How to make CTV ads that stick

CTV, one of 2025’s projected fastest-growing channels, offers just about all of linear TV’s storytelling benefits, with digital targeting precision layered in. That is a whole lot of advertising potential, which will only be realized by brands that develop great creative.

Let’s break down a standout approach to creative — from ideation and testing (both themes and ads) to measuring impact.

Creative ideation for CTV

I like to use “humor and heartstrings” as a starting point for most video creative regardless of what channel it’s built for. CTV is no exception. Because most of its inventory is non-skippable, you have even more time to build an emotional connection with your users.

Depending on ad length (15, 30 or 60 seconds), you have a healthy amount of your users’ attention (trips to the fridge notwithstanding). With turbulence and fragmentation swirling around us, those chunks of time are both a gift and a massive opportunity to make a positive impression. (Think about the Calm ad from the Super Bowl or any of Apple’s heartwarming holiday ads.)

This isn’t direct response (except for Amazon streaming ads), so take that time to make your brand memorable — both with great storytelling and keeping your logo and URL visible in the ad at all times.

Whether you like to study your competitors to get inspiration or to avoid duplicative messaging, you have a couple of options for researching other CTV ads in the marketplace. If you’re doing things on a budget, check out your competitors’ YouTube channels. They’ll typically post 30-second ads there. 

You won’t be able to see whether those ads are reimagined as CTV ads, but the research will give you an idea of their creative angles. If you have more budget, check out Pathmatics, which is an excellent resource for competitor CTV ad research.

In pushing our clients to produce high-performing creative, my end goal is to make their users laugh, smile and/or think about the most important people in their lives. It’s a high bar, but clearing it means your brand will stick in their minds and build affinity that will pay off in an integrated marketing strategy.

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

How to test CTV creative themes

Here’s where CTV’s unique powers of digital precision and big-screen storytelling start to emerge. Because you can shape your CTV audiences in a way you can’t with linear TV, you can test creative and messaging in a highly relevant way on other lower-CPM channels like Meta and YouTube. 

Start by creating demo segments on Meta and YouTube to test creative with different value propositions to see which perform best. Once you have determined what resonates best with each segment, you should feel confident about producing ads for CTV matched to the audiences you will target.

Note: This is not a recommendation to take your top-performing Meta ads and slap them on the big screen (or vice versa). The formatting and context are different enough that users will sniff out when an ad was made for a different platform. 

If you’re in the ideation stage and don’t have video creative yet, make sure you’re incorporating platform-specific versions into your production plan. If you have video assets performing well on a certain platform, you can and should use things like message, tone, imagery, etc., in your new creative — but you’ll still have to produce new creative as you launch on other platforms.

Dig deeper: 2025 is the year for B2B brands to embrace CTV

How to structure CTV ad tests

Ad fatigue is as real on CTV as on any other channel — perhaps more so, given that users don’t have the opportunity to skip or scroll on by. Keep at least two creatives in rotation at all times. This could mean two vastly different concepts or one concept with varying messaging and different lengths. Plan out your full calendar year (leaving room and opportunity to adjust as you go) so you have creative ready for each season or product push.  

For simplicity, and if you have a creative platform that helps you achieve this efficiently, take a couple of messaging concepts and tweak them to speak specifically two to three different audience segments. See what resonates the best, focus on the winning theme and work up the next round of challengers.

Repeat this cycle at least quarterly to keep new creatives coming into your rotation. If you have frequency control properly set up, you’ll likely notice certain segments responding less over time — once that happens, you should be ready to swap in new creative.  

One last note on testing: there may be times of immediacy (e.g., new product launches or macro conditions that justify a quick ad response) when you need to launch ads in a hurry and don’t have the luxury of testing. In these instances, stay laser-focused on your top value propositions and make them super-clear to your audience. As a marketer, you know your brand better than anyone. Just be sure to lay out very plainly why your audience needs to know about your brand, too. 

How to measure the impact of CTV creative

An ideal reaction to a CTV ad is for a user to look up your site on their phone (or maybe even laptop, if they’re multitasking) immediately after seeing the ad — or even during the ad. (Always keep your logo and URL visible to encourage this behavior.) However, there are a lot of measurement options that will give you information about the impact of your ad. 

At minimum (because you should always be doing this to measure CTV impact), set up an incrementality measurement framework to determine CTV’s impact on other paid media channels. It’s also a great idea, though a bit more costly, to work with a measurement partner to survey CTV ad viewers to analyze brand recall and affinity.

Dig deeper: How to assess CTV’s impact on other ad channels

Closing thoughts

Many marketers I’ve run into over my decades in the industry got into the business with the dream of being Don Draper or creating the next great Super Bowl ad. CTV isn’t quite at that level, but being a great growth opportunity for brands, it allows you to flex your storytelling muscles. Combine some fun ideation with respect for the data, and you can watch your ideas come to life on the big screen — and have a positive, quantitative impact on your business.