Connected TV advertising trends and ROI

Early July reports highlighted the strong creative impact of Connected TV (CTV) formats—enhanced spots, pause‑ads, product‑spotlight units and QR‑embedded creatives generated multiple‑fold lifts in brand awareness, recall and purchase intent, while in‑store screen placements reached millions of adults and drove foot‑traffic.

A few days later, senior marketers indicated that the promising performance is translating into larger media budgets, with half of surveyed brands raising spend over the past year. Confidence in CTV measurement, however, remained limited; only about a third of respondents fully trust platform‑reported metrics, prompting calls for clearer attribution, fraud safeguards and proof of business outcomes.

By July 2026, impression volume in the United Kingdom rose 39 percent year‑on‑year and 35 percent across EMEA, underscoring accelerating streaming adoption and growing advertiser investment. The same period saw a 140 percent surge in global CTV fraud schemes, reinforcing the earlier demand for robust media‑quality protections. In response, Adobe Advertising announced an integration with Eyeota’s audience‑data marketplace, enabling CTV impressions to be linked to persistent, consent‑based identifiers and enriched with demographic and purchase‑signal attributes.

Late July reporting added that large brands can achieve 3‑5× ROAS, lower CAC and offline attribution for physical locations when robust measurement infrastructure—first‑party data, holdout testing and third‑party attribution—is deployed before campaigns launch. Media advertisers are prioritising verifiable ROI in earnings calls, shifting spend toward ad‑supported streaming platforms that provide transparent audience metrics. Networks are upgrading technology, forming data partnerships, expanding targeting and tightening brand‑safety controls, as future quarterly ad dollars will hinge on auditable performance data.