Contextual advertising examples & KPIs for brand campaigns

With third-party cookies on life support, it's imperative that brands target audiences based on the media they consume, not personal data.

The media buyers at Exverus always consider context when targeting consumers.

Why contextual advertising impacts ROI

The ad industry has been studying the effects of context since 1958, but many marketers have shrugged it off like a task they'd get around to eventually. That era just ended. With third-party cookies on life support and privacy regulations tightening globally, contextual advertising isn't just timely - it's table stakes. 

But convincing your CFO requires answering one simple question:

"Does contextual advertising deliver measurable ROI for brand campaigns?"

The answer is yes, but not reasons you might expect. Unlike performance campaigns where you can draw a straight line from click to conversion, brand campaigns operate on a longer timeline and require more sophisticated measurement. Contextual advertising fits naturally into this framework because it influences brand perception at scale without relying on invasive tracking.

Research from Integral Ad Science (IAS) shows that contextually aligned ads deliver a 23% increase in detailed ad recall and a 27% boost in recollection of broader brand narratives.

Furthermore, research shows contextual ads are 50% more likely to be clicked on, and they deliver 30% higher conversion rates. 

Why? When ads appear in content consumers already care about, they inherit that positive attention. When ads align emotionally and cognitively with surrounding content, they feel helpful, rather than intrusive.

Many brands know intuitively that reaching audiences in relevant content environments matters, but translating that intuition into budget justifications requires data - not just vanity metrics, but true impacts on the business. Here's how.

Exverus' programmatic advertisers are the best in the business. Learn from their winning CTV strategies.

Key metrics that demonstrate ROI

Brand lift

A properly structured brand lift study measures whether your contextual placements are actually moving the needle on awareness, consideration, and purchase intent. We've seen contextual campaigns deliver brand lift increases ranging from 5% to 25% depending on category, creative quality, and media mix.

The key is using test-and-control methodology to isolate the impact of your contextual placements from other marketing activities.

A scientific approach to measuring paid media's impact on actual business growth

Viewability & Attention

Because contextual ads appear in relevant content environments, users are already engaged with related topics—they're not being interrupted mid-scroll through unrelated content. Industry benchmarks show contextual placements often achieve 5-15 percentage points higher viewability rates than behavioral targeting, with some premium publishers seeing viewability rates above 80%.

More importantly, attention metrics (measured through eye-tracking or engagement proxies) tend to be stronger when the ad aligns with the content context.

Cost-efficiency

Contextual advertising typically delivers 10-30% lower CPMs than behavioral targeting, especially on premium publisher inventory. Why? Because you're not paying the "audience tax"—that premium charged for highly specific behavioral targeting segments. Lower CPMs mean your brand campaign budget stretches further, achieving more reach and frequency within the same investment.

Cross-channel attribution

Contextual advertising rarely operates in isolation, and its impact often shows up in downstream channels. We've tracked significant increases in branded search volume (15-40% lift is common) following contextual brand campaigns, along with measurable improvements in direct traffic and organic social engagement. Eliminating data silos and maximizing visibility into the customer journey is crucial to understanding how your omnichannel campaigns are performing.

Move away from CPMs and impressions, and toward goals that actually push business growth.

Examples of contextual targeting

The Chosen meets viewers where they already watch

For 2025's The Chosen: Indie Streams to Big Screens campaign, Media Director Anna Elema and her team gathered insights about their target audience using market research tools like MRI Simmons. Then, they determined the media mix based on channels the typical consumer of that profile already frequents, rather than relying on identifiable data from the consumers themselves.

At the end of the campaign, the Analytics team partnered with DISQO for a cross-channel brand lift study to capture the impact of paid media across Search, Social, CTV, Audio, and others holistically. The study showed a +5.6% brand lift, or a staggering 4.6x the industry standard!

This client was an indie production with a limited budget, so we couldn't waste a dollar appealing to irrelevant audiences. Contextual targeting helped us efficiently reach viewers in brand-safe environments they already trust and enjoy.

Premier Protein teases premium recipes in Pinterest

One of Exverus' largest clients, Premier Protein, knows well the power of social media advertising and social commerce, but platforms like Instagram and TikTok are saturated - it's hard to stand out!

Pinterest, by contrast, is more niche and specifically interest-based. Users visit Pinterest actively hoping to be inspired, learn new things, and discover new products.

As part of an ongoing, integrated media strategy, the Premier Protein team at Exverus took over the Pinterest homepage and search page with dayparted recipe videos to catch coffee drinkers in the morning and fitness enthusiasts later in the day.

The results? Reach that exceeded Pinterest's CPM standard by 14% and Engagement that outperformed benchmarks by 8%!

Click to see more Premier Protein activations on Pinterest

Seedtag explodes awareness & consideration for Colgate

Click to see more of Seedtag's campaign case studies

Switching gears now: An ad-tech vendor we work with quite a bit, Seedtag, illustrates how  contextual advertising maximized brand awareness and positive perception for Colgate Plax mouthwash.

Seedtag deployed its custom Contextual Impact Display, Contextual Branded Video, and Contextual Engagement Display formats against online content related to wellness, lifestyle, sports, and health that Colgate users enjoy. The ad units felt informative, rather than disruptive.

As a result, brand favorability spiked 44%, and purchase consideration lifted 12% among Colgate's target consumers. Seedtag's cookie-less solutions drove measurable impact on the brand's sustained growth.

Final Note

Consider multidimensional alignment: Match not just the topic but the emotional tone, energy level, and cognitive environment of the content your ad runs against. A funny ad in a sitcom only works if humor connects authentically to your brand story.

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