Connected TV Advertising for Performance Marketers

Connected TV (CTV) advertising has moved from experimental line item to essential channel for performance marketers. As audiences shift their viewing habits from linear broadcast to streaming platforms, the advertising opportunity has followed. In Australia, over 70% of households now access at least one streaming service, and the introduction of ad-supported tiers on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Binge has opened up premium inventory that was previously unavailable to advertisers.

For performance marketers, CTV represents something genuinely new: television-quality reach combined with digital-grade targeting and measurement. But the channel comes with its own set of complexities. Programmatic buying on CTV works differently from display or social. Measurement is still maturing. And integrating CTV into a performance marketing stack requires rethinking how you attribute and optimise across channels.

This article provides a practical overview of CTV advertising for marketers who are used to thinking in terms of cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, and attribution windows. We cover how programmatic CTV buying works, what targeting options are available, the measurement challenges you need to navigate, and how to fit CTV into your broader media strategy.

What Is CTV and Why Does It Matter Now?

Connected TV refers to any television set connected to the internet that can stream digital content. This includes smart TVs, streaming devices like Chromecast, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire Stick, and gaming consoles. CTV advertising is the delivery of video ads to viewers watching content on these devices.

The distinction from linear TV is important. Linear television advertising is bought upfront, targeting broad demographics with limited measurement. CTV advertising is bought programmatically or through platform-specific buying tools, targeting specific audience segments with impression-level tracking.

The market has grown rapidly. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), CTV ad spend in Australia grew by over 30% year-on-year in 2025, and globally CTV ad revenue is projected to exceed USD 40 billion by 2027. The catalyst has been the proliferation of ad-supported streaming tiers. When Netflix launched its ad-supported plan in late 2022, it signalled that even the most subscription-focused platforms saw advertising as a core revenue stream. By 2026, most major streamers offer ad-supported options, giving advertisers access to premium, brand-safe content at scale.

For performance marketers specifically, the timing is right because the infrastructure has caught up with the opportunity. Programmatic buying, audience targeting, and measurement capabilities have all matured to the point where CTV can be evaluated with the same rigour you apply to search, social, and display.

How Programmatic CTV Buying Works

Programmatic CTV buying follows the same demand-side platform (DSP) model used in display and video advertising, but with several important differences.

Most CTV inventory is accessed through DSPs such as The Trade Desk, DV360 (Google's demand-side platform), or Amazon DSP. You set your targeting parameters, bid on available impressions, and serve ads to viewers on connected TV devices. The buying happens in real time, just as it does with programmatic display.

However, CTV inventory is more constrained than web-based inventory. There are fewer ad slots per viewing session, and premium content commands higher CPMs. Expect to pay significantly more per thousand impressions on CTV than on standard display or pre-roll video. Australian CPMs for CTV typically range from AUD 30 to AUD 65, compared to AUD 10 to AUD 25 for standard online video.

Private marketplace (PMP) deals are common in CTV. Many publishers prefer to sell their CTV inventory through invitation-only auctions rather than open exchanges, giving them more control over pricing and which advertisers appear alongside their content. Building relationships with publishers and DSPs to access PMP deals is often essential for getting the best inventory.

There are also direct buying options through platforms like YouTube (via Google Ads), Samsung Ads, and broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) platforms such as 9Now, 7plus, and 10 Play in Australia. These platforms offer their own targeting and measurement tools, and can be a good entry point for marketers new to CTV.

Audience Targeting on CTV

CTV targeting sits somewhere between the broad demographic reach of linear TV and the granular individual-level targeting of social and search advertising.

First-party data targeting is the most valuable option. You can upload customer lists, email databases, or CRM segments to your DSP or CTV platform and match them to household-level identifiers. This allows you to target existing customers for upsell campaigns or suppress them from prospecting activity.

Third-party audience segments are available through data providers integrated with major DSPs. These include demographic segments, interest categories, purchase behaviour data, and in-market signals. The quality and accuracy of third-party data varies, so test and validate before relying heavily on any single segment.

Contextual targeting lets you align your ads with specific content genres or programming types. You can target viewers watching sports, news, cooking shows, or specific content categories that align with your brand. This is particularly useful for brands where the viewing context reinforces the advertising message.

Geotargeting on CTV is available at the postcode and city level, which is useful for brands with regional offers or location-based businesses. Some platforms also support dayparting, allowing you to schedule ads during specific time windows.

One limitation to be aware of is that CTV targeting operates primarily at the household level, not the individual level. A connected TV is a shared device, so you are targeting the household rather than a specific person. This is less precise than mobile or desktop targeting, but it reflects the reality of how television is consumed.

Measurement Challenges and How to Navigate Them

Measurement is where CTV gets complicated for performance marketers. The channel does not fit neatly into the click-based attribution models that most digital marketers rely on.

The fundamental challenge is that CTV ads are not clickable in the way that display, search, or social ads are. A viewer watches your ad on their television but converts on their phone or laptop, often hours or days later. This makes direct click-through attribution impossible and creates a measurement gap that standard analytics tools struggle to bridge.

View-through attribution is the primary method for connecting CTV exposure to conversions. Your DSP or measurement partner tracks which households were exposed to your CTV ads, then matches those households to conversion events on your website or app. Attribution windows of 7 to 14 days are common.

Cross-device matching is essential for CTV measurement. Providers like LiveRamp, Oracle Data Cloud, and Experian offer identity resolution services that connect CTV device IDs to other devices within the same household. This allows you to track when someone sees an ad on the television and then converts on their mobile device.

Incrementality testing is the most reliable way to measure CTV's true impact. By running exposed and holdout groups and comparing conversion rates between them, you can isolate the causal effect of CTV advertising. This approach is more resource-intensive than standard attribution, but it provides the cleanest read on whether your CTV investment is driving incremental results.

Media mix modelling offers another perspective, particularly for brands running CTV alongside multiple other channels. By incorporating CTV spend and impression data into your media mix model, you can estimate its contribution to overall revenue and optimise your cross-channel budget allocation accordingly.

Be cautious with CTV measurement vendors who promise overly precise attribution. The reality is that CTV measurement involves probabilistic matching and household-level inference. It is directionally accurate, but it does not offer the same deterministic precision as search or social click-based tracking. Acknowledge these limitations and use multiple measurement approaches to triangulate the true impact.

Creative Considerations for CTV

CTV ads are consumed in a lean-back environment on a large screen. This is fundamentally different from the lean-forward, thumb-scrolling context of mobile social ads. Your creative needs to reflect that difference.

Production quality matters more on CTV than on most digital channels. Viewers are watching premium content on a television screen, and low-quality creative will stand out negatively. This does not mean you need a television commercial budget, but your ads should be well-produced, properly lit, and professionally edited.

Most CTV ad slots are 15 or 30 seconds. Unlike skippable YouTube ads, CTV ads are typically non-skippable, which means you have guaranteed attention for the full duration. Use that time wisely. Structure your ad with a clear narrative arc: hook, value proposition, and call to action.

Audio is critical on CTV. Unlike social video, where many viewers watch with sound off, CTV viewers almost always have audio enabled. Make sure your soundtrack, voiceover, and sound design are working hard to reinforce your message.

Include a clear call to action, even though the ad is not directly clickable. Direct viewers to a specific URL, tell them to search for your brand, or use a QR code. QR codes have seen a resurgence in CTV advertising because they allow viewers to engage immediately with their mobile device while the ad is still playing.

Integrating CTV into Your Performance Marketing Stack

The most effective way to use CTV is not as a standalone channel but as an integrated component of your broader performance marketing strategy.

At the top of the funnel, CTV delivers reach and awareness at a scale and quality that social and display cannot match. Use it to introduce your brand to new audiences with high-impact video creative. The household-level targeting ensures you are reaching relevant audiences, and the premium content environment lends credibility to your message.

In the middle of the funnel, CTV works as a powerful retargeting and reinforcement channel. You can retarget website visitors or CRM segments with CTV ads, keeping your brand top of mind during the consideration phase. This is particularly effective for high-consideration purchases where the decision process spans weeks or months.

At the bottom of the funnel, CTV's role is to nudge warm audiences toward conversion. Sequential messaging, where a viewer sees your brand story on CTV and then receives a direct-response ad on social or display, creates a coherent cross-channel experience that moves people from awareness to action.

The key integration point is audience data. Make sure your CTV platform, DSP, and digital advertising accounts are connected through a common identity layer. This allows you to build sequential audience journeys across devices and channels, and to measure the combined impact of your investment.

Start with a test budget. Allocate 10% to 15% of your video budget to CTV, run a controlled test over 8 to 12 weeks, and use incrementality measurement to evaluate the results. If CTV demonstrates incremental lift, scale gradually while maintaining measurement discipline.

What to Watch in CTV Advertising

The CTV landscape is evolving quickly. Several developments are worth monitoring as you build your strategy.

Shoppable CTV ads are emerging, allowing viewers to interact with ads directly from their remote control or by scanning a QR code. As these formats mature, they will blur the line between brand and performance advertising on the big screen.

Attention measurement is gaining traction as a complement to viewability. Companies like Adelaide and Lumen are developing attention metrics specific to CTV, giving advertisers a better understanding of whether their ads are actually being watched, not just served.

First-party data capabilities are expanding. Streaming platforms are building their own audience targeting products based on viewer behaviour data, which may eventually rival the targeting precision of walled-garden platforms like Meta and Google.

Privacy changes, including the deprecation of third-party cookies and tightening privacy regulations, are making first-party data and contextual targeting more important across all channels, including CTV. Brands that invest in building their first-party data assets now will have a significant advantage in CTV targeting and measurement.

Making CTV Work for Performance

CTV advertising is no longer a nice-to-have for forward-thinking brands. It is becoming a core component of the media mix for performance marketers who want to reach audiences where they are actually spending their time.

The channel is not without its challenges. Measurement requires more sophistication than click-based channels, creative production demands are higher, and CPMs mean you need to be strategic about budget allocation. But the trade-off is access to premium, high-attention inventory with targeting capabilities that linear television has never offered.

If you are ready to explore how CTV fits into your performance marketing strategy, our Paid Social team works with brands across Australia to plan, buy, and measure CTV campaigns alongside their digital media. Combined with our analytics and measurement capabilities, we help you understand CTV's true contribution to your business outcomes.