Unlocking Linear TV’s Untapped Potential with Data-Driven Buying
Originally published June 30, 2025 by Howard Shimmel
Despite ongoing changes in the media landscape, linear TV remains a trusted channel for national reach and brand-safe advertising. Today, over 75% of national GRPs are with publishers enabled for data driven linear (DDL), yet only 4% of TV ad spend leverages those capabilities.
Using Arima’s industry-leading ROAS norms for linear TV, the analysis showed that advertisers across seven key verticals — Pharma, QSR, Tech & Telco, Retail, CPG, Automotive, and Financial Services — stand to unlock major gains:
- $31M in incremental sales by doubling DDL’s share
- $62M by tripling it
- $280M by fully aligning DDL spend with DDL-enabled GRP supply
With VideoAmp and Nielsen now offering scalable audience data, DDL campaigns can be planned and optimized just as efficiently as traditional age/sex buys. The question isn’t whether DDL works — it’s whether advertisers are ready to prioritize measurable outcomes over legacy benchmarks.
Arima’s ROAS data helped reveal the bottom-line impact of optimizing linear TV with DDL — a critical step as marketers seek more accountable media investments in today’s uncertain economy.
