COST PER VISIT
A Non-Traditional Launch of a New Performance Model
Introducing a new way for advertisers to buy location-based media: pay for verified store visits, not impressions or clicks.
Role: VP Marketing at xAd (GroundTruth)
Scope: GTM • Product Positioning • Integrated Campaign • PR • Sales Enablement
Location advertising could show marketers whether campaigns drove people into stores, but the way media was bought still looked largely like traditional digital advertising: brands paid for impressions and clicks whether or not those interactions ultimately produced an in-store visit.
We had an opportunity to make the buying model match the business outcome advertisers actually cared about — foot traffic — while shifting more of the performance risk from the buyer to us.
The Challenge
Pay for the outcome, not the opportunity.
We introduced Cost Per Visit, a performance-based buying model where advertisers paid when an ad-exposed consumer made a verified visit to a physical location.
The product itself was new, but the bigger challenge was making the model immediately understandable. We positioned Cost Per Visit as a simple shift in accountability: if store visits are the goal, marketers should be able to buy against store visits.
The Idea
SALES ENABLEMENT
Making a new model easy to understand.
Cost Per Visit introduced a fundamentally different way to buy location media: instead of paying for ads and measuring store visits afterward, advertisers paid for verified visits themselves.
The challenge was making that shift feel simple rather than technical. We built the story around three ideas buyers already understood: accountability, reduced risk and measurable performance.
Pay for observed visits
No projections or panels. Advertisers paid when an exposed consumer actually visited a location.Shift the risk
Instead of the buyer absorbing the uncertainty of impressions, viewability and ad fraud, the performance accountability moved to xAd.Verify the outcome
Visits were authenticated by third-party measurement company Placed (acquired by Snap), giving the model an independent layer of credibility.
From impressions to outcomes.
The same narrative carried through the broader sales toolkit, giving teams a consistent way to explain what CPV was, why it mattered and how it changed the economics of location advertising -- from the first customer conversation through deeper product discussions.
The sales story.
LAUNCH CAMPAIGN
Making performance tangible.
Cost Per Visit was a new buying model, so we wanted the launch to do more than explain it. We wanted people to interact with the idea.
We built the campaign around scratch-off tickets mailed to media buyers and planners at advertising agencies. The format fit both the product and the audience: tactile, immediate and unexpected, while reinforcing the core promise of CPV: advertising tied to a real-world outcome.
Recipients scratched to reveal either a retail gift card or added media value for a future xAd campaign. That turned the launch into something participatory rather than passive and gave Sales a more memorable way to introduce a fundamentally different buying model.
Don’t leave store visits to chance.
Mail teaser: A physical gift designed to stand out on a media buyer’s desk and immediately signal this wasn’t another standard B2B mailer
Interactive scratch-off: Recipients scratched to win prizes or free store visits on their next campaign
Built to travel beyond the mailbox: Because the audience skewed younger and spent their time on social, the campaign included a built in sharing mechanic, encouraging recipients to post their scratch-offs using #xAdRealVisits.
TIER 1 PRESS & CONTENT AMPLIFICATION
The story traveled.
Cost Per Visit broke beyond the launch campaign, earning coverage across major advertising publications while supporting content helped deepen the industry conversation around a new performance model.
Cost Per Visit quickly moved from an industry-first idea to a commercially meaningful offering, giving advertisers a new way to buy media around verified store visits rather than impressions alone.
From new model to real adoption.
IMPACT
$2M+
Sales generated in the first calendar year
20+
Active brands in the first two months
60+
Repeat clients