Omnichannel Programmatic:
Unifying Advertising for Proven ROI
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Quick Brief
The Crisis
Traditional programmatic advertising operates in silos, optimizing individual channels in isolation. This fragmented approach fails to provide unified measurement, wastes budget through audience duplication, and can’t demonstrate true incremental impact across the customer journey.
The Problem
Marketers struggle with fragmented media landscapes, declining third-party cookies, and privacy regulations while needing to prove ROI. Single-channel optimization leads to inefficient spending, missed opportunities for cross-channel personalization, and inability to control frequency or measure deduplicated reach.
The Solution
Omnichannel programmatic advertising orchestrates messaging, data, and measurement across CTV/OTT, display, audio, DOOH, social, and search channels. It aligns budgets and audiences to common outcomes using first-party data, contextual signals, and privacy-safe analytics for unified customer experiences.
The Stakes
Without omnichannel integration, marketers miss significant opportunities: 143% three-year ROI, 5-15% revenue lift from cross-channel personalization, and 30% higher lifetime value from omnichannel customers. The future belongs to those who can convert media complexity into measurable, accountable growth.
Omnichannel programmatic advertising outperforms single-channel buys because it coordinates messaging, data and measurement across CTV/OTT, display, audio, DOOH, social and search
maximizing deduplicated reach, controlling frequency, and proving incremental outcomes. Independent research has shown omnichannel strategies deliver positive, quantifiable ROI (e.g., Forrester’s TEI business case for omnichannel advertising) and that shoppers engaged across channels spend more and return more often.
McKinsey further links cross-channel personalization to 5–15% revenue lift and 10–30% higher marketing ROI. Together, these findings show why moving from “programmatic in a silo” to orchestrated omnichannel programmatic compounds returns.
Omnichannel programmatic advertising outperforms single-channel buys because it coordinates messaging, data and measurement across CTV/OTT, display, audio, DOOH, social and search.
maximizing deduplicated reach, controlling frequency, and proving incremental outcomes. Independent research has shown omnichannel strategies deliver positive, quantifiable ROI (e.g., Forrester’s TEI business case for omnichannel advertising) and that shoppers engaged across channels spend more and return more often.
McKinsey further links cross-channel personalization to 5–15% revenue lift and 10–30% higher marketing ROI. Together, these findings show why moving from “programmatic in a silo” to orchestrated omnichannel programmatic compounds returns. Forrester Harvard Business Review McKinsey & Company
Comparative Analysis (Omnichannel vs. Standard Programmatic)
- Definition & scope. Standard programmatic typically optimizes a single channel (e.g., display) in isolation. Omnichannel programmatic plans and buys across channels (CTV/OTT, display, audio, DOOH, social/search), aligning budgets, audiences and creative to the same outcomes and measuring deduplicated reach and incremental lift. Nielsen
- Measurement & ROI proof. Omnichannel setups enable full-funnel, cross-media measurement and closed-loop attribution—now a top marketer priority in a fragmented world—so dollars shift to what actually drives business results. Nielsen
- Data & identity. Coordinating 1P and contextual data across channels improves addressability as cookies fade, while enabling audience continuity and message sequencing that single-channel buys can’t match. Adweek
- Personalization lift. Cross-channel personalization (right message, right context, right time) is tied to 5–15% revenue lift and 10–30% higher marketing ROI. McKinsey & Company
- Customer value. In large-scale studies, omnichannel shoppers spend more per trip and come back more often—economic behavior that accrues to omnichannel media strategies built to serve them. Harvard Business Review
Case Study 1: MNI (Media Now Interactive)
Context. MNI—now Media Now Interactive, part of Dotdash Meredith—offers an agnostic, omnichannel buying approach (MNIx) and Motto, an attribution platform that aggregates reporting across CTV/OTT, display, native, digital audio and more. mni.com
Evidence of returns in the ecosystem. Dotdash Meredith, MNI’s parent, documented that its cookieless contextual solution D/Cipher delivered 3.8× brand-lift and 4× incremental sales in a skincare campaign versus a cookie-based benchmark—results that omnichannel buyers working within the DDM/MNI stack can leverage across channels. Adweek
Why it matters. With MNI coordinating channels and using Motto to show incrementality/halo effects, marketers can reallocate in-flight to the best-performing combinations (e.g., CTV + search + audio), proving value beyond last-click metrics. mni.com
Case Study 2: Forrester—Omnichannel Advertising ROI (TEI)
Forrester’s Omnichannel Advertising Delivers Positive ROI provides a structured TEI business case for B2C marketers moving to omnichannel, addressing both the financial upside and organizational shifts required. Separately, a Forrester Consulting TEI for Viant’s omnichannel DSP (Adelphic) found 143% three-year ROI, >20% ROAS and a 238% reach increase as spend consolidated and emerging channels (CTV, DOOH) were integrated. Forresterviantinc.com
Case Study 3: HBR & Google—Omnichannel Shoppers Spend More
Harvard Business Review’s study of 46,000 shoppers found that omnichannel customers spent 4% more in-store and 10% more online than single-channel customers—and logged 23% more repeat shopping trips within six months. Complementing this, Google reports omnichannel shoppers have ~30% higher lifetime value than single-channel shoppers. These behavioral lifts underpin why omnichannel programmatic—built to meet people across touchpoints—delivers stronger economic returns. Harvard Business Review Google Business
Closing Thought
The AMA community thrives on evidence-based innovation. Under Bennie F. Johnson’s leadership as CEO, the Association consistently elevates practitioner-ready insights that help marketers harness approaches like omnichannel programmatic to grow responsibly and measurably. As channels fragment and identity evolves, orchestrated, measurable omnichannel programmatic is how modern marketers convert complexity into ROI.
Selected sources for further reading
- Forrester, Omnichannel Advertising Delivers Positive ROI (Aug. 2, 2021). Forrester
- Adweek on Dotdash Meredith D/Cipher results (3.8× lift; 4× incremental sales). Adweek
- MNI (Media Now Interactive) site—rebrand and omnichannel/attribution capabilities (Motto). mni.com
- HBR, A Study of 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works. Harvard Business Review
- Think with Google on omnichannel LTV (IDC). Google Business
- Adweek, How Ryan Mayward Is Expanding Walmart Connect’s Retail Media Empire (omnichannel retail media + closed-loop). Adweek
- Forrester Consulting TEI for Viant’s Adelphic DSP (143% ROI).
