By John Andrysiak, Senior Director of Media at Harvest Group
In thirteen years across digital media, including building Connected TV (CTV) businesses at Amazon, I’ve watched CTV move from a line item brands treated as “TV money” to one of the most-asked-about channels in retail media planning. The shift is happening because the way people watch has changed, and retailers see a benefit to leveraging their 1st party data to connect a streaming impressions impact on sales.
That second part is what’s new. CTV used to sit at the top of the funnel as an awareness play that was hard to tie back to revenue. Connected to retailer audience data and measurement, it becomes a way to reach known shoppers with informed targeting, build demand earlier in the path to purchase, and spend media dollars more efficiently. Layering these retailer audience signals onto CTV gives brands more relevant reach than broad, untargeted campaigns, which matters even for national budgets.
Why does CTV matter for brands right now?
Audiences have moved to streaming faster than ad dollars have followed. US CTV ad spending is on track to reach nearly $38 billion in 2026, growing around 14% year over year and outpacing advertising overall. According to Nielsen, streaming now commands nearly half of the time people spend with media while still pulling in a fraction of ad dollars, and that gap between attention and spend is where an opportunity sits.
If you sell through major retailers, the big shift is how quickly retail media networks are folding CTV into their offerings:
- Walmart Connect, building on its Vizio acquisition, now ties streaming ads directly to its shopper data and reports that customers who see those ads are meaningfully more likely to buy.
- Kroger Precision Marketing has rolled out managed CTV across premium streaming platforms, applying real purchase-based audiences.
That convergence is reshaping the channel. Retail media CTV spend grew about three times faster than retail media search in 2025, and that momentum is solving CTV’s old problem: connecting an ad impressions impact to actual sales with a holistic strategic plan.
How does CTV fit into your retail media strategy?
CTV works best as one part of a connected plan rather than a standalone channel. It builds awareness before shoppers are actively searching or browsing on retailer platforms, and that early demand gets reinforced through lower-funnel tactics like DSP, retargeting, paid search, on-site display, and social.
Two things make it perform better inside a connected retail media strategy:
- Closed-loop measurement. Running CTV through a retail media network lets brands understand its impact on total, blended ROI. That visibility doesn’t exist in broad, non-retailer targeting, where it’s much harder to connect an upper-funnel impression to an eventual purchase.
- Real shopper signals. Retail media audience layers are built on actual shopping behavior within the retailer, not modeled assumptions. That means brands can reach shoppers in non-shopping moments, in their living room, based on actions those shoppers have actually taken. It’s a strong signal for staying top of mind and moving people from awareness toward a purchase.
In practice: a shopper sees a brand on CTV, encounters it again through display or a retail media placement, and later converts through search or an on-site ad. CTV may not be the last touch, but it creates the demand that makes those later touches work.
What makes CTV activation complicated for brands?
CTV is complicated because there are so many ways to activate it: directly through publishers, programmatically, and everything in between. The harder problem is that brands often don’t know exactly what they’re buying when they jump in, and many default to chasing efficiency over premium content.
Both have a place, but Harvest Group prioritizes premium content as a starting point. The goal is to meet shoppers where people are watching, on services like Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, and Prime Video, rather than defaulting to ad-supported free channels (FAST) simply because they’re cheaper. Using metrics like quality scoring to predict outcomes and strengthen measurement lets us quickly filter out low-quality inventory, so brands feel confident they’re showing up where it matters.
This is where planning and execution experience makes the difference between a CTV buy that builds real demand and one that simply spends a budget.
What do brands need to get right to set CTV up for success?
1. Start with the goal of the campaign. Before deciding where and how to use CTV, define what the campaign is meant to achieve. The goal shapes everything that follows. If a key KPI points toward maximizing household reach, for example, that may lead to prioritizing a different channel or publisher than a campaign focused on a narrower, high-intent audience.
2. Prioritize premium content over efficiency. We consistently opt for premium content and rank platforms by their scale and their ability to reach a brand’s target audience. The makeup of each channel matters: a brand whose audience skews one way might be better served by Netflix, while another might align more closely with ESPN. Matching the channel to the audience comes before chasing the lowest cost.
3. Account for how people are watching. Live, day-and-date viewing behaves differently than bingeable on-demand content, and that should factor into the recommendation. When CTVruns during live moments like Thursday Night Football or NBA games, we prioritize the publisher airing that content and surround it with similar buys. How and when an audience watches is as important as what they watch.
4. Make sure the baseline is right first. CTV may not be the right fit if the fundamentals aren’t in place. If a brand’s on-site strategy isn’t fully maximized, or it’s capping out early in the day, there’s little reason to move further up the funnel. Visibility in those lower-funnel moments is critical, as CTV often drives branded search. A useful priority order:
- Priority 1: Search
- Priority 2: On-site display (where applicable) & off-site display (retailer dependent)
- Priority 3: CTV and other upper-funnel tactics
It’s also worth setting expectations: CTV is a longer-term brand-building investment that can take time before results show up.
Make CTV Work Harder for Your Retail Strategy
CTV is most valuable when it’s connected to your retail media, digital commerce, and overall brand goals. If you’re weighing where CTV fits in your strategy, or want a second set of eyes on how your current investment is performing, our media team can help.
Learn more about our Retail Media Services, and fill out our Contact Us form to get the conversation started.
About the Author
John Andrysiak is Sr. Director of Media at Harvest Group, with 13 years of experience across digital media channels. During his time at Amazon, he led the Sales Account Management organization for Entertainment clients spanning CTV across all buying types and Audio, and was part of the inaugural launch team for Thursday Night Football. John is a recognized industry leader, named to the Path to Purchase Institute’s Top 25 Retail Media Award for industry leaders in 2025.