For Jones Road Beauty, the signal to diversify beyond paid social wasn't just rising costs, but a plateau in audience reach. They identified a "reach issue" where they could no longer find new customers effectively on Meta, prompting the expansion into TV to fill the top of the funnel.
Turning on TV advertising significantly improved Jones Road's Meta campaigns. The new audience influx from TV boosted overall efficiency and increased the new visitor rate, providing a fresh signal to Meta's algorithm and making paid social convert better without changing the existing strategy.
Jones Road minimized the risk of expensive TV productions by repurposing their best-performing organic TikToks. By testing concepts organically first, they had high confidence in the creative strategy before committing to a TV shoot, ensuring the new channel had proven assets from day one.
Contrary to the belief that TV requires million-dollar budgets, Jones Road successfully launched by committing to a lean but statistically significant test. They spent ~$50k on a production that yielded eight ad assets and committed to a $150k-$200k media spend over one month to gather meaningful data.
After TV ads caused a massive spike in branded search volume, Jones Road ran an incrementality test. They discovered the paid search ads were not adding value; when turned off, nearly all traffic shifted to organic search, allowing them to cut the budget without losing customers.
TV platforms often lure brands with ad credits, but this is a distraction. True value lies in access to the right inventory and consistent performance. Cody Plofker warns that credits are just "icing on the cake" and won't save a strategy that fails due to poor inventory or unsustainable results.
To accurately measure TV's impact, bootstrap-minded brands should avoid letting platforms "grade their own homework." Implement independent measurement tools like post-purchase surveys, media mix models, and incrementality tests to get a true picture of performance beyond vanity metrics provided by the ad platform.
"Remnant" inventory isn't a dirty word for low-quality placements. It refers to the same premium inventory used by major advertisers that simply went unsold. Starting with remnant buys is a smart, cost-effective strategy for DTC brands to test TV efficiently without compromising on placement quality.