TV Ads Made You Google It 

By Sophie Herinckx

“Insider Voice” offers expert perspectives from our team on key trends and challenges in media and advertising. Through this series, you’ll gain actionable insights and forward-thinking predictions on topics ranging from AdTech advancements to the impact of emerging technologies on audience engagement and revenue models.

In a crowded marketplace, Australian sellers and broadcasters alike must find ways to cut through the noise, build lasting brand equity, and spark actionable interest. Television advertising remains one of the most powerful drivers of awareness—while search completes the journey, turning viewers into active seekers of your products and services. By combining TV’s unrivaled reach with the precision of search, advertisers can deliver truly cross-platform campaigns that resonate across screens and search engines alike. 

TV Advertising Drives Search Behaviour in Australia 

Television continues to command Australians’ attention and shape their purchase journeys. When viewers see a compelling TV spot, they don’t just remember the brand—they often “Google it” afterwards. 

• hipages — After rolling out a national TV campaign, the trades-matching platform saw a 35% increase in new jobs from branded searches. Aided brand awareness climbed from 27% to 37%, and consideration rose from 17% to 24%, with gains sustained for six months. 

• Intrepid Travel — By shifting to a 50/50 split between brand-building TV and performance channels, the adventure-tour operator achieved a 68% lift in bookings and a 41% jump in online revenue. 

• KOH — Bolstering TV investment alongside other traditional media delivered a 115% year-on-year surge in direct traffic and a 32% uplift in aided brand awareness quarter-over-quarter. 

These real-world success stories underline TV’s ability to ignite consumer interest—fueling subsequent search activity that digital-only campaigns often struggle to match. 

Search Advertising: Amplifying Intent with Brand Familiarity 

In 2024, Australian businesses poured A$7.2 billion into search and directory advertising—a 10.1% uplift year-over-year. Google Ads alone generated around A$2 billion in local revenue, underscoring search’s dominant role in capturing intent-driven consumers. 

Yet, the performance of paid search is tightly linked to prior brand exposure: 

• Brand recognition drives click-through: research from Epsilon shows 60% of consumers engage with ads from familiar brands, versus 37% motivated by immediate need. 

• Trust and recall: TV’s high-reach platform seeds familiarity, making branded keywords more cost-efficient and effective when those viewers later search. 

By priming audiences on-screen, TV advertising lays the groundwork for search campaigns to convert awareness into action—delivering stronger ROI across every dollar spent. 

TV and search are not competing channels—they’re complementary pillars of a unified marketing strategy.

Crafting Cross-Platform, Holistic Campaigns 

To maximise impact, Australian advertisers and broadcasters should weave TV and search into a single, seamless strategy: 

1. Synchronised Messaging 
   Align your TV creative with search ad copy and landing pages, ensuring consistent brand identity and call-to-action across both channels. 

2. Data-Driven Targeting 
   Leverage TV viewing data to inform keyword selection and bid strategies—focusing on regions, demographics, and time slots that delivered the strongest TV engagement. 

3. Attribution and Optimization 
   Implement multi-touch attribution models to track how TV exposure influences search behaviour. Use these insights to continually refine TV flight schedules and search budgets. 

4. Partnerships with Broadcasters 
   Work hand-in-hand with TV networks and streaming platforms to unlock first-party audience data—feeding into your search campaigns for precision retargeting and look-alike modelling. 

For sellers and media professionals in Australia, the message is clear: TV and search are not competing channels—they’re complementary pillars of a unified marketing strategy. Television plants the seed of awareness on a national (and increasingly streaming) scale, while search captures intent and drives conversions at the moment of discovery. 

By integrating TV’s mass reach with search’s targeting power—supported by data, attribution, and close collaboration between advertisers and broadcasters—you’ll build stronger brands, amplify engagement, and unlock sustainable growth across every screen and search result.