Over half of marketers shift holiday budgets to performance CTV advertising

The transition of connected TV from an awareness-only channel to a performance-driven tool reflects a broader industry demand for measurable return on ad spend. As marketers face pressure to prove revenue, they are integrating premium video with conversion tracking typically reserved for search and social. This evolution forces streaming platforms to improve their attribution tech stacks to compete for the 54% of marketers now prioritizing performance metrics. The use of AI agents to manage complex creative variations further suggests that manual campaign optimization is becoming obsolete during peak retail windows. Watch for whether Labor Day and October retail events see a permanent increase in CTV ad inventory pricing as holiday windows expand.

tvScientific operates in a rapidly intensifying competitive landscape where major platforms are racing to prove CTV can deliver lower-funnel results. YouTube spent seven months iterating on shoppable CTV formats after announcing them at Brandcast, and the formats officially rolled out to all Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns via Google's Merchant Center platform, with shopping ads also becoming available through DV360. Romana Pawar, YouTube's senior director of product management for ads, reported that including QR codes in CTV ads increased conversions by more than 100%, and extending campaigns to TV screens helped advertisers reach net-new customers who only watch YouTube on connected devices. This expansion of shoppable formats across YouTube's CTV surface directly validates the thesis behind the tvScientific and Pinterest report: marketers want conversion-level accountability from premium video.

The business infrastructure supporting performance CTV is maturing through standards work and platform partnerships. The IAB Tech Lab released a comprehensive CTV ad portfolio and guidance in December 2025 as part of its Ad Format Hero initiative, classifying interactive formats including pause ads, shoppable buttons, and QR codes with best practices for VAST-supported environments. Meanwhile, Samsung became the first external CTV device partner to integrate Amazon's Interactive Video Ad technology into Samsung TV Plus, launching remote-control-clickable shoppable formats in July 2026 with direct Add to Cart functionality for Amazon marketplace sellers. Samsung reported that interactive ads on its platform drive 17% more engagement compared to other CTV ad environments, and the company's 100 million monthly active users on Samsung TV Plus give advertisers scale that was previously unavailable for performance-oriented CTV campaigns.

AI-driven creative and measurement tools are becoming table stakes for performance CTV at scale, reinforcing the tvScientific report's findings on AI integration for holiday campaigns. The IAB's 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy report found that nearly two-thirds of buyers now use generative AI for digital video creative, up from half in 2025, with one-third of ad assets leveraging GenAI this year, a share projected to reach 43% by 2027. Comcast unveiled its Outcomes+ solution at the NewFronts, combining deterministic TV-viewing data with AI-powered tools and new partnerships with Mastercard, Sojern, and Disqo to measure outcomes across the funnel. Tubi expanded measurement partnerships with InMarket for direct sales attribution and Kochava for ticket-sale conversion tracking through Fandango, positioning the second-largest free ad-supported VOD platform behind YouTube to compete for performance budgets that streaming TV effectiveness data shows are growing.