Buy TV by the episode
📺 Streaming TV is finally selling ads by episode and scene, and the brands that measure show by show will win it, and more!
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We break down the real strategies, decisions, and plays that actually move the needle in your marketing, and here it for today.
📺 Your next TV win is hiding in a specific episode
For years, streaming TV sold you a household and kept quiet about what was playing. This past week, more ad-tech sellers started offering targeting down to the episode and scene, so a travel brand can now chase the beach episode instead of anyone with a smart TV.
Linear TV has always sold by program. Streaming now plays by the same rules, which changes how you plan, buy, and judge TV.
Map products to moments, then to shows
- List the real-life moments your product shows up in, such as travel prep or the weeknight dinner scramble.
- Translate each moment into on-screen content: genres, recurring scenes and the moods that match.
- Pull any linear post logs you already have. Programs that drove site traffic spikes within minutes of airing tell you which content your buyers watch.
- Build a shortlist of 15 to 20 streaming shows from that overlap, plus a control group bought broadly.
A cookware brand might lead with cooking competitions and family dramas, keeping a broad slice running to prove the targeting earns its premium.
Score every show on conversions
Contextual labels describe what's on screen. They say nothing about who bought.
Request impression logs with show and timestamp from every streaming buy. Then match them against site visits and orders in the hours that follow, the same way you'd read a linear spike.
Rank shows on cost per acquisition and keep a simple rule. Top-quartile shows get more budget next flight, while the bottom quartile gets cut after two flights. Those cutoffs are my judgment, so adjust them to your margins.
Doing this by hand across streaming, linear, and online video gets heavy fast. Tatari plans, buys, and measures all three on one platform through direct supply relationships, and ties results to actual conversions instead of each seller's own report.
Vuori, Nutrafol, Calm and Ro run their TV this way, from a self-serve first flight up to full-service at nine-figure spend. You can get started for free here.
Cut creative for the mood of the show
The same 30-second spot lands differently after a tense thriller than after a cozy baking show. Produce two edits from one shoot:
- High-energy cut: fast open, product in the first two seconds, louder music, built for sports, competition and action
- Calm cut: slower pacing, a narrated story and a softer close, built for comfort viewing and late-night dramas
If the calm cut clearly wins on comfort shows, extend the split to your linear dayparts.
Pick your first 15 shows this week and plan one flight where each show earns its renewal.
Partnership with Billo
What Meta’s Changes Mean for Your Next Campaign
Still running the Meta setup that worked six months ago? Your next creative test could be paying for assumptions that no longer hold.
Before you put more budget behind it, understand what’s changed and where creator-led Partnership Ads fit.
On October 7 at 11:00 AM ET, join Donatas Smailys, CEO of Billo, for a free 60-minute live session to:
- See Meta’s Partnership Ads data and understand where creator-handle ads could earn a place in your account.
- Improve your creative testing with Curtis Howland, VP of Marketing at Misfit Marketing, with $100M+ in Meta spend managed.
- Hear directly from Reyna Baker, Partner Manager at Meta, about platform changes that could affect how you spend your budget.
You’ll leave knowing where your Meta setup needs to change and how to put creator-led ads to work before committing more budget.
Can't attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
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🥳 Events
🔥 What Changes When Creator Programs Scale From 5 to 5,000
October 21 | Online | Free Festival
Return on Influence Festival ’26 opens up the systems behind large creator programs, including how teams track ROI, improve partnerships, and avoid operational chaos as volume grows. Hear directly from leaders at Adobe, ŌURA, Edelman, Ogilvy, and more.
Can't attend every session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
Thanks for being part of the WAW team 💃 We’d love to know if this was helpful so we can continue playing it smart with the right strategies.