In Summary: Connected Advertising
Connected advertising on television allows marketers to deliver ads within internet-streamed programming viewed on connected TV screens. CTV can combine television’s large-screen experience with digital capabilities such as audience targeting, programmatic buying, and campaign measurement. For future digital marketers, understanding CTV means learning how streaming audiences, data, creative strategy, and measurement fit into a broader omnichannel campaign.
Television advertising is no longer limited to buying airtime during a programme and showing the same commercial to everyone watching.
As audiences increasingly stream movies, television programmes, live events, and other video content, advertisers have gained new ways to reach them. Connected TV advertising sits at the intersection of traditional television and digital marketing, combining a familiar large-screen format with many of the targeting and measurement capabilities associated with online campaigns.
The opportunity is becoming increasingly relevant in Canada. IAB Canada reported that digital video advertising grew 26% in 2025, with advertiser investment in connected television and premium streaming environments contributing to that growth.
For students considering digital marketing courses in Vancouver, understanding connected advertising can therefore provide useful insight into how the modern media mix continues to evolve.
What Is Connected TV (CTV) Advertising?
It is advertising delivered within internet-streamed video content viewed on a television connected to the internet.
A connected television may be a smart TV with internet capabilities built in, or a television connected through another internet-enabled device. IAB definitions include smart TVs, streaming devices, and gaming consoles among the ways viewers can access streaming video on television screens.
For advertisers, that creates an interesting combination: the immersive experience of television with digital advertising technology.
A CTV campaign might appear while someone watches an ad-supported streaming programme or live internet-delivered content. Depending on the platform and campaign setup, marketers may be able to use audience, geographic, contextual, or other permitted signals when deciding where advertisements appear.
Understanding that distinction is an important part of the CTV marketing meaning for new marketers. It isn’t simply “TV advertising online.” It belongs to a broader digital ecosystem involving streaming platforms, publishers, ad servers, demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, and data providers.
What Does “CTV” Mean in Advertising, and How Is It Different From Linear TV?
CTV refers to advertising associated with video streamed to an internet-connected television, while linear TV traditionally delivers scheduled programming through broadcast, cable, or satellite channels.
The difference becomes particularly important when marketers think about audiences.
Traditional television campaigns have historically been planned largely around programmes, channels, geographic markets, and expected audience profiles. Connected television can add digital audience targeting and automated buying options to that familiar viewing environment.
IAB describes advanced television targeting as enabling advertisers to serve an advertisement to a particular household rather than necessarily broadcasting the same advertisement to every household.
Students completing our digital marketing diploma in Vancouver can benefit from understanding this shift because modern campaigns increasingly require marketers to think across channels rather than treating television, mobile, search, social media, and streaming as completely separate worlds.
What Are the Benefits of Advertising on Connected TVs for Brands?
Potential advantages include audience targeting, access to streaming viewers, large-screen creative, programmatic buying, and additional measurement opportunities.
Among the most significant benefits of CTV is the ability to combine digital targeting with a television viewing experience. OTT/CTV environments can use demographic, behavioural, interest, geographic, or contextual information for targeting, depending on the campaign, platform, available data, and applicable permissions.
For a marketer, this can mean building campaigns around a more specific intended audience rather than purchasing television exposure solely according to broad programme demographics.
Other potential benefits of advertising on connected TVs for brands include:
- Reaching audiences consuming ad-supported streaming content
- Using a full-screen video creative in a television environment
- Coordinating CTV with other digital campaign channels
- Buying some inventory programmatically
- Managing frequency and campaign delivery
- Using available campaign data to assess performance
These advantages do not make every CTV campaign automatically effective. Marketers still need clear objectives, appropriate targeting, compelling creative, sensible frequency, and reliable measurement.
For CTV marketing benefits for app-based startups, for example, the real value may come from combining awareness-building video with other digital channels that move prospective users closer to an app visit, download, registration, or purchase.
Connected TV vs OTT Advertising: What’s the Difference, and Which Should You Choose?
OTT primarily describes how video content is delivered over the internet, while CTV refers to the television screen or connected device on which that streamed content is viewed. The terms are frequently used together, which can make them confusing.
OTT content is not necessarily restricted to televisions. Streaming video can also be consumed through phones, tablets, and computers. CTV is specifically concerned with viewing through an internet-connected television environment. IAB’s streaming guidance makes this distinction between internet-delivered OTT video and the connected television device.
Choosing between them, therefore, isn’t always an either-or decision. A marketer might build an OTT video strategy across several devices while allocating part of that campaign specifically to connected television screens.
The right approach depends on where the target audience watches video, what the campaign is trying to achieve, and which formats and measurement capabilities are available.
How Can Marketers Harness Connected TV Effectively?
Good connected advertising begins with the same question as any strong campaign: what are you trying to accomplish?
A brand seeking awareness may prioritize reach, suitable streaming environments, and memorable video creative. A business with a more performance-oriented objective might consider how CTV exposure connects with website visits, searches, app activity, or other measurable actions.
Marketers should also consider audience definition, creative format, frequency, media buying, measurement, and how CTV fits alongside other channels.
This matters because the CTV ecosystem is still developing. In 2025, IAB Tech Lab introduced a standardized CTV Ad Portfolio to address fragmentation across emerging advertising formats, while IAB Canada continues to publish resources on buying, measurement, data flows, and industry standards.
For students exploring a career college in Surrey, this evolution is a useful reminder that digital marketing is not a fixed collection of platforms. New channels emerge, established channels change, and marketers need transferable skills that help them understand audiences, data, creative strategy, technology, and performance.
CTV is one example of that evolution: television is still television, but the way marketers buy, target, deliver, and evaluate television advertising is changing.
Are you looking for comprehensive digital marketing courses in Vancouver?
Contact Cumberland College for more information.
Key Takeaways
- Connected advertising combines internet-delivered video with the television viewing environment.
- CTV can include smart TVs and televisions connected through streaming or gaming devices.
- Linear TV and CTV differ in how content and advertising are delivered and targeted.
- The benefits of CTV can include audience targeting, large-screen video, programmatic buying, and digital measurement capabilities.
- OTT describes internet-delivered content, while CTV refers specifically to the connected television environment.
- Effective CTV campaigns still require clear goals, appropriate audiences, strong creative, sensible frequency, and measurement.
- Canadian digital video advertising grew 26% in 2025 as investment continued in connected television and premium streaming environments.
FAQ
What is connected TV (CTV) advertising?
Connected TV advertising involves advertisements delivered with internet-streamed video viewed on a connected television, such as a smart TV or television using a streaming device.
What does “CTV” mean in advertising, and how is it different from linear TV?
CTV means connected TV. It uses internet-connected television environments, while linear TV traditionally delivers scheduled programming through broadcast, cable, or satellite channels. CTV can also support digital targeting and programmatic advertising capabilities.
What are the benefits of advertising on connected TVs for brands?
Potential benefits include reaching streaming audiences, using large-screen video creative, targeting relevant audiences, programmatic media buying, and accessing digital measurement capabilities.
Connected TV vs OTT advertising: what’s the difference, and which should you choose?
OTT describes video content delivered over the internet and can include viewing on televisions, computers, tablets, and phones. CTV specifically refers to viewing through an internet-connected television environment. The appropriate strategy depends on the campaign’s audience, objectives, devices, and available inventory.
