Delivering business outcomes in an ad-saturated landscape
TL;DR Summary
App marketers are increasingly adopting outcomes-based advertising, yet most premium publishers struggle to optimize effectively due to reliance on legacy metrics (impressions, clicks) and challenges posed by fragmented data and limited transparency. This leads to a focus on volume and reach over actual performance, missing opportunities to deliver provable value to advertisers who seek to align the majority of their budget to proven tactics with demonstrable business results… (click to expand)
Kochava Outcomes Optimization addresses this by moving beyond simply maximizing impressions to prioritize true relevance. The platform employs predictive modeling, trained on 90+ days of historical first-party data (advertiser conversion signals and publisher ad exposure), to model relevancy and conversion propensity. This focus on connecting brands with genuinely interested audiences was proven in a case study with a leading CTV platform, which used the model to refine targeting and achieved a 58% higher conversion rate for a major streaming app’s campaign.
App marketers and the brands they serve are increasingly adopting a 70-20-10 principle to steer their advertising investments1. Under this rule, 70% of the budget is invested in proven tactics that can deliver known outcomes, the next 20% is spent scaling new opportunities, and a final 10% is reserved for experimentation and testing new strategies. Publishers and ad platforms looking to become part of the 70% stake need to ensure they’re delivering against the outcomes that matter to their advertisers. Simply pumping impressions and guaranteeing delivery no longer makes the cut.
However, despite the growing industry demand for outcomes-based advertising, most premium publishers and ad platforms still struggle to optimize effectively for outcomes due to several key challenges:
- Many rely on legacy metrics like impressions or clicks rather than true business results such as conversions, incremental revenue, or customer retention.
- Fragmented data ecosystems, privacy constraints, and limited transparency into the complete user journey make it difficult to tie ad exposure directly to meaningful outcomes and optimize accordingly.
- Technical limitations and the absence of standardized measurement and data frameworks hinder the adoption of robust attribution and optimization models.
As a result, many top-tier publishers and platforms prioritize volume and reach over actual performance, missing opportunities to deliver provable value to advertisers.
Enter Outcomes Optimization Powered by Kochava
The ability to optimize toward business outcomes is now business-critical for publishers and platforms. Kochava Outcomes Optimization centers on predictive modeling using 90+ days of historical, first-party data: conversion signals from the advertiser and ad exposure data from the publisher or ad platform to model relevancy and conversion propensity. Rather than simply casting the widest net and maximizing impressions, there’s a focus on true relevance—connecting brands with the audiences who are genuinely interested in the products and messages. By prioritizing relevance alongside scale, publishers and platforms not only maximize engagement and campaign effectiveness for their advertisers but also enhance user experience and long-term loyalty that keep advertisers coming back.
Key Outcomes Optimization Benefits
For Publishers & Ad Platforms
- Higher audience engagement and conversion rates for campaigns—particularly always-on campaigns
- Increased ad yield and lower ad fatigue
- Improved ROI for advertisers—fostering trust and long-term partnerships
- Better insights into user behavior and content effectiveness
- Reduced wasted ad spend and inefficiency
For Advertisers
- Higher conversion rates by targeting interested audiences
- Improved return on ad spend (ROAS) and reduced cost per acquisition (CPA)
- Enhanced brand perception—ads shown to relevant audiences feel helpful rather than intrusive, building positive brand associations
- Improved audience insights—through better data on customer preferences and behaviors from engaged, relevant interactions
Case Study: Leading CTV Platform Achieves 58% Performance Lift via Kochava Outcomes Optimization
Case Study Highlights
Ad Platform: CTV ad platform (200M+ smart TVs globally)
Advertiser: FAST streaming app (33M+ MAU)
Test Group: 1.2M devices
Control Group: 129K devices
Performance Lift: 58% higher CVR from test group
Summary
In an ongoing app install campaign for a major FAST streaming app with over 33M+ monthly active users (MAU), a leading CTV advertising platform with over 200M smart TVs globally leveraged Outcomes Optimization from Kochava. The CTV ad platform team sought to optimize ongoing audience targeting and campaign delivery to achieve their advertiser’s app install growth goals with greater efficiency.
How Outcomes Optimization Works
The Kochava machine learning model was trained on 90 days of historical campaign performance data. By analyzing a variety of activity data points (e.g., user activity, geography, previous ad exposure), the model predicted the likelihood that target devices would complete an app install conversion over a 30-day horizon. The audience was scored and ranked for predictive install behavior to create a focused test group.
Interested in Outcomes Optimization? Contact Kochava
Outcomes Optimization Results
Post-campaign analysis revealed that the test group had a conversion rate 58% higher than a holdout control group, showcasing the prediction accuracy of the Kochava models.
By refining audience targeting based on relevance and propensity to convert, the CTV ad platform minimized impression load and ad fatigue among its audience while overdelivering on the advertiser’s expectations for the app install campaign. Kochava Outcomes Optimization is iteratively retrained to continuously incorporate recent performance trends, enabling ongoing optimization of future audiences and improved campaign performance for advertisers.
How to Incorporate Outcomes Optimization
Outcomes Optimization is crucial for marketers because it focuses on reaching the right audience rather than just the largest audience.
- Quality over quantity: 1,000 relevant users far outperform 10,000 irrelevant ones.
- Cost efficiency: Better targeting reduces acquisition costs and increases ROI.
- Long-term value: Relevant audiences build sustainable business relationships.
Take the Next Step
If you’re an advertiser, ask your media partners about their ability to optimize for outcomes on your campaigns. Be open to discussions around the role of your first-party data in enhancing modeling. Contact us to learn about our integrated media partners that can support Outcomes Optimization with Kochava.
If you’re a publisher or ad platform, contact Kochava to learn more about Outcomes Optimization and how we can help you maximize results for advertisers while reducing ad load and fatigue among your first-party audience.
