Multiscreen Ads Drove Website Traffic Gains in H1 2026
Advertisers using both TV and streaming reached more customers than those relying on single channels.
Updated on Oct. 6, 2026 in Advertising
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Research from the first half of 2026 revealed that multiscreen advertising campaigns delivered 2.4 times more website visits than single-channel efforts. The study, which analyzed over 30,000 campaigns, found that combining traditional TV and streaming significantly outperformed social media in both engagement and brand recall.
Why it matters
Operators face a clear trade-off between reach and ad spend efficiency, as data shows traditional TV still commands 75% of media return on investment. By utilizing multiscreen strategies, businesses can capture the 8% unique reach overlap while leveraging the higher brand recall of long-form video over social platforms.
Multiscreen campaigns are 105% more likely to drive website traffic than siloed efforts, with traditional TV accounting for 71% of unique reach compared to 21% for streaming. Researchers analyzed 30,000 campaigns to determine these performance benchmarks.
The players
Comcast Advertising
A division of the global telecommunications giant that manages extensive TV and streaming ad inventory and data-driven marketing solutions.
MediaScience
A research firm specializing in consumer behavior and neuroscience-based advertising effectiveness testing.
Mastercard
A global payments technology company that provides transaction and consumer data insights for marketing performance evaluation.
Innovid
An enterprise advertising platform focused on ad serving and measurement across connected TV and digital video environments.
The details
The analysis indicates that brand recall on traditional TV and streaming platforms is 2.2 times higher than on social media, with viewing ad time exceeding social platforms by 36%. Multiscreen strategies allow brands to layer streaming—which accounted for 52% of brand reach in sports-inclusive campaigns—atop traditional television, which provides the bulk of return on media investment. This integrated approach mitigates reach fragmentation by targeting the distinct audiences of both broadcast and streaming environments.
Timeline
The data collection period for the multiscreen advertising research occurred in H1 2026.
The campaigns analyzed throughout 2026 included major events like the Olympics, March Madness, and the FIFA World Cup.
Market Landscape
This research provides performance benchmarks for advertisers navigating a fractured media landscape defined by the rise of streaming-first sports viewing. It follows the pattern set by major sporting events in 2026, such as the FIFA World Cup, which accelerated the industry transition toward multiscreen engagement models.
Operators should review their current media mix to ensure ad spend is not overly concentrated on social channels, which currently underperform in brand recall and ad time compared to TV. Prioritize reallocating portions of digital budgets toward combined streaming and linear TV buys to capitalize on the higher website conversion rates reported in multiscreen campaigns.
The takeaway
The primary insight for operators is that multiscreen advertising provides a tangible, 2.4x performance lift in website traffic that siloed campaigns cannot match. Businesses should begin tracking cross-platform reach rather than individual channel KPIs to better optimize their return on media investment.
Further reading
For more on industry performance metrics, visit the Advertising section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by MediaPost.
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