Moment marketing is a rich new area of contextual advertising that entails the ability to synchronize online advertising (e.g., sponsored search) in real time with relevant offline events such as TV ads. Although 81% of surveyed digital marketers have launched moment marketing campaigns mostly using TV advertising as trigger events, very little is known about the instant impact of TV advertising on the effectiveness of sponsored search advertising.

We provide the first empirical evidence that TV-moment-based search advertising could be effective for optimizing sponsored search advertising for both TV-advertised brands and their competitors. We also document the mechanism driving cross-channel advertising effects. Specifically, TV advertising can “filter” the quality of online search traffic (e.g., who searches, where they search, and how they search) in the moments following a TV ad, so that an average searcher responds differently to subsequent sponsored search results.

Therefore, our research findings suggest that, to design an effective coordination strategy between TV and search advertising, it is important to understand the heterogeneity in consumers' responsiveness to TV advertising across factors such as TV ad content, timing, keywords, demographics, location, and device. These factors can be leveraged for better customization and targeting in the search channel in real time.