How Greenlight Went from Invisible to Inevitable on TV
Growth Spotlight
From App to Airwaves
How Greenlight Went from Invisible to Inevitable on TV
Greenlight built its early growth almost entirely on Meta and Google — two channels that together accounted for roughly 95% of media spend. For a new, mobile app trying to drive downloads, it made sense. But as the company matured and competition for the same audiences intensified, the math started to strain. Meta's targeting in the financial category had become increasingly opaque, and the team was hitting a ceiling on how far paid social and search could take them.
It was challenging to convince a performance-first organization to invest in a channel that didn't come with a clear last-click attribution model. TV felt risky. But when Greenlight looked at what was actually happening to their other channels when they started testing TV, the picture changed. Customer acquisition cost improved on Meta. Bid prices came down. Retargeting pools grew. These became the internal proof points the team needed to scale.
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Increase in 1st Touch Attribution%
Lift in Meta Registrations Where CTV RanCampaign Objectives
Break the Single-Channel Dependency
Reduce reliance on Meta and Google (which together made up ~95% of spend) and build reach across channels that competitors couldn't bid away.
Reach Families That Digital Couldn't Find
Target parents with precision by tapping into placements where Greenlight's core audience was watching but existing digital buys couldn't reach them.
Prove TV's Impact in Performance Terms
Build the measurement infrastructure to connect TV impressions to real outcomes so the executive team could invest with confidence.
Solution
With Tatari’s help, Greenlight built their TV strategy in deliberate phases. They started with linear in 2020, focusing on efficiency and baseline performance signals before gradually expanding into broadcast, syndication, and CTV. The biggest breakthrough came when they added streaming. Using Tatari's audience overlap tooling, the team discovered that some streaming placements, including Disney, had less than 2% duplication with their existing linear buy. Streaming was finding families the brand had never touched before.
To prove it, Greenlight ran a geo-based incrementality test with Disney, isolating exposed markets from matched controls. The results landed across every channel: a 5% lift in parent registrations, a 5x increase in first-touch attribution, and — without Meta changing a single setting — a 4% lift in reach, 8% lift in web traffic, 10% lift in funnel starts, and 14% lift in registrations in markets where Disney ran. Measurement became a core competency built on Tatari's infrastructure and layered with media mix modeling, giving the team multiple lenses on the same question so budget decisions are grounded in converging evidence.
"The minute I started pulling in my Meta team and my Google team, once we started uncovering the data, it was very, very impressive."
— Lauren Frame, Director of Growth and Brand Media, Greenlight
Results
TV is now a foundational channel in Greenlight's growth model. AdWords quality scores improved, the social retargeting pool grew, click-through rates increased, and brand awareness moved meaningfully. Greenlight's linear-to-streaming mix, which started near zero, is now approaching 50/50, and the incrementality framework built to justify the initial TV investment has since become the company standard for media decisions across all channels.
On the creative side, Greenlight is extending the playbook into AI — using it only for scenarios live production couldn't afford. An upcoming spot features real children describing what they'd do with money, with AI generating the fantastical visuals around authentic interviews. It captures imagination without replacing the human moments at the center of the brand.
"[TV] is not scary. You can be very quick, very data-driven. Define your plan, set your goals, start small, and scale. It's measurable — and TV makes the entire media mix better."
— Lauren Frame, Director of Growth and Brand Media, Greenlight