The Impact of TV Advertising on Website Traffic

We propose a modeling procedure for estimating immediate responses to TV ads and evaluating the factors influencing their size. First, we capture diurnal and seasonal patterns of website visits using the kernel smoothing method. Second, we estimate a gradual increase in website visits after an ad using the maximum likelihood method. Third, we analyze the non-linear dependence of the estimated increase in website visits on characteristics of the ads using the random forest method. The proposed methodology is applied to a dataset containing minute-by-minute organic website visits and detailed characteristics of TV ads for an e-commerce company in 2019. The results show that people are indeed willing to switch between screens and multitask. Moreover, the time of the day, the TV channel, and the advertising motive play a great role in the impact of the ads. Based on these results, marketers can quantify the return on a single ad spot, evaluate the extra-paid ad options (such as a premium position), and optimize the buying process.