As Connected TV (CTV) continues its rapid growth into 2025, advertisers are presented with entirely new (and relatively unexplored) opportunities to engage with highly targeted audiences. This year more viewers than ever shifted away from traditional cable and towards streaming platforms. Neilsen reported in June 2024 that streaming accounted for 40.3% of total TV usage, while broadcast and cable only accounted for 20.5% and 27.2% respectively. With this many viewers engaging with streaming, CTV offers advertisers enhanced reach, advanced targeting capabilities and measurable results.
As the landscape of CTV advertising evolves, we’ve highlighted six key opportunities that will shape the industry in 2025. From leveraging first-party data for personalized campaigns to tapping into the power of programmatic advertising, these trends will help marketers stay ahead in the ever-changing world of digital marketing.
Interactive ad formats have found synergy with CTV and have made it easier than ever for consumers to make a purchase. With shoppable ads, an entirely new e-commerce marketplace has emerged, poised for immediate engagement and utilization. By incorporating QR codes and clickable elements, shoppable ads seamlessly route consumers to a product’s website or shopping cart, enabling instant conversions.
In some interactive ads, viewers can also customize their product options in real time, granting them more control over their ad experiences. From the marketer’s perspective, interactions from these shoppable ads are a gold mine of consumer data that can help refine future campaigns.
In the example below from Instagram, a user who comes across this ad in their feed can easily click on the links and make a purchase:
In 2025, personalization will remain the name of the game. Companies that generate dynamic ad content tailored to individual preferences will see their efforts rewarded. Collecting data to inform these ads, however, has become increasing complicated with the growing privacy concerns surrounding the third-party cookie. Instead, look to utilizing first-party data and location-based messaging for hyper-targeted ad experiences, integrating shoppable ads that enable seamless conversions.
Lastly, personalization efforts in 2025 would not be complete without implementing AI to assist with optimization and delivery of ads. AI can analyze viewer behavior determine how to best reach them, and help interpret the effectiveness of ads with real-time performance insights such as impressions and click-through rates (CTRs).
In the below example, social media ads will often use personal location data to bring relevant ads for events or opportunities happening in your city.
One of most exciting aspects of CTV is the prospect of cross-device data and targeting. Through a mix of deterministic (logins and email addresses) and probabilistic (IP addresses and device types) matching, along with behavioral data, multiple devices can be associated with a single user. This unlocks new opportunities for personalization, attribution modeling, user experience optimization and more. With all touchpoints connected, marketers can analyze consumers from a more holistic and nuanced perspective.
Furthermore, marketers can use this information to retarget viewers with ads based on their previous behaviors and ensure consistent brand messaging across devices. This also opens up new possibilities for sequential storytelling that captures attention and builds anticipation, creating deeper connections, and driving repeat engagement.
CTV opens a door to new opportunities in programmatic advertising as well. Combining programmatic’s ability to automate ad buying with data-driven precise targeting and CTV’s omnipresence across devices, advertisers can scale campaigns over a range of steaming services and reach viewers on the platforms they engage with most.
Programmatic advertising also enables the real-time personalization of ad creatives by utilizing data, automation, and decision-making to tailor ads to specific individuals or audience segments.
Additionally, with real-time bidding and programmatic auctions, brands can maximize cost efficiency, optimize ad spend and ensure they are getting the best value for their investment. Overall, engaging in programmatic advertising on CTV is a win for both brands and their consumers.
In 2025, the use cases for AI-driven analytics will only grow. In particular, AI can be extremely helpful for granular audience segmentation that enables precise targeting for tailored ad content. When brands leverage data-driven segmentation, it can yield incredible results.
According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), segmented campaigns have the potential to increase revenue by 760% when compared to a one-size-fits-all campaign. Now with the help of AI, marketers can zero in on even more specific segments. AI can help facilitate micro-segmentation techniques such as behavioral, geographic and psychographic segmentation that give crucial insights into a consumer’s personality, location, the ways they take action and more.
When taken in kind with content preferences, device usage and viewing habits, even the most niche audiences will feel like they are being served relevant and engaging ads. However, it remains important to optimize ad frequency to avoid viewer fatigue––metrics that can also be measured with the help of AI.
Viewer engagement and ad performance metrics are more accessible than ever with CTV. With advanced CTV analytics tools, brands can easily measure ROI and attribute conversions to specific ads, helping to inform future strategy. Integrating CTV data into broader omnichannel marketing efforts adds significant detail and helps clarify the bigger picture of a given customer journey. Brands can also leverage cross-platform attribution models to measure key metrics such as audience overlap and ad exposure with accuracy. By analyzing CTV data, marketers can understand the impact of the full funnel, from brand awareness to conversion.
Taken together, these trends have the power to drive innovation and shape the advertising landscape in 2025. Utilizing the right combination of these methods, marketers can create more engaging, data-driven CTV campaigns, driving growth and moving the needle on what’s possible in advertising.
Curious about leveraging CTV opportunities in 2025? Discover how Data Axle’s data-driven solutions can help you unlock the full potential of your advertising strategy. Contact us to learn more!
Courtney is a seasoned communications and public relations professional with 17+ years of experience working in both the public and private sectors in diverse leadership roles. As Data Axle’s Senior Public Relations Manager, she is intently focused on elevating the company’s media relations presence and increasing brand loyalty and awareness through landing coverage in top-tier media outlets.