• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 10, 2015

TV-attributed clicks  — where marketers pay networks based on consumers who click onto their site as a result of watching a TV commercial -- is something direct response marketers have keyed on in recent years.

Ken Chaplin, chief marketing officer of the TransUnion Consumer Interactive, in speaking at MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit, says the credit bureau company has learned “ways we are trying to get at attributing TV to what happens in search.”

In particular, TransUniion grabs more prized live TV viewers, versus those who time-shift TV programming, something important to the company a direct response marketer.

TransUnion typical TV media plan consists a lot of cable networks — especially run-of-schedule spots on the likes of HGTV. Versus many primetime scripted shows most cable networks program viewing isn't time shifted much. So TransUnion get the benefit of plenty of linear live viewing.

Not only that but one network in particular gave TransUnion a great deal.

"We had a interesting network that gave us the best cost per attributed click which was around a demo we wouldn’t have thought of -- which speaks to the linear nature of TV viewers on that TV network.