Adwave launches Waverunner to automate small business streaming ad campaigns

The launch addresses a historical gap where small businesses, which spend an average of $78,000 annually on advertising, were priced out of streaming TV due to high production costs and agency retainers. By automating the creative-to-placement pipeline, Adwave is lowering the barrier to entry for the 36.2 million U.S. small businesses now looking to trade social media spend for high-impact CTV inventory. This move forces established self-serve platforms to integrate more sophisticated AI creative tools to retain local ad dollars. Watch for shifts in local TV ad revenue as SMB adoption of CTV—which grew 45% year-over-year in 2025—continues to accelerate through these automated entry points.

The rollout of Waverunner occurs as the U.S. streaming TV advertising market reaches critical mass. Per eMarketer in January 2026, domestic spend on connected TV (CTV) and streaming reached approximately $33 billion in 2025, a 16% increase over the previous year. This growth is significantly outperforming traditional linear TV, which saw ad spend fall 7% to $55 billion in the same period. This shift is driven by the increasing accessibility of programmatic buying; roughly 84% of CTV ads are now purchased programmatically, allowing budgets as low as $50 to compete for big-screen impressions once reserved for national brands.

Technological competition in this space is intensifying as AI moves from 'generation-only' to 'generate-and-execute' models. According to Synter reporting from June 2026, new creative automation tools are focusing on closing the loop between asset creation and API-driven delivery to solve the 'hidden tax' of manual uploads. While legacy platforms like Canva or Jasper focus on producing variants, the next wave of B2B tools prioritizes pushing finished assets directly into live accounts. This is essential for navigating updates like Meta’s Advantage+, which rewards high-volume creative diversity that matches specific ads to individual viewers rather than broad segments.

Institutional players are also pivoting to capture the long-tail SMB market. In May 2025, Comcast Advertising partnered with Waymark to launch its own AI creative platform, signaling that major cable and broadcast entities view AI-assisted production as a vital funnel for their local ad inventory. Current market data from Adwave identifies restaurants and home services as the leading SMB adopters, collectively accounting for over 40% of small business CTV spend in late 2025. As these businesses seek higher completion rates—averaging 92% on CTV compared to 65% on mobile—automated production remains the primary catalyst for migration.