Editorial Team Even as local ad spend is set to hit $180 billion by 2026, according to a 2024 eMarketer report, a staggering 42% of small businesses admit they can’t measure if their campaigns are actually working. That disconnect between local advertising spend and results is exactly why Viamedia’s recent omnichannel launch is getting attention from local advertisers who are tired of guessing. A unified platform promises to finally connect the dots between investment and actual, measurable impact.
Key Takeaways
- A 2025 HubSpot study found omnichannel strategies lift customer retention by 23% over single-channel efforts.
- Viamedia’s platform unifies campaign management, so local businesses can manage budgets for linear TV, CTV, and digital display from one place.
- Mixing first-party data with third-party insights in an omnichannel system can sharpen ad targeting by up to 15% and cut wasted spend.
- Unified analytics show the whole picture: 30% of conversions require at least two touchpoints, a fact often missed by siloed reporting.
- Viamedia’s system lets you retarget linear TV viewers on digital platforms, which boosts digital click-through rates by an average of 18%.
23% Higher Retention: The Omnichannel Advantage
That 23% higher customer retention rate from a 2025 HubSpot report isn’t an abstract number. It’s the direct result of creating a consistent brand experience that makes customers stick around. This is about building loyalty by reaching people with a cohesive message everywhere they are. Think about a local auto shop in Buckhead: a potential customer might see their ad on the local news (linear TV), get a follow-up ad on a streaming service like Hulu (CTV), and then get a special offer by email after checking their website. Each interaction builds on the last, making the customer feel understood, not just spammed by random, disconnected advertisements.
I’ve seen this firsthand in marketing for years. Clients come to us with fragmented campaigns all the time, their television spots feel like they were made on a different planet from their social media. This disjointed story just confuses people, or worse, makes them indifferent. A truly integrated approach makes sure that a billboard on I-75 near Marietta and a sponsored post in a local community forum are telling the same story, building the kind of trust and familiarity that brings people back for another oil change or repair.
Unified Budget Allocation: The End of Siloed Spending
Managing budgets across a dozen different platforms has always been a nightmare for local advertisers. Viamedia’s omnichannel launch tackles that head-on by giving them a single interface to move money between linear TV, CTV, and digital display. This gets rid of the guesswork and manual reconciliation that plagues multi-channel campaigns. A small business owner in Midtown Atlanta, for example, used to have to juggle separate contracts and reports for their cable spots, Google Ads, and a local news banner, a recipe for overspending in one place and underspending somewhere else.
With a unified platform, that same business owner can now shift their budget in real-time based on what’s actually working. If a CTV campaign targeting specific zip codes around Piedmont Park is crushing it while a linear TV spot is lagging, the system can automatically reallocate funds to double down on the winner. That kind of agility has broad implications, allowing for a far more responsive and efficient use of marketing dollars and maximizing their impact. The old model of “siloed spending,” where budgets were rigidly locked into channels no matter how they performed, is effectively obsolete.
15% Better Targeting: Precision Through Data Integration
Improving ad targeting by up to 15% is a fundamental shift in efficiency, especially when you’re working with local ad budgets. This happens when you combine your own first-party data with third-party insights. Your first-party data, website visitors, purchase history, email lists, tells you what your *current* customers do, which is pure gold. Layering that with third-party data, like demographic or lifestyle information, makes your targeting incredibly sharp. Imagine a local gym in Sandy Springs using its own membership data (first-party) to see peak class times, then combining it with third-party data showing a high concentration of fitness enthusiasts in nearby neighborhoods to hit them with ads on the specific CTV shows they’re likely to watch.
This precision drastically cuts down on wasted ad spend because you’re not just shouting into the void anymore. You’re talking to people who are already inclined to listen. It also improves the customer experience. Nobody likes seeing irrelevant ads, but a well-targeted one can feel genuinely helpful by providing a solution to a real need. This smart use of data is foundational to any good omnichannel plan, moving it past basic demographics into true behavioral targeting.
30% of Conversions: The Multi-Touchpoint Reality
The old “last-click” attribution model is dangerously misleading, and unified analytics dashboards prove it: approximately 30% of conversions involve at least two touchpoints before a customer buys. This statistic completely upends the habit of giving all the credit to the final interaction. For instance, a person might see a billboard for a new restaurant on Peachtree Road, later catch an ad for it on their smart TV, and finally click on a social media ad to make a reservation. Without a unified dashboard, the social media ad gets 100% of the credit, totally ignoring the critical awareness built by the billboard and the TV spot.
This multi-touchpoint reality means you have to map out the whole customer path, not just obsess over individual campaign metrics. An omnichannel platform provides the visibility to see how all the pieces work together, showing you which channels are best for grabbing attention versus which ones are best for closing the deal. Ignoring how these channels are connected means a huge portion of your marketing impact will go unmeasured and unoptimized. You’re just leaving money on the table.
“Cost savings matter, but they’re secondary. According to Gartner, software spending continues to climb even as organizations add more tools. The biggest returns come from reinvesting operational gains, better data, faster workflows, fewer integration failures, into execution.”
18% Higher CTR: Retargeting Teamwork
Here’s a tactic that really works: pairing linear TV ads with digital retargeting. Viamedia’s platform makes this possible, and the results are an average 18% jump in digital click-through rates (CTR). This is a big deal. For years, measuring the direct impact of a TV ad was fuzzy at best, limited to broad reach metrics. Now, a local furniture store in Alpharetta can run a television commercial showing a new sofa collection, then use Viamedia’s platform to identify households that were likely exposed to that commercial and serve them targeted digital ads for the same sofa on their connected devices. It’s a powerful reinforcement.
That 18% CTR boost is intentional. It happens because the digital ad isn’t a cold touch. The viewer has already been primed by the TV spot. This strategy recognizes that people rarely make big purchase decisions on a whim (especially for something like a sofa). The initial linear TV ad builds awareness and familiarity, and the subsequent digital retargeting provides the immediate call to action and detailed information. This strategic layering of channels maximizes their effectiveness, demonstrating how traditional and digital media can complement each other to drive tangible results.
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: The “Digital-First” Fallacy
There’s this idea that in 2026, all marketing must be “digital-first.” It’s a common but flawed assumption. While digital’s targeting is amazing, this viewpoint completely ignores how much influence traditional media, particularly linear TV, still has in local markets. I constantly hear people say linear TV is dead or only for older people, and I couldn’t disagree more. For a local plumbing service, an ad on the 6 o’clock news gives them a level of credibility and establishment that a hundred social media ads just can’t replicate. Seeing a local business on a trusted broadcast channel creates a subconscious level of trust that translates directly into consumer confidence.
The real power is in integrating traditional and digital channels smoothly, not abandoning one for the other. Too many businesses are told they have to choose, which is a huge mistake. Viamedia’s approach, by emphasizing the teamwork between linear TV and digital retargeting, gets that both have vital, complementary jobs to do. A digital-only strategy for a local business might miss a huge portion of its potential audience. The goal is to orchestrate a unified campaign where each channel amplifies the others, creating a sum that’s greater than its parts.
Pulling different ad channels together with platforms like Viamedia’s omnichannel launch is a necessary evolution for local businesses. When you have unified budget control, sharp data-driven targeting, and clear cross-channel attribution, you can build campaigns that are both more effective and actually measurable which leads to stronger customer relationships and real growth. This unified data can also feed back into and improve things like AI content quality. Getting a real handle on your Marketing ROI across every channel is what separates the businesses that grow from those that don’t. For any business trying to get the most from its ad spend, a smart AI integration strategy is the blueprint for revenue growth.
What does omnichannel advertising mean for local businesses?
For a local business, omnichannel advertising means blending channels like linear TV, connected TV (CTV), digital ads, and social media so the customer has one consistent experience. The whole point is to make the journey with your brand feel fluid and natural, no matter where or how they interact with it.
How does Viamedia’s omnichannel platform help local advertisers?
It gives local advertisers a single dashboard to manage and allocate budgets across different media types like linear TV, CTV, and digital. This simplifies campaign execution, improves targeting with data integration, and allows for better measurement of how channels work together, leading to more efficient ad spend and higher customer retention.
Can small businesses with tight budgets use omnichannel?
Yes, omnichannel strategies are great for businesses with limited budgets because they help you spend smarter. By consolidating campaign management and using unified analytics to see what’s actually working, you can identify the most effective channels and stop wasting money on the ones that aren’t delivering results.
What’s data’s role in a local omnichannel strategy?
Data is central. The strategy works by integrating your own first-party data (customer information collected directly) with third-party data (broader demographic and behavioral insights) to create highly precise audience segments. This data-driven approach means you can deliver more relevant ads, personalize messaging, and accurately measure performance across all channels.
How does linear TV fit into a modern omnichannel campaign?
Linear TV integrates into a modern campaign as a powerful awareness-building tool that establishes brand credibility and broad reach. Digital channels can then handle the direct response. Importantly, omnichannel platforms now let you retarget audiences exposed to linear TV ads on their digital devices, creating a synergistic effect that boosts digital engagement and conversions.
