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Connected TV ad spending in the US is projected to reach $37.95 billion in 2026. Programmatic CTV will account for more than 93% of that. As budgets grow, the connected TV platform that an agency selects can have significant downstream effects on everything from day-to-day efficiency, to campaign performance, to client confidence.
Agencies evaluating CTV platforms face several structural challenges: The channel is highly fragmented across dozens of streaming apps and publishers. Ad fraud is growing, with 57% of marketers who advertise on CTV now worrying that a significant portion of their spend is wasted due to fraud. And attribution remains difficult—especially when CTV drives awareness, but conversions occur later on different devices, often outside traditional click-based measurement frameworks.
When evaluating CTV platforms, agencies should look for premium inventory access within trusted streaming environments, AI-powered contextual targeting, multi-layered fraud prevention, comprehensive measurement that proves business impact, unified workflow integration, and strategic partnership that extends beyond a transactional vendor relationship.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to CTV inventory, quality matters more than raw reach alone. Agencies should evaluate platforms on premium publisher partnerships, household reach benchmarks, and controls that limit exposure to low-quality inventory.
A reliable CTV platform should maintain direct relationships with major streaming providers such as Hulu, ESPN, Roku, Disney+, and Amazon Fire TV. These relationships signal that the platform has passed publisher vetting and can access premium, ad-supported inventory. Additionally, access to supply-side platforms like FreeWheel provides programmatic access to broadcast and cable content through CTV devices.
Additionally, platforms that consolidate CTV inventory access within a broader omnichannel buying interface reduce the need for agencies to manage separate tools for each channel.
CTV platforms should also offer both open exchange inventory for scale and private marketplace (PMP) deals for quality control. Access to such inventorygives agencies flexibility to curate inventory lists per client, and it helps avoid made-for-advertising apps that lead to substantial wasted ad spending.
And, of course, programmatic guaranteed deals offer another option, combining traditional TV reach with programmatic targeting precision and more flexibility than upfront commitments.
A competitive CTV platform should provide at least 1,000+ targeting parameters, including device-specific targeting, demographic segmentation, behavioral data, geographic precision, and content category targeting.
Platforms should offer granular content-level reporting beyond app names. For instance, for sports inventory, agencies need the specific sport, teams, and location rather than generic "Sports" category. This enables tactical optimization and demonstrates brand-suitable placements to clients.
Agencies should also look for platforms that support the latest targeting capabilities. Take CTV contextual targeting: Historically, metadata was limited to broad categories like "Sports." But AI can now identify specific topics within shows, visual scenes, sentiment, and contextual relevance. This matters for performance—consumers pay nearly 4x more attention to contextually relevant CTV ads. AI-powered contextual ads delivered 300% higher aided brand recall and 2x unaided brand recall versus demographic targeting. CTV targeting solutions like IRIS.TV analyze content frame-by-frame to create contextual segments impossible through manual categorization. And platforms like Basis integrate IRIS.TV directly into their buying workflow, letting agencies activate contextual CTV segments without toggling between separate tools.
Finally, a strong CTV advertising platform will support first-party data activation and cross-device targeting. With privacy regulations tightening, contextual targeting based on content category, broadcast type, and device offers privacy-compliant alternatives to individual tracking.
CTV ad fraud is on the rise. In Q3 2025, 18% of programmatic CTV traffic in the US was invalid. In other words, nearly one in five “viewers” might have actually been a bot binge-watching your ads. The right platform prevents fraud through multiple protection layers:
Competitive CTV advertising platforms should track at least 80+ metrics across performance dimensions including video completion rate (VCR), reach and frequency, impressions delivered, cost per completed view (CPCV), and tactical performance breakdowns by app, device, and content category.
CTV ads consistently deliver high engagement. Completion rates approach 98%, with attention rates exceeding 50%, outperforming many other digital video formats. Because CTV inventory is inherently full-screen and viewable, agencies can focus measurement efforts on deeper performance indicators like completion rate by content category, frequency distribution, and cost per completed view.
Beyond baseline metrics, agencies need outcome-oriented measurement, including incrementality studies, brand lift analysis, and sentiment tracking. QR codes and cross-device signals help connect CTV exposure to downstream actions on mobile and desktop, filling common attribution gaps.
Platforms should also provide real-time performance dashboards, not just end-of-campaign reports. Automated reporting reduces manual work compiling data from multiple sources. Platforms that generate cross-channel reports from a single interface save agencies the most time here.
Last-click attribution models undervalue CTV because viewers typically see an ad on one screen and convert later on another device. Advanced platforms solve this through log-level data and IP-to-impression matching, connecting CTV exposure at household level to subsequent conversions.
This approach links CTV impressions to household IP addresses. When conversions occur later on other devices within the same household, those actions can be attributed back to CTV exposure. This requires detailed impression logs and timestamped conversion data, not modeled estimates alone.
The strongest approaches integrate CTV data with client CRM systems, tracking the full journey from exposure through conversions. Platforms should support multiple attribution models—such as linear, time-decay, and position-based—and not just last-click attribution.
Additionally, incrementality studies can measure what conversions wouldn't have happened without CTV exposure using holdout groups. This proves actual impact rather than correlation.
Then, to bring everything together visually, real-time dashboard access enables mid-campaign optimization. For instance, if attribution shows CTV driving strong assisted conversions in specific markets, then agencies can shift budgets toward those geos immediately.
Strong CTV results come from pairing platform capability with partnership: the technical infrastructure to close attribution gaps, combined with the research and specialist support that turn measurement into proven business impact.
CloudControlMedia, a performance-based digital marketing agency specializing in higher education, needed to prove CTV could drive conversions and close attribution gaps. Their clients had historically relied on lower-funnel tactics, making upper-funnel CTV investment a harder internal sell.
CloudControlMedia partnered with Basis to launch campaigns for Abilene Christian University. Basis provided research and proposal support to pitch brand awareness campaigns confidently. Log-level data enabled IP-to-impression matching that tied CTV exposure to ACU's CRM data, closing the attribution loop. Basis acted as an extension of the CloudControlMedia team, connecting them to subject matter experts.
Results included:
CloudControlMedia cited Basis as a responsive research partner that extended their internal capabilities. Without log-level data and CRM integration, these conversion lifts would have remained invisible, limiting CTV investment despite measurable enrollment impact.
This partnership illustrates what agencies should evaluate beyond platform features: whether the vendor provides research support, pitch-ready materials, and access to channel specialists who accelerate time to value.
CTV fragmentation often forces agencies to manually compile data across multiple tools, turning media planners into spreadsheet archaeologists and increasing reporting time and operational fatigue.
Unified, all-channel activation platforms eliminate inefficiencies by managing CTV alongside other channels in a single interface. Doing so provides a wide range of benefits, including unified reporting, streamlined workflows, automated reconciliation, cross-channel optimization, and centralized asset management via shared document storage capabilities.
Competitive platforms should provide a wide breadth of API integrations spanning ad servers (ex. Google Campaign Manager), billing facilitation, search and social platforms (ex. Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest), data partners (ex. LiveRamp), inventory sources (ex. DIRECTV, Hulu, ESPN), and verification vendors (ex. DoubleVerify, Peer39, Comscore, Protected by Mediaocean).
When evaluating platforms, agencies should ask how many of their existing tools (ad servers, billing systems, search and social platforms, verification vendors) connect natively. These integrations create automated data flows rather than manual uploads. The fewer manual data transfers required, the lower the operational burden on the team.
Beyond unification, agencies need white-label reporting, transparent fee structures, team collaboration tools, multi-client management, and granular permissioning to support internal teams and client transparency.
For advertisers who are looking for precision, CTV's advantage over linear TV is the ability to optimize in-flight. Platforms should be able to facilitate A/B testing across creative versions, video lengths (:15 seconds, :30 seconds, :60 seconds), and interactive elements. And the best CTV platforms can automatically shift budget toward higher-performing variants as results emerge, rather than waiting for post-campaign analysis.
And you know how frustrating it is when you see the same ad every…single…commercial…break? Blame it on the platform. Look for one that offers granular frequency capping, which prevents ad fatigue. Meanwhile, settings like "no more than two impressions per user per day" balance reach and repetition.
Platforms should be able to use AI to automatically optimize bids based on performance against KPIs, bidding more aggressively on high-performing placements and reducing bids on underperforming segments. Agencies should ask whether a platform’s AI optimization extends beyond CTV to other channels within the same interface, since siloed optimization limits cross-channel budget decisions.
CTV advertising platforms should come with access to ample premium inventory. And when standard inventory doesn't meet needs, agencies should look for platforms that provide custom private marketplace deals directly within the buying interface.
Additional capabilities worth seeking out in a CTV advertising platform include flexible dayparting, real-time geographic budget shifts, high-definition video support up to 4K, interactive overlays and QR codes, and performance-based pacing that accelerates spending when campaigns exceed targets.
Agencies should expect dedicated CTV experts who understand channel-specific nuances like brand safety in streaming environments, creative best practices for large screens, measurement approaches for cross-device journeys, and inventory quality distinctions.
Strong partners provide market research, client pitch support, strategic recommendations, and access to subject matter experts. This turns the platform into a planning partner, not just a buying tool.
Support should include prompt responses for critical issues, designated account contacts, availability during agency working hours, and proactive monitoring. Platforms should also offer comprehensive onboarding, regular training, certification programs, and educational resources.
And partners should conduct regular business reviews, in which they’ll cover performance trends, new features, optimization recommendations, and opportunities to expand successful tactics across clients.
BasisTV+ brings premium CTV inventory, advanced targeting, multi-layered fraud protection, and cross-channel measurement into a single agency-facing workflow, built to scale CTV investment without increasing operational drag. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Use this framework to assess CTV advertising platforms:
The platform you choose shapes your agency's ability to scale CTV investment without drowning in manual reporting or watching client budgets evaporate to bot traffic. Agencies selecting platforms with premium inventory, advanced targeting, robust fraud prevention, comprehensive measurement, unified workflow management, and strategic partnership will operate more efficiently and prove CTV’s impact to clients with confidence.