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Choosing a CTV advertising platform is harder than it used to be. CTV budgets are climbing—advertisers plan to increase CTV spend by 17.5% in 2026, according to eMarketer—and the money is arriving faster than the infrastructure to spend it well. The buying landscape has splintered into walled gardens, open-web programmatic, and standalone CTV point solutions that rarely share data. The IAB has called fragmentation one of the biggest barriers to digital video growth, warning that the pace of new platforms and formats is outrunning the systems used to buy and measure them.
Agencies feel that fragmentation twice over, because CTV is only one channel in the mix. Basis’ 2026 Advertising Agency Report found that more than one-third of full-service and media agencies now manage 10 or more adtech tools, with inefficient processes and siloed systems ranking as their top operational challenges. The advertising platform an agency picks for CTV either adds to that pile or helps consolidate it.
The connected TV advertising platforms most popular with agencies in 2026 are Basis, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, Google DV360, Viant, Simpli.fi, and Roku. Each combines premium streaming inventory with the targeting and measurement client campaigns require. The platform decision comes down to fit: how you buy, how much you want to run in-house, and whether CTV stands alone or connects to the rest of your media.
Connected TV advertising delivers ads to smart TVs, streaming sticks, and gaming consoles. Those ads run inside streaming content like the shows, movies, and live events people watch, and increasingly on home screens, menus, and other interface placements as publishers open up new inventory. The most familiar format is the in-stream spot, when a viewer starts watching content and a targeted ad is chosen for that household—the same programmatic mechanics behind display advertising applied to full-screen, TV-quality video. (For the fundamentals, including devices, targeting, measurement, and how CTV differs from OTT and linear, check out our complete guide to connected TV advertising.)
How advertisers buy that inventory varies, and it can shape which platforms are worth your time. Some supply trades through open real-time auctions. Much of the premium inventory moves through private marketplaces (PMPs) and programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals, where publishers offer specific placements at negotiated terms, and some is still bought directly from the publisher. A platform’s value depends heavily on which of these buying models it opens and how much premium, brand-safe supply it can reach.
Most CTV platforms claim strong targeting, measurement, and premium inventory. The differences show up in a handful of details that decide whether one fits your accounts: inventory access and quality, targeting depth, measurement and attribution, brand safety and fraud protection, service model, and minimum spend. These weigh differently by client: a national brand advertiser would likely prioritize premium inventory and measurement depth, while a local or multi-location shop might weigh geo-targeting and low minimums. You can walk through these considerations in depth in this framework for choosing a CTV advertising platform.
The top CTV advertising platforms include a range of options, each of which has unique strengths and weaknesses. The list below details the best picks for agencies in 2026, each suited to a different kind of agency, client mix, and way of buying.
Basis is an AI-powered omnichannel advertising platform that unifies CTV, programmatic, search, social, and site direct in one system that is built specifically around how agencies operate. CTV lives inside Basis right alongside those other channels, so all of an agency’s planning, buying, optimization, reporting, data, and billing stay connected in the same platform instead of being scattered across an array of point solutions.
When it comes to CTV specifically, Basis reaches 93% of US smart TV households through open exchanges and 700+ private marketplaces and PG deals, with premium supply from publishers including Hulu, ESPN, and Disney+. Media planners get access to 1,000+ advanced TV targeting parameters and 80+ trackable metrics, plus brand safety and verification coverage through partnerships such as DoubleVerify and Protected by Mediaocean.
Its AI capabilities provide benefits across the campaign lifecycle: Compass builds activation-ready omnichannel media plans that weigh CTV against every other channel rather than in isolation, and SmartBid optimizes bids and budgets in real time against live performance signals. Basis also offers automation features that generate 30-40% productivity gains for its users.
Basis’ workflow advantages compound because CTV connects to everything else. For instance, an agency running streaming on a standalone DSP must still assemble separate tools for search, social, direct buys, and billing reconciliation, each one a handoff where budgets and reporting can drift. Basis unifies agencies’ walled-garden and open-web investments into a single view, so cross-channel frequency, pacing, and measurement run on connected data. And for teams that would rather not run everything in-house, Basis also offers expert managed services.
Best for: Agencies that want CTV inside a unified omnichannel system, with the targeting depth and measurement to prove results and without the tool fragmentation that drives up cost and manual work.
The Trade Desk is an enterprise programmatic DSP with real-time bidding across CTV and other digital channels. It has relationships with major networks and streaming publishers, giving agencies access to a large marketplace of premium CTV inventory. Buyers can target with first- and third-party data across screens, control frequency across networks and devices, and run optimization through its AI, Koa.
That said, it comes with a steep learning curve and sizable spend commitments, making it best suited to large agencies with dedicated programmatic traders and clients with substantial budgets. It is also programmatic-only, so agencies must run search, social, direct, and billing on separate systems.
Best for: Large, programmatic-first agencies with in-house trading expertise and clients whose budgets and media mix are weighted heavily toward programmatic.
Amazon DSP's advantage is its first-party data: shopping, browsing, and streaming signals from Amazon's own ecosystem that let advertisers target on real purchase behavior rather than inferred intent. On CTV, its owned inventory spans Prime Video, Thursday Night Football, Fire TV, and Twitch, and it can also reach third-party streaming supply through publisher deals and exchanges.
The tradeoff is scope. Its real benefit—its shopper data and owned premium inventory—is concentrated in Amazon’s own properties, so its strength clusters in retail, CPG, and commerce use cases. Additionally, its managed service tier carries a high enough entry point to favor advertisers with substantial budgets.
Best for: Retail, CPG, and commerce advertisers whose campaigns live inside Amazon's ecosystem and can put its shopper data and owned streaming inventory to work.
Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) is Google’s enterprise DSP within the Google Marketing Platform, buying across CTV, display, video, audio, and DOOH. Its defining advantage is the Google ecosystem: exclusive YouTube inventory and native interoperability with Campaign Manager 360 and Google Analytics 4 make it especially powerful for Google-centric campaigns. It also buys third-party CTV and open-web supply, but its distinct edge is concentrated in that Google-native stack.
DV360 is not self-serve—access runs through a Google Marketing Platform contract that puts it out of reach for smaller accounts—and it does not handle paid social, direct buys, or billing, so it covers just part of an agency's workflow rather than the whole.
Best for: Large agencies running Google-centric campaigns that lean on YouTube inventory and already operate within the Google stack at scale.
Viant is a programmatic DSP spanning CTV, display, mobile, audio, and DOOH. It offers self-service, co-managed, and managed models. It targets and measures at the household level through its Household ID technology, layering demographic, behavioral, contextual, and geographic targeting on top. It offers access to quality CTV inventory as well as partnerships with fraud-protection solutions.
What it does not handle is the rest of the stack: Search, social, direct buys, and billing run on separate systems.
Best for: CTV-centric advertisers that value household-level targeting and measurement and don't need a cross-channel workflow that spans the entire campaign lifecycle.
Simpli.fi is a programmatic DSP that markets itself as specialized for local and multi-location advertising, with tooling built around trade-area, ZIP-code, and address-level campaigns across CTV and other channels. Its targeting leans on localized, geo-based audience building, and it offers both self-serve and managed models so agencies can run campaigns in-house or lean on support.
Its specialization also defines its fit. Agencies running franchise or multi-location campaigns get a platform organized around their use case, while national or single-brand advertisers get less benefit from the local orientation. Simpli.fi also focuses on programmatic buying and does not natively cover search, direct buys, or unified billing, so those sit within separate systems.
Best for: Agencies running local, multi-location, franchise, or political CTV campaigns.
Roku is a streaming platform rather than a standalone DSP, which makes it a different kind of entry on this list. It owns the operating system, the devices, and The Roku Channel, giving agencies direct access to a large base of logged-in streaming households. Through its platform, Roku sells both its owned inventory—home-screen placements and The Roku Channel—and aggregated in-stream video across 100+ ad-supported streaming apps, bought through Roku Ads Manager, a self-serve platform with built-for-CTV optimization and a low entry point. Its inventory can also be reached programmatically through third-party DSPs. Targeting and measurement draw on Roku's first-party, logged-in account data at the household level, and the inventory it sells is curated, premium streaming supply rather than open-web placement.
Because Roku is a publisher platform, it does not handle other digital channels or the complete campaign lifecycle.
Best for: Agencies that want direct access to Roku’s owned streaming audience and home-screen inventory through an accessible, self-serve CTV platform.
| Platform | Best For |
| Basis | Agencies buying CTV at scale who want it unified with programmatic, search, social, and direct media in one system that automates planning through reconciliation |
| The Trade Desk | Large, programmatic-first agencies with substantial client budgets |
| Amazon DSP | Retail, CPG, and commerce advertisers activating shopper data across Fire TV and Prime Video |
| Google DV360 | Large agencies operating within the Google ecosystem at scale |
| Viant | CTV-centric advertisers that don’t need a cross-channel workflow that spans the entire campaign lifecycle |
| Simpli.fi | Agencies running local, multi-location, or franchise CTV campaigns |
| Roku | Agencies wanting direct, self-serve access to Roku's streaming audience and home-screen inventory |
| Platform | Type | Inventory Access | Beyond CTV | Entry Point |
| Basis | Omnichannel advertising platform | Premium and open exchange inventory, 700+ curated and exclusive PMPs, programmatic guaranteed and direct buying options | Programmatic, paid search, paid social, direct buys, natively unified billing & reconciliation | Lower threshold |
| The Trade Desk | Enterprise DSP | Open exchange, PG, and PMPs | Programmatic-only; no paid search, no paid social, no direct buys; no natively unified billing & reconciliation | ~$10K+/mo |
| Amazon DSP | Walled garden/DSP hybrid | Owned inventory, PG, and PMPs | Programmatic-only; no paid social, paid search runs separate from Amazon DSP, no direct buys; no natively unified billing & reconciliation | $10K rec. self-serve / $50K managed |
| Google DV360 | Walled garden/DSP hybrid | Open exchange, PG, and PMPs | Programmatic-focused; limited paid search, no paid social, no direct buys; no natively unified billing & reconciliation | GMP contract (~$50K+/mo) |
| Viant | DSP | Open exchange, PG, and PMPs | Programmatic-only; no paid search, no paid social, no direct buys; no natively unified billing & reconciliation | Self-serve & managed |
| Simpli.fi | DSP | Open exchange, PG, and PMPs | Programmatic-focused; no paid search, partial paid social, no direct buys; no natively unified billing & reconciliation | Self-serve & managed |
| Roku | Streaming platform/publisher | Owned Roku inventory plus aggregated in-stream supply across 100+ streaming apps; also buyable via third-party DSPs | CTV-only; no paid search, no paid social, no natively unified billing & reconciliation | Low self-serve minimum |
The strongest CTV platform for your agency is the one that fits how you work, versus the one with the longest feature list. Many of the top CTV advertising platforms run CTV as one programmatic channel, which leaves media and full-service agencies assembling their tech stacks by cobbling together point solutions, using one tool for search, another one (or several) for social, another still for direct deals, and yet more for the back-office work of billing and reconciliation. Each additional tool is another login, another data silo, and another manual handoff between planning and payment—the fragmentation the IAB now names as a leading barrier to video ad growth and a major source of errors and makegoods.
The sharpest question, then, is how much of that fragmentation a platform removes. For a single-channel buyer, a specialist DSP or publisher platform might be plenty. For a multi-client agency running the full lifecycle across digital channels, platforms that close the loop from planning through reconciliation could be worth far more than those that stop at the buy. Which of those tradeoffs matters most depends on your agency’s client mix, buying model, and how much you want to run in-house.
What is a connected TV advertising platform?
A connected TV advertising platform is software that lets advertisers plan, buy, target, and measure video ads delivered to streaming audiences on smart TVs, streaming devices, and connected apps. These platforms use programmatic buying to deliver ads in real time based on the viewer’s profile and the advertiser’s targeting criteria. They give advertisers precision targeting and measurable results that traditional TV cannot match.
How is CTV different from linear TV and OTT?
CTV refers to ads delivered to internet-connected televisions and streaming devices, while linear TV refers to traditional broadcast and cable viewing. CTV offers household-level targeting and detailed performance measurement, whereas linear TV reaches broad demographic panels with limited attribution. OTT (over-the-top) describes the streaming content delivered over the internet; CTV describes the connected device that content plays on, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.
What features should agencies look for in a CTV advertising platform?
Agencies should look for deep targeting parameters, robust measurement and attribution, a service model that fits their team, minimum spend that matches client budgets, and strong brand safety and fraud protection. Targeting depth controls audience precision, while measurement depth lets you prove value and justify budget shifts. Agencies running multiple channels also benefit from platforms that connect CTV to search, social, direct, and reporting rather than operating in isolation.
How do advertisers measure CTV campaign performance?
Advertisers measure CTV campaign performance using metrics like impressions, video completion rates, reach and frequency, conversions, and incrementality. Unlike linear TV, CTV platforms report household-level delivery and outcome data, so advertisers can tie streaming ad exposure to measurable results. Platforms vary in measurement depth: Basis, for example, supports 80+ trackable metrics, giving planners the reporting needed to build data-backed recommendations.
What does connected TV advertising with Basis look like?
With Basis, CTV runs as one channel inside a single omnichannel platform rather than a standalone tool. Teams reach 93% of US smart TV households through open exchanges and 700+ private marketplaces, target with 1,000+ advanced TV parameters, and measure across 80+ metrics—then plan, activate, report, and reconcile that CTV spend alongside programmatic, search, social, and direct media in one place. That connected setup lets agencies grow CTV investment without adding another tool or another round of manual reporting.