CTV’s Got Millions Watching—But No One Is Paying Attention to Your Ads

The future of effective video ads is on the big screen

Despite viewership, CTV ads often miss the mark as distracted audiences tune out—challenging brands to rethink how and where they capture attention.

When you have led teams of buyers and sellers, you’ve heard a good pitch or two. Nothing was more heralded than the dawn of CTV—pegged as the attractive solution for advertisers grappling with the end of linear TV’s supreme reign.

Countless publishers promised the perfect marriage of deep audience engagement at scale, attracted by premium video content with precision targeting and data to support performance.

On paper, it sounded dreamy—but then a viewer would pick up a remote (or two!) only to encounter endless options for where and what to watch, challenging discoverability, and practically no ads or ones that felt easy to ignore or repeated endlessly.

This wasn’t innovation. The technology and the marketplace infrastructure were not ready to deliver, and they still aren’t today.

It has become increasingly clear where CTV falls short—and more importantly, where advertisers need to pivot to truly capture attention and drive performance in today’s video marketplace.

The new path to engagement

The reality is that audiences are becoming harder to engage, and their attention is more fleeting than ever. At the same time, while CTV offers a wealth of content, its effectiveness as a channel for brand performance can be questioned, challenged by evolving viewer behavior and content trends.

While linear TV’s decline has coincided with the growth of ad-free and ad-supported streaming, viewers are often multitasking (a staggering 64% of viewers report using secondary devices while streaming, according to Nielsen), dividing their attention across devices or ignoring ads altogether. As a result, advertisers are missing out on opportunities to meaningfully connect with their target demographics.

This shift in viewing behavior is vividly reflected in recent data from just last year: While streaming accounted for 41% of total viewing time, it represented only 15% of total ad time. This discrepancy highlights a deeper issue—the growing difficulty brands face in breaking through the noise to reach consumers in an oversaturated, screen-dominated world.

So, where does this leave advertisers? While it’s certainly time to rethink traditional CTV strategies, smart marketers are treating this as a catalyst to explore new pathways to audience engagement. Three major areas of growth have emerged as critical opportunities for advertisers who are looking to be ahead of the curve:

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