Positioning itself as friend, not foe to the TV industry, Facebook is tapping the Target Rating Points metric to measure reach, efficiency and effectiveness of combined TV-Facebook video ad campaigns.

Facebook said advertisers can use TRPs to plan a combined TV-Facebook campaign and buy a share of TRPs with Facebook. Nielsen’s Digital AdRatings will verify Facebook’s in-target TRPs and Nielsen’s Total Ad Ratings will verify the total TRPs.

As support for the TRP approach, Facebook shared highlights of custom Nielsen research it commissioned, which looked at 42 US campaigns that combined TV-Facebook ads. Nielsen found that advertisers experienced a 19% increase in targeted reach for combined campaigns vs. TV-only campaigns (and 37% increase for millennials only). Nielsen also found Facebook ads were twice as likely to hit their target audience than TV impressions.

Nielsen also looked at 7 recent campaigns, finding that people who saw a combined TV-Facebook campaign had a 3.2% increase in ad memorability, 11.5% increase in brand linkage and 22.7% increase in likability linkage.

In positioning itself as complementary to TV, Facebook is following on a line of thinking that’s been around the ad industry for a while. For example, back in January, 2012, YuMe and Nielsen released similar research pointing to improved reach, reduced cost per impression and enhanced frequency when combining TV and online video ad campaigns.

Last year, I wrote that it was time to put the silly “vs.” assertion aside and recognize that often combined campaigns are the savviest approach. Despite declining ratings, TV is still an incredibly powerful advertising medium. However, with the rapid adoption of digital media, smart advertisers recognize accessing audiences online is critical as well. Learning to master the combination is a critical industry challenge.