• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

Digital media video advertising is at a mixed-messaging stage, according to Billo, a video creator ad platform, for top-of-the-funnel awareness and lower-level purchase.

What does this mean for traditional TV advertising? Perhaps the same formula.

Looking at 88,329 video ads on Meta (Facebook, Instagram), there is a trend that media-buying executives have long pondered: Just because someone clicks on a video ad doesn’t mean they will end up buying anything that ad was promoting.

Those ads with the most clicks actually perform the worst -- in terms of return on advertising spend (ROAS) -- versus those ads with the least clicks.

Ad categories with the most clicks -- health/beauty and arts/entertainment -- are at a high 2.36% and 2.15 % click rate, according to Billo -- after experiencing a low 1.82 and a 2.04 ROAS.

The average ROAS for 14 categories of video ads running on Meta from January to June 2026 was 2.17. ROAS number is defined as for every one dollar of media spend will return -- in this case -- $2.17.

The best result games were for the baby/toddler advertising category -- a big 4.99 ROAS -- this against a lowest click through rate -- 1.37%.

Billo says there is a simple explanation for this: "An ad that appeals to everyone pulls in a lot of people who were never going to buy.”

This follows the thinking that the major advertising events get high news attention -- for high-profile events like the Super Bowl -- but may not see appreciable revenue/sales spikes.

Big entertainment-oriented events get a lot of attention and spin on social media -- especially those with major, recognizable celebrities.

Does that make consumers go out and buy -- and at least look into those products and services? Sure.

One thing about digital media is clear: “Attention and return are not the same thing, and in this data, they often move in opposite directions.” The bottom line for many is that you can’t be siloed in one channel or another. TV commercials and digital media ads often work together.

A summary of like-minded media agency thinking may go like this:Evaluating traditional TV solely on immediate response rates is not a good strategy.

TV commercials often drive conversions -- after a viewer sees a TV commercial, searches for the brand on Google, and may click on a search ad.

Little has changed. But increasingly, TV requires granular advertising categories and other metrics, such as attention.