How to integrate CTV with other PPC channels for a full-funnel growth loop

There are two key reasons CTV is likely to be among 2025’s fastest-growing advertising channels: 

• Its big-screen storytelling capability.
• Its digital targeting functionality.

CTV isn’t yet a stand-alone revenue driver. Where it shines and where it’s important to assess impact is the lift it creates for your other active marketing channels.

Used strategically, CTV can support and amplify your performance marketing efforts. Let’s walk through:

• When to layer in CTV.
• How to measure its overall impact.
• How to measure its impact across channels.
• How to integrate campaigns for maximum benefit.

When to add CTV to your marketing mix

I’m a big proponent of CTV campaigns, but I don’t recommend that every brand jump in. If you’ve built demand that you’re not capturing in paid search, paid social or retargeting campaigns, prioritize demand capture before you carve out a budget for CTV.

You should consider CTV if it’s getting harder for you to find growth within your target acquisition goals (in other words, if your CPA keeps rising or won’t improve, no matter how much you optimize your creative, bidding, etc.).

It’s an incredible accelerant for growth on performance marketing channels like paid search and paid social. It’s the ultimate funnel driver — great for bringing new people into and through the funnel to the point of purchase intent.

How to assess CTV’s growth impact 

Before researching CTV’s impact by channel, you must understand the overall value of CTV in your sales funnel.

Many CTV partners (MNTN, tvScientific, TTD, Tatari, etc.) offer analyses showing the incremental value of CTV campaigns. If you think that’s too convenient (CTV partners showing CTV impact), an MMM partner like Measured or Rockerbox can provide an unbiased picture. 

Meta’s Robyn is a strong option for brands without the budget for paid martech platforms. It requires some coding and development work, but it’s an excellent option for SMB brands to assess the value of CTV campaigns. 

MMM needs a wealth of historical data to be accurate, so brands with relatively immature marketing functions may need to rely on lift tests to measure zoom-out impact, such as overall revenue and blended CPA, rather than channel-specific metrics.

How to measure CTV’s impact across your marketing channel portfolio

My favorite method for assessing CTV’s impact on other channels is geo-lift testing, a method of holdout testing that compares the performance of test-and-control audiences in similar geos.  

Metrics to study by channel to analyze CTV’s impact include: 

• CVR.
• Direct traffic.
• Unique user acquisition.
• Brand/product search. 

Brand recall and sentiment are also essential to measure, though those can be more qualitative. 

Dig deeper: 7 barriers advertisers need to overcome to grow CTV

How to integrate CTV with your other channels

Design a complementary creative strategy

CTV is a powerful accelerant for growth on other channels. However, in multi-channel campaigns, those channels can also enhance CTV, especially regarding creative strategy.

Some brands have done the testing and decided to hit people with more or less the same message on every channel, betting that frequency and consistency will significantly impact the bottom line. That’s fine as long as you’re monitoring the numbers; presumably, you’ll have tested that messaging on lower-CPM channels before rolling it out to CTV.

Your other option is to consider the context of prospecting vs. retargeting campaigns and use CTV combined with other channels to build a layered brand story. Remember that new users you bring into your funnel with CTV (more on retargeting in a bit) get a relatively immersive, big-screen, unskippable ad. That should give you something to build on in your paid social and paid search campaigns. It doesn’t need to be complex, but introducing your brand or product story through CTV and retargeting viewers or site visitors with more targeted messaging can be highly effective.

Build retargeting funnels

Using Device IDs and/or IP addresses, you can build retargeting pools of CTV viewers and CTV viewers who then visited your site. Consider retargeting viewers who saw your CTV ad and then visited your site without converting.

One caveat: make sure you’re not over-indexed in retargeting from too many other channels because you’ll risk hitting your retargeting audience too frequently. 

Use first-party data for custom bidding algorithms and targeting

This approach requires a decent budget and might be aspirational for SMBs. But if you’re a mid-market brand with robust CRM volume, you can use your data to inform platform algorithms, create lookalike audiences and apply contextual targeting.

As far as training CTV’s bidding algorithms, you can:

• Optimize to metrics like LTV or, for B2B brands, funnel stage (again, you’ll need decent volume for this).
• Use CRM data to see whether dayparting optimizations make sense or whether you should focus on (or exclude) certain geos.

Get creative by using first-party data from other channels. For example, a high-value customer segment from Google Ads can become a lookalike audience, or users from Meta sharing common interests can inform contextual targeting.

If your CRM data shows softball moms are a key target, you can focus your ads by channel (like ESPNU), genre and even specific shows, such as placing ads during the College World Series games.

Dig deeper: How to make CTV ads that stic

Closing thoughts

Having the right expectations for CTV campaigns is essential. On its own, CTV won’t be a revenue windfall. But used strategically to augment other performance-focused channels, it’s a game-changer. 

Using CTV to lift the other channels in your marketing mix isn’t just a clever play; it’s the primary benefit of running CTV in the first place. Make sure you’re aligned on that — and how to measure it — before you make any big decisions on CTV’s place in your marketing portfolio.