Myth: CTV is just a shinier version of linear TV: good for branding, bad for performance.
Reality: CTV has precision targeting, audience intelligence, and interactive capabilities you rely on plus a bigger screen, longer attention, and fresher audiences.
For years, mobile in-app has been the workhorse of performance campaigns. And yes, it works. But if you’re still running all your performance spend solely through in-app, you’re playing in the same game as everyone else – complete with the same audience fatigue, shrinking attention, and rising acquisition costs.
It’s time to complement your in-app strategy with a new growth channel. And good news: it’s also the biggest and most engaged screen in the house.
CTV is not your parents’ TV
Linear TV targets based on programs and schedules. For example, if you bought ad time on a baseball game, you were targeting “baseball fans.”
But audience reality is more nuanced. Two baseball fans can have very different purchase behaviors. And when I watch Wednesday this week with my wife and 10-year-old daughter, we’re clearly three very different audiences. A show-based buy treats us as all as one and the same.
CTV changes that. It lets you go beyond “this is the show that’s running” to use data signals and contextual intelligence to ensure you reach your ideal audience.
Target like you do on mobile, but bigger
In mobile, you don’t just target people based on the app they’re using. You layer in data signals and audience intelligence to refine your targeting. And everything you love about that approach is possible on CTV:
Household graphs to connect devices and viewing behaviors
Device-level insights from mobile to enhance CTV targeting
Cross-screen retargeting to reach audiences wherever they engage
Contextual targeting to match ads with the right content tone and theme
And what’s really great about this granular targeting is that consumers love it too. According to a recent study, 71% of CTV viewers want TV ads to be personalized to their preferences, and 69% want the ads to be relevant to what they’re watching.
When people watch CTV, the sound is up, they get it on a bigger screen, with bigger attention windows, and without the ad fatigue of in-app. Their eyes and ears are perked, and that’s your opportunity. This isn’t about blasting ads to “viewers of a show.” It’s about building intelligent audience segments and delivering your message when and where it’s most likely to convert.
Interactivity is now an expectation
Once, interactive ads were novel. Now, they’re table stakes.
The rise of generative AI has shown us that people don’t just want results, they want to guide their journey. They expect to be able to click, scan, or shop. CTV delivers that in a living-room setting where attention is locked in.
This year, 69% of CTV viewers want holiday TV ads to make it easier to buy the product. Features like QR codes and shoppable overlays make the path from impression to action mere seconds. You can move a viewer from watching a 30-second spot to adding a product to their cart without them ever leaving the couch.
And for performance marketers, that means turning lean-back viewing into lean-forward conversions.
Choose the right SSP
Not all SSPs are built to deliver performance on CTV. The difference comes down to how they target and the quality of the inventory they provide.
The right SSP partner should:
- Offer premium, brand-safe CTV inventory that keeps your ads in trusted environments
- Layer mobile data signals onto CTV buys to go beyond “show-based” targeting
- Enable true omnichannel reach so your audiences see a consistent story across mobile, CTV, and more
- Provide scale without fragmentation, so you’re not chasing pockets of inventory across multiple platforms
At Verve, we take the precision you’re used to in mobile and apply it to CTV. That means your campaigns don’t stop at “this is the program running.” CTV’s premium perception draws brand dollars. Now, those same channels can drive measurable performance, making every impression more likely to deliver your desired outcome.
Holiday season: The window is wide open
The time is now for performance marketers to embrace cross-screen marketing, synchronizing mobile and CTV campaigns for bigger outcomes. Marketers that combine both channels achieve higher recall, conversion rates, and ROAS, leveraging CTV’s attention with mobile’s interactive and follow-up capabilities.
Over 56% of online holiday shopping will be done via mobile.
93% of CTV viewers shop on other devices while watching TV.
59% of CTV viewers find CTV ads helpful for holiday shopping.
The holidays are prime CTV time. Screens are on more hours per day, families are gathered, and purchase intent is high.
If you wait, you’ll be fighting for the same over-saturated mobile impressions as every other performance advertiser. Move now, and you can own the biggest screen in the home before your competitors wake up to the opportunity.
CTV isn’t just “TV 2.0.” It’s a performance channel with premium environments, interactive potential, and fresh audiences. The question isn’t if you should test it, it’s why you haven’t already.
