What’s In and What’s Out for Retail Marketers in CTV — And What to Do About it

As consumer viewership continues to shift towards streaming, it’s clear the future of TV is digital. This digital future brings with it the critical need for retail marketers to make the most of their connected TV (CTV) advertising investments to drive conversions.

With the growth of streaming viewership, we’ve seen impressive investment from the sector. CTV impressions are up 70 percent since 2019 among retail advertisers, now accounting for over half (56 percent) of video impression share by device, according to Innovid’s analysis of our 380 billion video ad impressions in 2023.

So as TV advertising becomes increasingly CTV advertising — which enables interactivity and measurement in ways that linear TV is simply incapable of delivering — let’s take a closer look at what’s working for retail marketers, what’s not, and what they should do about it.

In: Leveraging Interactive Video Ads 

• As the CTV landscape continues to evolve, retail marketers have begun to take advantage of innovations like shoppable TV and QR codes to do more than reach audiences. With interactive ads, brands can actually drive engagement and outcomes. The investment in these advanced ad formats is both literally and figuratively paying off.
• Innovid’s data shows that interactive video formats outperformed other video formats. For instance, interactive CTV ads deliver a clickthrough rate 2.7x higher than standard video ads. Ultimately, consumers are engaging with these interactive formats across platforms and devices (which means more opportunities for retail marketers to retarget across the media mix).

Out: Not Reaching Audiences at Scale (Without Oversaturating Them With Your Messaging)

• CTV enables measurement of reach and frequency of campaigns like never before. Our data shows that the average unique reach for retail advertising campaigns in 2023 was 9.95 percent, while global average unique reach was 20.16 percent. And while these investments in CTV highlight innovative progress for retail marketers, this data indicates that retail marketers may not be effectively scaling their reach of streaming viewers — many of whom cannot be reached via traditional linear TV.
• Household reach for the average retail advertising campaign is 7.17, just below the average reach of 7.42 for all advertising campaigns, according to Innovid data. With a slight increase in investment, retail marketers in the aggregate can increase their household frequency (without oversaturation), which is a key pathway to driving outcomes.

In: Keep Tapping Your Tech Partners for Insights and Innovation

• The future of TV is bright, and retail marketers need to lean on their tech partners to help them do what they do best — foster awareness, produce reach, generate engagement, and drive outcomes.
• With the right tools and insights, retail marketers can arrive in interactive style on the biggest screens in the home, reaching and engaging the right audiences with the right messages at scale.

Sean Callahan is the director of content marketing at Innovid, an independent CTV advertising and measurement platform for the world's largest brands.