What is Connected TV Advertising? A Complete Guide for 2025
TV isn’t what it used to be. Streaming services have completely changed how people watch and consume content. It’s more connected, more interactive, and a lot more measurable than the old cable days. This evolution has brought us Connected TV advertising (or CTV for short), and it’s a big deal for marketers.
CTV bridges the gap between traditional TV’s massive reach and digital advertising’s ability to target specific people. Streaming adoption hit record highs in 2025, and CTV has grown far beyond the basic pre-roll ads we’re used to. It’s now a mature, data-driven channel that offers the best of both worlds.
In this guide, we’ll outline what CTV advertising is, why advertisers need to pay attention, how it works, how to measure success, and tips for choosing a CTV partner. Let’s dive in.
What is CTV Advertising?
CTV is digital advertising that runs on streaming devices and platforms to show targeted ads to viewers. Unlike regular TV ads that blast out to everyone, CTV ads are built for the streaming environment. You can target specific audiences based on interests, location, demographics, and even household-level data.
CTV is a boon for marketers because:
- You can target people based on demographics, interests, location, and household data.
- You buy through real-time bidding or guaranteed deals using DSPs.
- You track performance with detailed metrics, with incremental reach being especially valuable.
What counts as CTV advertising?
Connected TV refers to any device that streams video content to your television. Streaming Devices like Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox, and PlayStation connect your TV to the internet and enable access to streaming apps. What makes them “connected” is the two-way data capability. They can receive content and send back data on viewing habits and engagement.
Streaming Platforms are the services delivering the content: Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube TV, and many others. Some are subscription-based with limited ads, others are free but ad-supported, and many offer both.
The biggest difference between traditional TV and CTV is the data layer. While cable or broadcast can only offer ratings, CTV knows exactly who’s watching what, when, and how they’re engaging, which lets advertisers target more precisely and measure results.
Why Advertisers Need to Pay Attention
Streaming has officially taken over
According to Nielsen data from April 2025, linear TV captured 45.3% of total viewing time, while streaming took 44.3%. When you factor in gaming and on-demand content, streaming now accounts for over half of all TV watching.
Linear TV still matters, especially in pharma, CPG, and automotive, and big events like sports, elections, and breaking news still draw huge audiences. But smart advertisers are pairing those moments with new digital strategies.
While many older viewers still watch linear TV, the reality is that a large and growing segment of the population can only be reached through streaming—cord-cutters, younger viewers, or people who never had cable to begin with.
Streaming is just more convenient
Streaming gives viewers total control. They can watch whatever they want, whenever they want, without being tied to a TV schedule. This on-demand flexibility has fundamentally changed how people think about TV.
Most platforms offer a mix of live and on-demand content, so viewers can catch a game live or binge a series later. AI-powered recommendation engines also suggest shows based on real preferences, not just popularity.
The data is actually good
CTV advertising combines Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) with digital data that includes things like purchase intent and buying behavior to choose which ads to serve individual consumers. This makes CTV more efficient because you’re not wasting money showing ads to people who aren’t in-market for your products.
Real-time data lets advertisers:
- See how campaigns are performing almost immediately.
- Double down on what’s working.
- Track views, clicks, conversions, and how many new audiences you’re reaching.
Creative formats actually do something
CTV offers interactive experiences that would be impossible on linear TV.
- QR codes let viewers scan with their phones to instantly learn more about products or claim offers.
- Interactive overlays provide additional product details when viewers choose to engage, respecting their decision to interact rather than forcing it.
- Click-to-buy functionality turns your TV into an elegant shopping experience where viewers can use their remote to purchase items they see in ads or save them for later.
Dynamic creative optimization also lets you tailor a base ad to show different products, offers, or messaging based on who’s watching. A car ad might highlight fuel efficiency for environmentally conscious viewers while emphasizing performance features for driving enthusiasts, all delivered in real time.
Shoppable ads merge entertainment and commerce and let viewers browse products, compare options, and complete purchases without ever leaving their streaming experience.
How Connected TV Advertising Works in 2025
Now that you understand what CTV is and why advertisers should pay attention, let’s discuss how it actually works.
Inventory: Buying attention, not just airtime
CTV inventory is purchased differently than traditional TV. Instead of buying time slots based on assumed demographics, you’re buying impressions against verified audience profiles, across live, on-demand, and streaming environments.
There are three main ways to buy:
- Open Exchanges: Real-time programmatic auctions across multiple publishers, great for reach and efficiency.
- Private Marketplaces (PMPs): Invite-only auctions with premium content offer more control and brand safety.
- Programmatic Guaranteed: A fixed-price, guaranteed-volume deal that combines the certainty of a traditional media buy with the automation of programmatic.
Audience: From known customers to new prospects
Once you’ve secured inventory, the next step is defining your audience. CTV targeting goes far beyond traditional TV’s age/gender estimates. You’re tapping into real-time, real-world data, often at the household or device level.
Start with first-party data: your CRM, email list, purchase history, or web behavior. Identity resolution matches that information to CTV viewers so you can serve ads to your actual customers, on the biggest screen in their home.
From there, you can scale using:
- Lookalike models: Built with AI to find viewers with similar traits and behaviors to your best customers.
- Third-party data: Target by streaming device, geography, interests, or in-market behavior.
- Contextual signals: Align ads with relevant content types—think fitness ads during wellness programming, or auto ads during sports.
The most effective campaigns start with high-intent segments and expand strategically, balancing precision with reach. This layered approach helps drive both performance and scale.
Delivery: Making every impression count
Once your audience is defined, CTV platforms use dynamic ad insertion to serve relevant ads in real time, whether someone’s watching live sports, bingeing a series, or catching up on-demand.
Here’s how it works:
- Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) places personalized ads into the content stream based on each viewer’s profile. This means no two households necessarily see the same ads, even during the same show.
- Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) is the technical engine behind it. Ads are stitched into the content at the server level, which speeds playback and prevents ad blockers. Viewers get a seamless, broadcast-quality experience without buffering or glitches.
This level of precision and delivery quality is unheard of in linear TV, where every viewer sees the same ad, no matter who they are.
CTV Advertising Metrics: What to Track and Why
When you’re running CTV campaigns, focus on the metrics that actually tie back to your business goals and help you make smarter decisions about budget allocation and optimization.
- Ad reach: How many unique people saw your ad. This tells you if you’re actually expanding your audience or just hitting the same people over and over.
- Impressions: Total times your ad was shown. Higher isn’t always better, you want to balance reach with frequency so you’re not annoying people.
- Video completion rate: What percentage of people watched your whole ad. If this number is low, your creative might not be engaging enough, or you’re targeting the wrong audience.
- Cost per completed view: How much you paid for each full view. This helps you understand the true cost of engaged viewing, not just impressions that people might skip.
- CPM: Cost to show your ad to 1,000 people. Use this to compare costs across different platforms and inventory types.
- Conversions: People who actually did something after seeing your ad like signed up, bought something, or downloaded your app. This is where you see if your campaign actually moved the needle.
- Incremental reach: New audience you reached that other media didn’t get. This is crucial for understanding CTV’s unique value in your media mix.
How to Choose the Right CTV Partner
Not all CTV platforms are created equal. Here’s what to look for if you’re considering adding CTV to your channel roster.
- Look for real identity resolution: Be wary of platforms that rely on cookies and probabilistic matching. You want deterministic identity resolution that connects the same person across devices using real, opted-in data. The best platforms have identity graphs built on hundreds of millions of consumer profiles, not just tracking pixels.
- Prioritize data quality and scale: Your partner should be able to extend your first-party data with behavioral, transactional, and location signals that get updated in real-time. Ask about their data refresh rates and how they maintain accuracy.
- Demand omnichannel capabilities: CTV works best as part of a unified strategy. Choose a platform that lets you activate omnichannel campaigns across CTV, desktop, mobile, email, and social from one place. Avoid partners that force you into data silos.
- Insist on built-in measurement: Look for platforms with measurement and attribution baked into their core system, not bolted on later. You want cross-device attribution, incremental reach analysis, and real-time reporting that lets you optimize while campaigns are running.
- Evaluate their AI and technology: There’s a big difference between platforms that bought AI technology and those that built it from the ground up. Ask about their approach to audience creation, campaign optimization, and agentic capabilities.
- Check inventory quality: Your partner should have direct relationships with premium publishers, multiple buying options (open exchanges, PMPs, programmatic guaranteed), and strong brand safety measures.
Where TV Advertising is Headed
Connected TV is the next evolution of TV advertising. It offers the emotional storytelling of traditional TV with the targeting and measurement of digital. As more viewers cut the cord and streaming continues to grow, CTV gives businesses of any size a powerful way to reach real, engaged audiences.
Ready to get started with CTV advertising?
Zeta’s AI-powered marketing platform delivers targeted reach at scale across devices using deterministic data with premium content and supply. Our unified platform combines identity resolution, real-time optimization, and omnichannel activation to help you achieve better campaign performance and measurable ROI.
Request a demo today to explore CTV, or learn more about the our AI-powered marketing platform.
