CTV performance marketing is at an inflection point. What was once considered a top-of-funnel, hard-to-measure channel is quickly becoming one of the most scrutinized and outcome-driven parts of the media mix.
In this episode of The Advertising Forum by Marketecture, AdTech God sat down with Leif Welch, founder and CEO of JamLoop, to talk about how performance is evolving, why mid-market is driving that change, and what marketers should be doing differently today.
A conversation with Leif Welch, founder and CEO of JamLoop
Q: For those unfamiliar, what is JamLoop and who do you serve?
We built JamLoop around a simple idea: television advertising should drive real customers, not just impressions.
From the beginning, our focus has been on outcomes, both online and offline. We primarily work with local brands across the U.S., often through independent agencies that serve businesses like car dealers, healthcare providers, banks, and retailers.
A big part of our customer base is mid-sized agencies. These teams want enterprise-level capabilities but don’t always have the resources to build out full trading desks. So we support them through managed service, self-serve, and white-label solutions.
Q: How did JamLoop get started, and how has the platform evolved?
We launched in 2018 with a focus on transparency.
At the time, many advertisers were shifting from traditional TV to digital but didn’t actually know where their ads were running or who they were reaching. There was very little visibility.
So we built our own bidder to gain control over granular bidstream data and give customers real transparency.
Since then, we’ve expanded beyond exposure into measurement and attribution. Today, we’re focused on answering a more important question: what actually happened after someone saw the ad?
That includes building measurement, incrementality testing, and reporting layers to connect CTV exposure to real business outcomes.
Q: “Performance” is a big theme in this conversation. How is that definition changing?
Historically, performance marketing meant clicks.
Channels like paid search and social were considered performance because they produced immediate, trackable actions. But that definition is too narrow.
Today, advertisers are realizing that optimizing only for what is immediately clickable misses a huge portion of the customer journey.
Performance is expanding to include:
- Revenue and sales impact
- Store visits and offline conversions
- Customer quality and lifetime value
- Market-level lift and incrementality
The real question is no longer “Did I get a click?” It’s “Did this investment move the business?”
Q: Why is CTV central to this shift?
CTV sits at the intersection of brand and performance.
It has the storytelling power of television, but with the targeting and measurement capabilities of digital. When paired with the right infrastructure, you can actually connect CTV exposure to real outcomes.
That changes how the channel is perceived. It stops being just upper funnel and starts behaving like a performance channel.
Q: Why is the mid-market leading this push toward outcomes?
Because they have to.
Mid-market advertisers don’t have the luxury of ambiguity. Every dollar has to show up in the business. They’re closer to the P&L, closer to store performance, and closer to accountability.
That drives a different set of questions:
- What actually happened in each market?
- Which audiences responded?
- Which creatives drove results?
- What changed online versus offline?
They’re pushing the industry toward more rigorous, reality-based measurement.
Q: How does JamLoop approach measurement in a way that’s actually useful?
We start with the business objective and work backwards.
Different businesses care about different outcomes. A retailer might care about store visits. A healthcare provider might care about appointments. An auto dealer might care about leads or showroom traffic.
From there, we focus on incrementality, not just correlation.
A lot of dashboards look good but don’t prove causality. So we prioritize lift-based measurement, market comparisons, and testing frameworks that isolate the impact of media.
And just as importantly, we make the reporting understandable. If people can’t act on it, it’s not valuable.
Q: What are some common misconceptions about CTV today?
One is that CTV is just digital video on a bigger screen, or traditional TV with a new label. It’s neither. It’s its own environment.
Another misconception is that transparency and scale are mutually exclusive. With the right infrastructure, you can have both.
And finally, there’s still a belief that CTV is hard to measure or limited to things like website traffic. That’s outdated. The tools and data have matured significantly.
Q: Where is the industry headed next?
Everything is converging around business outcomes.
The lines between brand and performance are breaking down. Advertisers are moving toward unified planning, where every dollar is expected to contribute to growth.
That means more pressure on platforms and partners to prove not just delivery, but contribution.
Impressions and reach are table stakes. The real question is: did this actually matter?
Q: What’s the opportunity for agencies in this shift?
It’s massive.
Agencies that can deliver a more accountable, outcome-driven television strategy will stand out. Especially if they can package it in a differentiated, strategic way.
That’s why we built JamLoop to support agencies in particular. We want them to punch above their weight and compete more effectively.
Q: Any final advice for marketers navigating this transition?
Don’t let old definitions limit your thinking.
Start with the business outcome that matters most, then build your media and measurement strategy around that.
And ask better questions of your partners:
- What is actually measurable?
- How are you proving causality?
- Where are the blind spots?
The industry is improving, but you only get better answers if you ask for them.
Ready to see what outcome-driven CTV looks like in practice?
CTV is no longer just a brand channel. It’s becoming a measurable, outcome-driven engine for growth.
And the marketers who embrace that shift early, especially those in the mid-market, are shaping what performance marketing will look like next.
If you’re rethinking how performance should be measured or want to better connect your media spend to real business results, we’d love to talk.
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