The Latest CTV Buying Insights

To better understand the process of CTV buying, we conducted a survey of 408 CTV buyers in the US across key buying teams. The results of this survey yielded a substantial amount of data and helpful CTV buying insights. 

Takeaways: CTV Buying Is Rapidly Evolving

Executive Summary

Below, you'll find high-level CTV buying insights gleaned from our survey.

• Buyers are confident in their CTV planning abilities but less comfortable buying it.
• Buyers have an SSP of choice when purchasing on CTV.
  Upfront commitments are still the primary CTV buying method.
• On CTV, buyers prioritize content attributes provided by SSPs and Publishers vs. DSPs.
• PMPs are attractive to buyers when purchasing CTV

SSPs and CTV

A complicated but necessary relationship, SSPs are the key to unlocking billions of untapped CTV impressions buyers need to maximize their campaigns and minimize waste.  According to our survey, 87% of respondents believe that when it comes to CTV the SSP they use matters, with transparency being a significant factor in that choice. 

Publisher-Buyer Relationships

With thousands of sources to choose from, who do buyers trust when purchasing CTV? According to our survey, 57% of buyers would opt to work directly with publishers. While over 50% of CTV spend is currently allocated to upfront commitments, 85% of our respondents state they could satisfy these requirements with an SSP. 

Targeting

In CTV, Content Targeting has been the talk of the town for years, and buyers are just starting to uncover its endless possibilities. So, how satisfied are they with their current solutions? And where can SSPs provide more value?

Satisfaction with current content targeting solutions increased 35% YoY from 8.58, with programmatic teams contributing the most to that increase and remaining the most satisfied. However, with 55 billion content metadata signals passing every day, SSPs provide a unique opportunity to help buyers improve their targeting efforts. 

PMPs

With CTV’s high viewability and engaged audiences, leveraging connected TV PMPs as part of a buyer’s programmatic strategy is now a necessity. In fact, 69% of buyers currently use PMPs to purchase CTV. And a whopping 86% of those, say they use an SPP for activate.

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