As Neuro scaled across DTC and TikTok Shop, Universal Ads (CTV) became an increasingly important part of its upper-funnel strategy. But platform reporting alone couldn’t answer the question that mattered most: Was CTV actually driving incremental growth?
To establish a causal baseline, Neuro partnered with WorkMagic to measure the true incremental impact of Universal Ads across its full commerce footprint. What the team uncovered reshaped how they evaluated CTV in their marketing mix.
“WorkMagic showed us that CTV was doing far more than driving DTC clicks. Seeing the halo effect across platforms is what made Universal Ads a successful additional to our media mix.”
About Neuro
Founded in 2015 by college friends Kent and Ryan, Neuro was built on resilience, performance, and scientific rigor. After a life-altering accident left Ryan paralyzed at 19, the two reconnected around a shared mission: creating a more sustainable way to fuel productivity.
Today, with over half a billion pieces of their functional chewing gum sold, Neuro continues to innovate (30+ product iterations), manufacture in FDA-approved labs, and give back 1% of everything to community causes. As the brand expanded across platforms towards CTV ads, its measurement strategy needed to evolve alongside it.
Answering the Question: Was CTV Actually Driving Incremental Growth?
CTV advertising with Universal Ads played an upper-funnel role in Neuro’s mix. But attribution reporting alone couldn’t answer the real business question:
What is the incremental contribution of Universal Ads across DTC and other sales platforms?
Without causal measurement, upper-funnel performance was consistently undervalued. Because Universal Ads aren’t clickable, platforms struggled to capture their impact, and cross-platform halo — particularly spillover to TikTok Shop — remained invisible in standard reporting. Without a reliable baseline beyond last-click attribution, the brand couldn’t properly quantify the channel’s true conversion strength.
Neuro needed clarity before scaling.
A Geo-Based Lift Test Across Commerce Platforms
Neuro partnered with WorkMagic to isolate the causal impact of Universal Ads through a matched-market geo lift test. A holdout group was established to create a true baseline, allowing the team to measure what performance would look like without exposure to CTV.
The test quantified incremental impact across both DTC and TikTok Shop, ensuring that cross-platform conversions were captured.
The channel’s metrics were then evaluated through the lens of incrementality, grounding the results in causal outcomes rather than platform-reported attribution.
WorkMagic Identified a 63% Halo Effect That DTC Reporting Missed
Within 5 weeks, Neuro had clarity.
Universal Ads had generated 6-figures in incremental revenue, with iROAS sitting at just under a 3× return per dollar spent. Beyond absolute efficiency, the channel also materially outperformed the broader media mix.
Compared to the portfolio average, Universal Ads drove 47% higher ROAS, reinforcing the fact that CTV was outperforming the rest of the channels in Neurogum’s marketing mix.
But the deeper story wasn’t just efficiency. It was where that revenue actually occurred.
When incremental sales were analyzed across platforms, only 37% occurred on DTC, while 63% of incremental sales had occurred on TikTok Shop — without cross-platform measurement, the majority of CTV’s contribution would have gone uncredited.
The test also revealed that Universal Ads were driving meaningful new customer growth. Of the incremental revenue driven by the CTV platform, more than one-third (36.1%) came from new customers.
This confirmed that CTV was not simply reinforcing existing demand — it was actively expanding Neuro’s customer base.
Most importantly, incrementality reframed efficiency. When performance was evaluated on DTC acquisitions alone, Universal Ads showed a $50+ cost per acquisition. However, once TikTok Shop halo was included, blended CPA fell by 68%, while iROAS was 169% higher.
In other words, DTC-only reporting materially overstated costs and understated return.
Measured holistically, Universal Ads delivered:
Just under 3× incremental ROAS
A 63% halo effect
Significant new customer contribution at 36.1% of incremental sales
Dramatically improved blended efficiency
For Neuro, the lift test replaced attribution ambiguity with business clarity. Universal Ads proved to be a halo-heavy, acquisition-oriented growth driver — and earned a validated role in the brand’s marketing mix.