Marketers should know that relying solely on programmatic buys for Connected TV (CTV) severely limits reach. This method only taps into a small fraction of the available ad inventory, missing out on premium content like major live sports that must be purchased more directly.

While useful for programmatic CTV, Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) were not designed for the entire TV ecosystem. They can only access about 20% of total available TV inventory, excluding the other 80% which includes crucial linear TV opportunities like live sports and premium broadcasts.

Start TV advertising by proving performance with metrics like CPA. As budget grows, shift to optimizing creative and channel mix. At the enterprise level (e.g., $1M/month), focus on maximizing broader business impact with brand-centric metrics like incremental reach and awareness.

Programmatic ad buying, standard in digital, doesn't work well for TV. The market is too concentrated, with ~90% of inventory controlled by just 10 major publishers. This makes direct integrations and relationships far more effective and efficient than automated, auction-based programmatic systems.

Focusing exclusively on programmatic buying for CTV is a critical error, as it represents only 7% of all ad-supported TV inventory. This siloed approach misses the vast scale of linear and direct-publisher streaming, while often incurring higher CPMs and limiting a campaign's total reach and efficiency.

Traditional linear TV still commands about half of all viewership and ad inventory. Crucially, major live cultural moments like the NBA playoffs are sold as linear buys, even when viewed on streaming services like Hulu Live. A streaming-only strategy forfeits this premium inventory.

Corporate marketing often rewards media agencies for efficiency (low CPMs), but this is a false economy. Cheaper media is often low-quality, poorly placed, and unseen. The focus must shift from efficiency to effectiveness—paying for actual impact.

To accurately measure TV's impact, bootstrap-minded brands should avoid letting platforms "grade their own homework." Implement independent measurement tools like post-purchase surveys, media mix models, and incrementality tests to get a true picture of performance beyond vanity metrics provided by the ad platform.

The next major shift in ad tech is performance-based CTV. This merges the attention of linear TV with the accountability of digital media, allowing advertisers to tie ad spend directly to outcomes like sales—a revolutionary change from traditional television's limitations.