How contextual targeting doubled Super Bowl ad ROI last year

Integral Ad Science today released a guide documenting performance data from Super Bowl LVIII that shows contextual targeting campaigns achieved substantially higher returns than traditional advertising approaches. The measurement company's analysis demonstrated that campaigns leveraging contextual targeting during the 2025 game achieved 102% increased return on investment compared to overall averages, alongside a 136% increase in success rate measured through clicks and conversions.

The data arrives as advertisers prepare for Super Bowl LX, scheduled for February 9, 2026. Consumer spending around last year's Super Bowl reached $18.6 billion across food, drinks, apparel, décor, and related items, according to National Retail Federation figures cited in the guide. More than 127 million viewers watched Super Bowl LIX, establishing the game as advertising's largest single-day audience opportunity.

Traffic patterns from the 2025 season reveal significant momentum building before game day. Super Bowl-related content captured 1.3% of all traffic on February 10, 2025—the day before the game—representing approximately 131 million impressions in a single day. Traffic data shows steady baseline engagement throughout January before spiking dramatically in the final days preceding kickoff.

The performance improvements during Super Bowl LVIII extended beyond return on investment metrics. Campaigns using Integral Ad Science's Context Control Targeting segment experienced a 47% decrease in cost per conversion compared to overall campaign averages. This combination of reduced costs and increased returns positions contextual targeting as a performance multiplier for major event advertising.

Contextual targeting technology has gained adoption as advertisers navigate privacy restrictions and the deprecation of third-party cookies. The approach analyzes content characteristics to place advertisements alongside relevant material without relying on individual user tracking. Integral Ad Science's system uses predictive science to pre-screen and categorize pages, employing advanced emotion and sentiment detection to identify content alignment opportunities.

The methodology differs fundamentally from demographic or behavioral targeting approaches. Rather than building profiles of individual users, contextual systems evaluate the immediate content environment where advertisements appear. This enables advertisers to reach audiences when they are actively engaged with specific topics, potentially increasing receptiveness to related commercial messages.

Automation capabilities amplify contextual targeting performance through artificial intelligence-powered optimization. Integral Ad Science's Dynamic Performance Profiles feature automatically identifies and activates effective contextual segments during campaign execution. Advertisers using Dynamic Performance Profiles during Super Bowl campaigns achieved a 22% lift in conversions while experiencing a 20% reduction in cost per conversion.

The automation represents broader industry patterns toward AI-driven campaign management. According to data cited in the guide, 94% of industries including consumer packaged goods, travel, and retail now use artificial intelligence-driven personalization to improve efficiency and return on investment. Within the CPG sector specifically, 96% of advertisers rely on AI systems to plan and execute advertising initiatives.

Super Bowl LX presents specific targeting opportunities through curated contextual segments. Integral Ad Science's guide details 19 pre-built targeting categories designed for the 2026 game, organized across content themes relevant to Super Bowl viewership. These include segments focused on NFL kickoff content, online betting and gambling, salty snacks, spirits, brand sports movies and books, meat products, pay-per-view services, and movie and television enthusiasts.

Additional targeting options cover consumer electronics categories including television, smart TV, smartphones, and tablets. Automotive segments target sport car and SUV content. Food and beverage categories extend to beer and soft drinks. Entertainment segments address sports events and sports enthusiasts more broadly. The full segment list provides advertisers with specific identifier codes for implementation within demand-side platforms.

The segment categorization reflects content consumption patterns surrounding major sporting events. Viewers engage with preparation content including food and beverage planning, merchandise purchasing, and technology upgrades for viewing experiences. This creates advertising opportunities extending several weeks before game day rather than concentrating exclusively on the event itself.

Connected television advertising has emerged as a primary channel for Super Bowl campaigns as viewing patterns shift toward streaming platforms. Recent research from Gracenote found that CTV's share of media budgets is projected to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025. However, contextual targeting at the program level received only 9.2% prioritization from media executives despite documented effectiveness advantages.

Integral Ad Science operates the Context Control Targeting system through partnerships with major demand-side platforms. Advertisers activate segments by applying specific identifier codes within campaign targeting parameters. The Super Bowl segment for 2026 carries identifier 3005189 within the IAS system. Implementation requires existing relationships with Total Visibility customers or partnership arrangements with Integral Ad Science representatives.

The measurement company's approach addresses performance challenges that emerged in previous research. A survey conducted by Gracenote between July 10-20, 2025, found that 32% of respondents consider their CTV advertising "not very effective", with only 27.8% rating it extremely effective. The disconnect stems partly from strategic misalignment between campaign objectives and execution tactics, particularly the reliance on narrow audience-based targeting methods better suited for performance marketing rather than brand awareness.

Performance marketing increasingly depends on contextual signals as identifier coverage declines across digital advertising environments. Research from Comscore released January 21, 2025, revealed that 54% of mobile impressions lack identifier coverage, while 36% of desktop impressions operate without traditional tracking capabilities. In response, 41% of marketers prioritize contextual targeting as their primary solution, slightly outpacing first-party data strategies at 40%.

Major advertising platforms have expanded contextual capabilities throughout 2024 and 2025. Amazon's contextual targeting system processes over 8.5 terabytes of webpage data daily according to a technical paper released February 11, 2025. Internal tests demonstrated that contextually targeted impressions increased 1.3 times compared to targeting based on advertising identifiers, while bid requests without ad IDs converted twice as frequently on content-rich pages versus less substantial ones.

The Super Bowl advertising opportunity extends across multiple consumer categories experiencing heightened activity during the weeks surrounding the game. Travel bookings increase as fans plan trips to host cities or travel for viewing parties. Consumer packaged goods manufacturers see elevated demand for snacks, beverages, and party supplies. Automotive advertisers target consumers making vehicle purchase decisions during the spring selling season. Technology companies promote television upgrades and streaming service subscriptions.

Category-specific performance data from Super Bowl LVIII shows variation in contextual targeting effectiveness across industries. Food and beverage campaigns demonstrated strong results across multiple segments, with salty snacks, spirits, meat products, beer, and soft drink targeting all included in the top-performing categories. This aligns with consumer spending patterns showing significant grocery and beverage purchases in the week before game day.

Sports and entertainment targeting segments captured audiences engaged with NFL content, pay-per-view services, sports movies, and general sports enthusiasm. These categories benefit from the concentrated attention surrounding the championship game as casual viewers increase their engagement with football content. Entertainment targeting extends beyond the game itself to capture the broader cultural moment including halftime show discussions and commercial reactions.

Consumer electronics targeting capitalizes on television upgrade cycles and streaming technology adoption. Viewers often purchase new televisions or upgrade streaming devices before major sporting events to improve their viewing experience. Smart TV and smartphone segments enable technology advertisers to reach consumers actively researching or comparing products during their consideration phase.

Automotive segments target sport car and SUV content in recognition of Super Bowl's traditional association with automotive advertising. Major manufacturers have historically used the game to launch vehicle models or brand campaigns, creating an environment where consumers expect automotive messaging and may be more receptive to it than in other contexts.

The measurement methodology underlying Integral Ad Science's performance claims relies on data collected from campaigns running during Super Bowl LVIII in February 2025. The analysis compared campaigns using the Super Bowl Context Control Targeting segment against overall campaign averages across the IAS Total Visibility platform. This baseline comparison approach measures relative performance improvement rather than absolute campaign effectiveness.

Cost per conversion metrics reflect the efficiency gains available through contextual targeting during high-traffic events. The 47% reduction in cost per conversion suggests that contextual campaigns reached audiences more likely to complete desired actions, whether measured through clicks, form submissions, purchases, or other conversion events defined by individual advertisers. Lower conversion costs enable budget reallocation toward additional reach or frequency.

Success rate improvements of 136% indicate that contextually targeted campaigns generated substantially more clicks and conversions per impression than campaigns using alternative targeting methods. This performance differential reflects the alignment between advertisement content and the immediate viewing context, potentially reducing banner blindness and increasing message relevance.

The automation features provided through Dynamic Performance Profiles address operational complexity in managing contextual campaigns across multiple segments. Rather than requiring advertisers to test individual segments manually, the AI-powered system evaluates performance in real time and shifts budget toward the highest-performing categories. This reduces the testing timeline while potentially improving results through more granular optimization than human operators could achieve manually.

Industry adoption of AI-powered contextual systems reflects broader patterns in advertising automation. Major platforms have introduced agent-based systems that accept natural language instructions and execute complex campaign workflows. Amazon launched Ads Agent on November 11, 2025, enabling advertisers to create campaigns through conversational commands. Meta expanded AI optimization for app and gaming campaigns in November 2025, achieving 29% higher return on ad spend for advertisers using value optimization features.

The Super Bowl LX opportunity arrives during the final weeks of Q1 2026, a period when many advertisers have remaining budget to deploy before fiscal year transitions. The concentrated viewership creates conditions for rapid campaign learning, as advertisers can accumulate statistically significant impression volumes within days rather than weeks. This accelerated feedback enables faster optimization cycles and potentially higher returns than campaigns distributed across longer timeframes.

Geographic considerations affect Super Bowl advertising strategies differently than other major events. While the game attracts national viewership, local markets around competing teams experience elevated engagement extending several weeks before kickoff. Host city markets see increased activity around hospitality, transportation, and entertainment related to the influx of visitors. These geographic patterns create opportunities for localized contextual targeting beyond national campaign approaches.

Integral Ad Science positions its measurement capabilities as differentiating factors in contextual campaign execution. The Total Visibility platform provides verification of advertisement viewability, brand safety, and fraud prevention alongside contextual targeting capabilities. This combination addresses advertiser concerns about where their messages appear within the open web while maintaining performance optimization through AI-powered segment selection.

The guide's release timing—more than three weeks before Super Bowl LX—provides advertisers with planning windows to implement contextual targeting strategies. Campaign setup, creative development, segment testing, and budget allocation all require lead time before major events. Advertisers beginning implementation immediately can conduct pre-event testing to validate segment performance before traffic volumes spike in early February.

Contextual targeting's documented performance advantages during Super Bowl LVIII establish benchmarks for 2026 campaign planning. The 102% ROI improvement, 47% cost per conversion reduction, and 136% success rate increase provide concrete metrics that justify contextual investment over alternative targeting approaches. These performance differentials become particularly significant during high-cost events where impression prices reflect premium inventory demand.

The measurement framework underlying these claims warrants examination for proper context. Campaign comparisons rely on aggregate platform data rather than controlled experiments with randomized assignment. Advertisers using contextual targeting may differ systematically from those using alternative approaches in ways that affect performance beyond targeting methodology alone. Creative quality, brand strength, product-market fit, and landing page optimization all influence conversion rates independent of targeting precision.

Attribution windows determine which consumer actions count toward conversion metrics and success rates. Shorter attribution periods capture only immediate responses, while longer windows credit delayed conversions that may result from multiple exposures across channels. The guide does not specify attribution methodologies used in calculating the reported performance improvements, leaving ambiguity about whether measured effects persist beyond initial engagement.

Cost per conversion reductions depend partly on baseline conversion rates and cost structures specific to individual campaigns. Advertisers already achieving low conversion costs may find limited room for additional improvement through contextual targeting, while those with higher baseline costs could experience larger absolute gains. The 47% reduction represents an average across campaigns with varying starting conditions and optimization maturity.

The competitive dynamics surrounding Super Bowl advertising affect contextual targeting effectiveness through supply and demand mechanisms. As more advertisers adopt contextual approaches for major events, auction competition for contextually relevant inventory intensifies. This increased demand pressure can erode cost advantages that early adopters experienced during previous campaigns when contextual adoption remained limited.

Creative considerations interact with contextual targeting performance in ways that extend beyond segment selection alone. Advertisements must resonate with the emotional and thematic characteristics of Super Bowl content to maximize contextual alignment benefits. Generic creative assets may underperform relative to messages specifically crafted for the sports entertainment context, food and beverage consumption occasions, or social viewing experiences associated with the event.

Timeline

• January 12, 2026: Integral Ad Science releases Super Bowl LX contextual targeting guide
• February 10, 2025: Super Bowl-related content captured 1.3% of all traffic, representing approximately 131 million impressions in single day before game
• February 9, 2025: Super Bowl LVIII drew more than 127 million viewers
• February 11, 2025: Amazon published technical paper on AI-powered contextual targeting processing 8.5TB of webpage data daily
• November 11, 2025: Amazon launched Ads Agent for automated campaign management with natural language processing
• October 1, 2025: LiveRamp introduced agentic orchestration capabilities for autonomous AI agent access to identity resolution tools
• August 20, 2025: Viant integrated with Wurl for scene-level CTV targeting capabilities
• December 4, 2025: Nielsen's Gracenote launched Content Connect platform for program-level advertising targeting
• October 4, 2025: Gracenote research highlighted contextual targeting gap in CTV advertising with only 9.2% prioritization

Summary

Who: Integral Ad Science, a measurement and verification company, released performance data for contextual targeting campaigns during Super Bowl advertising. The guide targets advertisers, agencies, and media buyers planning campaigns for Super Bowl LX scheduled for February 9, 2026.

What: Analysis of Super Bowl LVIII campaigns demonstrated that contextual targeting achieved 102% increased return on investment, 136% higher success rates measured through clicks and conversions, and 47% reduction in cost per conversion compared to overall campaign averages. The guide provides 19 pre-built contextual targeting segments for Super Bowl LX across categories including NFL content, gambling, food and beverage, consumer electronics, automotive, and entertainment. Dynamic Performance Profiles automation delivered 22% conversion lift and 20% cost per conversion reduction through AI-powered segment optimization.

When: Integral Ad Science released the guide on January 12, 2026. Performance data derives from Super Bowl LVIII campaigns in February 2025, when traffic reached 1.3% of all impressions on the day before the game. Super Bowl LX is scheduled for February 9, 2026.

Where: The contextual targeting capabilities operate across connected television, streaming audio, display advertising, and video environments through partnerships with major demand-side platforms. Super Bowl viewership exceeds 127 million viewers nationally, with consumer spending around the event reaching $18.6 billion in 2025.

Why: The guide matters for marketing professionals because it documents substantial performance improvements available through contextual targeting during high-value advertising events. As privacy regulations limit identifier-based targeting—with 54% of mobile impressions lacking identifier coverage and 36% of desktop impressions operating without traditional tracking—contextual approaches provide performance-oriented alternatives. The 102% ROI increase and 47% cost reduction represent significant efficiency gains during premium inventory windows when impression costs reflect competitive demand. Industry adoption of contextual methods has accelerated as advertisers seek targeting solutions compatible with privacy-first environments.