The connected TV advertising market is booming, with spending projected to surpass traditional TV by 2028. But all those sophisticated targeting capabilities and premium ad formats that make CTV so appealing – could they actually be hurting advertisers’ bottom lines?
As marketers layer more bells and whistles onto their CTV campaigns – think audience targeting, content targeting, high-impact ad innovations – some think it becomes harder to justify the expense.
“We’re still not necessarily seeing the ROI equation play out as well in the CTV space compared to traditional linear,” said Marcy Greenberger, chief investment officer, UM Worldwide, in this video interview with Beet.TV. “The more that we add on to the cost, the more that you have to disproportionately deliver increased effectiveness in order to outweigh that and drive better outcomes.”
Attention becomes the differentiator
With CTV inventory proliferating and fragmentation accelerating, Greenberger said agencies must identify what separates one platform from another.
“Understanding what are the platforms and the content where people are paying the most attention, where they maybe have the most intent to watch something – that tends to be all of your live sports and events, which are becoming increasingly large piece of the CTV pie,” Greenberger said. Original programming at launch also commands high attention levels, she noted.
Beyond attention, contextual alignment and unique reach round out the key differentiators. “How do we find our audiences efficiently and effectively as possible?” Greenberger asked. “That means layering on your device buys, some of your broader buys to make sure that you’re really reaching that scale against the audiences that matter most to your business.”
Measurement remains fragmented
Despite CTV’s digital DNA, the industry has yet to establish a unified measurement standard. Greenberger described the current landscape as “somewhat limitless” but acknowledged significant gaps remain.
“At a basic level, using an ad server just to measure impressions is ultimately what we’re generally buying against,” she said. “But once you start to layer on different data sets… there’s different sources to be able to measure cross-screen reach, which is really important to understand within CTV.”
Measuring incrementality against linear television has become particularly valuable for advertisers seeking to understand CTV’s unique contribution. “I don’t know that we’ve fully cracked the code on what is like the true best measurement or sole primary measurement that everybody’s working off of,” Greenberger admitted.
The frequency problem demands programmatic solutions
Ad repetition remains a persistent pain point for viewers and a priority for agencies to manage. The average household now maintains between nine and eleven streaming subscriptions, compounding the challenge of controlling how often the same person sees an ad.
UM Worldwide has responded by shifting toward programmatic buying for CTV, including premium inventory. “Our upfront buys are being transacted programmatically so that we can manage frequency holistically,” Greenberger said, adding that direct buys with individual publishers limit frequency management to each platform in isolation.
“It’s the importance of knowing that the same person might be watching multiple platforms and how do we make sure we’re only reaching them the amount of times that’s effective,” she explained.
Interactive formats offer a path forward
While the ROI picture remains challenging, Greenberger sees promise in CTV’s interactive capabilities. Shoppable ads that allow viewers to add items directly to their carts or complete purchases represent a genuine advantage over traditional television.
“Although sometimes the engagement can be low, the promise is there,” she said. “Sometimes we can see it more quickly in terms of immediate engagement with something.”
Greenberger said she’s enthusiastic for the evolution of ad formats that have already become standard. “Even things that have been around and are ubiquitous now like pause ads, the ability to make them more interactive, the ability to make them more contextually targeted based on either the scene that you pause or the show that you’re watching, I think has the opportunity to really amplify the effectiveness and the impact of that ad,”
