaigns.³ These conversions, which would have been credited to other sources under traditional analytics, highlighted the powerful direct-response influence of STV/CTV campaigns.

Traditional analytics tools fail to accurately account for the complete contributions of STV/CTV campaigns, often leading marketers to undervalue their impact. Force Marketing’s work with Cognition Digital revealed that STV/CTV campaigns are not only valuable—they’re often among the highest-performing channels when measured accurately.