Case Study
Cash Now, Not Refunds Later—Securing Up to $180,000 Annually in Upfront CTV Media Savings
The Challenge: The Hidden Cost of “Post-Spend” Refunds in CTV
In the Connected TV (CTV) ecosystem, advertisers pay a premium for “big screen” engagement. However, high CPMs make CTV a primary target for sophisticated invalid traffic (IVT), such as SSAI spoofing and device ID manipulation.
The standard industry safety net relies on DSPs issuing post-spenrefunds for IVT 60 to 90 days after the campaign has run. But for a CTV advertiser, waiting for a refund isn’t money saved—it’s capital held hostage.
When you buy fraudulent CTV inventory, your cash is tied up in a dispute queue. Furthermore, fraudulent signals actively distort your campaign data. Optimization algorithms train on non-human completion rates, frequency capping is wasted on bots, and your household reach metrics are artificially inflated. Advertisers need a solution that protects cash flow upfront and ensures optimization models are trained strictly on real, human viewers.
The Solution: Upfront Prevention over Retroactive Cures
By integrating Real Impression’s Verified Devices Audience before the campaign launches, CTV advertisers can proactively exclude dead signals and invalid device IDs. This ensures every dollar is spent on genuine households, keeping cash in hand and data pristine.
Campaign Analysis: The Financial Impact of High-Value Protection
To demonstrate this impact, we analyzed the projected results of applying Real Impression to a standard monthly CTV flight. Because Real Impression’s cost is a flat $0.32 CPM, it is uniquely efficient for high-CPM environments like CTV.
Campaign Inputs & Baseline Data
• Monthly Campaign Budget: $100,000
• Average CTV CPM: $28.00
• Total Impressions Served: 3,571,428
• Projected IVT Rate: 15%
The Investment: A Self-Funding Safeguard
Protecting your CTV media spend is not a “tax”—it is a self-funding mechanism. At a $28 CPM, the cost to filter inventory upfront is a fraction of the budget rescued.
Monthly Financial Breakdown
Calculation
Value
Cost to Deploy Real Impression
$0.32 CPM x 3.57M Impressions
$1,143
Waste Avoided (15% IVT Rate)
15% of $100,000 Budget
$15,000
Net Financial Impact (Monthly)
$15,000 - $1,143
+$13,857
Quantifying the Annual Advantage
When you stop relying on post-spend refunds, the financial compounding is massive. Here is how upfront protection scales over a 12-month period for a $1.2M annual CTV commitment:
• Annual Cost of Real Impression: $13,716
• Annual Working Media Protected (Waste Avoided): $180,000
• Annual Net Cash Gained: +$166,284
This translates to $180,000 in immediate, liquid cash retained within your marketing budget over the course of a year. Instead of letting that capital sit locked in a 90-day DSP credit queue, those dollars are actively reinvested to buy high-quality, human impressions today.
Strategic Value Beyond Cost Avoidance
The primary benefit of Real Impression is a fundamental improvement in media efficiency and data integrity. By eliminating non-human traffic up front, CTV advertisers achieve:
• Smarter Algorithm Training: Bidding models optimize based on real human completion patterns, not bot behavior.|
• Accurate Household Frequency: Ad frequency limits are applied to actual families rather than being exhausted on fraudulent device IDs.
• True Performance Metrics: Video Completion Rates (VCR) reflect actual engagement, ensuring your “premium” spend is delivering premium results.
• Lower Effective Cost Per Human: The true cost to reach a real, qualified household declines significantly when the 15% “fraud tax” is removed.
The Bottom Line
In a $28 CPM environment, advertisers cannot afford to wait 90 days for a refund. Real Impression ensures that your CTV budget is spent on real people, in real time.