Smartly and Roku bridge social and CTV media via direct API
Smartly has partnered with Roku to integrate its creative advertising and campaign management platform with Roku Ads Manager via a direct API connection. The partnership enables advertisers to easily extend existing social media advertising assets and performance strategies directly onto the Roku CTV platform. This integration aims to streamline hybrid social-CTV creative workflows and performance measurement.
Key Takeaways
- Direct API connection integrates Smartly's creative platform with Roku Ads Manager for streamlined campaign activation.
- Advertisers can adapt existing social media assets for the TV screen, eliminating the need for manual creative rebuilds.
- The partnership targets Roku's footprint in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, where it ranks as the top streaming platform by hours viewed.
- Integration enables shared performance measurement and precision targeting across both social and CTV environments.
Why It Matters
This integration moves Roku closer to the self-serve, automated model pioneered by social media giants. By lowering the creative and operational barriers for social-first advertisers, Roku is tapping into performance-driven budgets that have traditionally avoided the friction of TV buying. For the broader ecosystem, this signals a shift where CTV is treated as a high-velocity performance channel rather than a high-touch awareness medium. The direct API approach allows for real-time optimization and automated creative versioning that mimics the agility of Meta or TikTok. Watch for Roku’s reported ad-tier growth and advertiser count in Q3 to gauge the impact of this performance-focused expansion.
Additional Context
The partnership arrives as Roku aggressively pivots toward automated, outcomes-based monetization. Per PPC Land in June 2026, Roku reported $1.25 billion in total revenue for Q1 2026, with advertising revenue increasing 27% year-over-year to $613 million. Crucially, the company noted that the number of advertisers utilizing its Ads Manager self-serve platform more than doubled during that same quarter. This shift is supported by the Roku Ads API, a developer platform launched in November 2025 to give third-party ad tech firms direct access to Roku's first-party data and campaign tools without manual approval hurdles.
Smartly's move into the Roku ecosystem is part of a broader strategy to bridge the gap between social and streaming. Per industry reporting from June 2026, Smartly managed over $7 billion in annual ad spend and had previously integrated with Amazon DSP in early 2026 to offer similar cross-channel creative tools for Prime Video and Twitch. These initiatives address a persistent industry bottleneck: per July 2025 research from EMARKETER, roughly 72% of marketers simply repurpose social assets for CTV due to lack of specialized creative resources. By automating this adaptation, platforms like Roku and Smartly are competing for the $32 billion U.S. CTV ad market, which is projected to grow as linear TV spend continues its double-digit decline.
Read full article at businesswire.com
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