Roku social-first ad creative boosts purchase intent by 11 percent

The data validates a more efficient cross-platform creative strategy, allowing brands to bridge the gap between mobile-centric social feeds and the living room screen without expensive bespoke production. As CTV inventory expands, the ability to port high-performing social assets directly into streaming environments reduces friction for performance-oriented advertisers. This shift challenges the traditional divide between social and programmatic TV budgets, forcing agencies to integrate these previously siloed buying teams. Watch for whether other major hardware OEMs like Vizio or Samsung release similar attribution data to lure social-heavy budgets away from Meta and TikTok.

Roku has been building a body of research around its home screen ad format as a complement to traditional CTV video placements. In a Partner Intelligence Study conducted with Omnicom Media Intelligence, Roku found that home screen ads drive an 11 percent lift in purchase intent for new brands when paired with video ads, while established brands saw a 14 percent boost in recall. The study surveyed 900 streamers and concluded that the two formats amplify each other rather than cannibalize attention, with sequencing order also influencing outcomes. This positions the social-first creative research as part of a broader Roku effort to demonstrate that its home screen inventory is not a standalone impression but a multiplier within a CTV media plan. On the automation side, Roku has attracted third-party tooling that lowers the barrier for social-native advertisers to extend campaigns onto its platform. Smartly.io integrated its creative automation stack with Roku's ad platform, enabling brands to port social ad variations directly into CTV placements, the integration allows advertisers who already manage Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest campaigns through Smartly to push those same creative assets into Roku inventory without manual reformatting, which aligns with the Publicis Media Exchange finding that social-first assets perform well on the home screen without bespoke production. The Roku and Publicis Media Exchange study itself examined 652 adults aged 18 to 50 who streamed content and scrolled social feeds on their own devices. The research found that while social placements were rated more engaging, CTV placements of the same creative drove higher relevance and purchase intent, suggesting the larger screen environment compensates for the lower inherent engagement of the format. For advertisers allocating budget between social and streaming, this provides a data-backed argument for repurposing social media rather than rebuilding creative across channels as CTV advertising spend continues to climb, while CTV ad attention rates remain a key metric for performance.