CTV Measurement: Connected TV Metrics and KPIs You Need to Track

For years, advertisers prioritized traditional linear TV advertising over other channels for its broad reach and affordability.

There was just one major problem: reporting was limited, with advertisers often relying on estimated viewership numbers from Nielsen ratings and spikes in web or store traffic after a commercial aired to assess whether a campaign was effective.

Connected TV (CTV) advertising changes that. 

With CTV measurement, marketers can access accurate, granular insights to adjust, optimize, and personalize campaigns for better performance, in real time and throughout the entire funnel.

CTV’s advanced measurement capabilities are part of the reason why CTV advertising continues experiencing historic adoption, with CTV ad spending forecasted to see double-digit annual growth and reach $46.89 billion USD in 2028, the same year EMARKETER predicts it will officially surpass traditional linear TV ad spending.

With CTV expected to account for 20% of the average US adult’s media time per day by 2026, it’s never been more clear that CTV is the future of TV advertising.

Read on to learn how CTV measurement works, what metrics and KPIs you need to track, and how you can use it to go beyond top-of-funnel awareness and increase conversions for you or your clients.

What Is Connected TV Measurement?

CTV measurement tracks and analyzes the performance of CTV ad campaigns, providing marketers with the data needed to optimize and assess the effectiveness of their CTV marketing strategies.

How Does CTV Measurement Work?

Here’s a simplified explanation of how CTV measurement works and can be used to improve attribution and campaign performance:

• Similar to the measurement methods used for display ads or other forms of digital advertising, a 1×1 pixel is placed on the CTV creative and the advertiser’s landing page.
• The client works with the CTV advertising platform to define the conditions that trigger when the pixel events fire (for example, based on a view-through or quartile completion). 
• CTV ads are then served to targeted audiences through the platform based on the campaign parameters.
• When a viewer sees an ad or takes an action that triggers the pixel event to fire, the signal is sent back to the platform’s pixel server to record the event and measure the performance of the CTV campaign. For example, if a user watches a CTV ad in full and visits the advertiser’s landing page within a predefined timeframe to make a purchase, a view-through conversion is recorded, attributing the action to the CTV campaign.
• Advertisers can then use these insights to optimize and further refine their CTV campaigns, providing them with actionable data to improve performance and demonstrate ROI to key stakeholders or clients.

Of course, CTV measurement doesn’t only apply to online conversions. As we’ll get into later, it can also be used with tools and 3rd-party integrations to assess more than online sales, such as increased brand awareness or foot traffic.

9 CTV Metrics You Need to Track

There are various sets of CTV metrics and KPIs that you can use to assess the success of your ads. Ultimately, the ones you choose should be based on the unique goals of your campaign.

To help you get started, here are some common ones you should consider tracking:

1. Impressions

Impressions track how many times a CTV ad is shown to viewers. This simple metric—a foundational element of reporting in digital advertising—is a huge improvement over traditional TV measurement, providing a clearer picture of ad delivery and audience reach.

2. Frequency

Frequency measures how many times a unique viewer sees your ad. In CTV advertising, maintaining the right frequency is critical: too few exposures may fail to build awareness, while too many can lead to ad fatigue. Leveraging in-platform tools, like frequency caps, helps you strike the ideal balance—maximizing awareness and recall without overwhelming viewers.

3. Cost Per Mille (CPM)

CPM is a valuable metric, particularly in CTV advertising, because it allows advertisers to calculate the cost of delivering 1,000 ad impressions on various CTV platforms, helping them allocate budgets and plan their campaigns more effectively.

CPMs are typically higher in CTV than in other forms of digital advertising, with rates often ranging from $15 to $30 USD. That’s because CTV offers premium inventory compared to traditional digital video, with advertisers able to place ads on Disney+, Channel 4, and other high-profile publishers.

4. Unique Households

To measure the number of unique viewers exposed to your CTV ad, it’s important to focus on the unique number of households you reach. That’s because each household represents a distinct viewing environment, typically associated with a specific IP address, that could have multiple users streaming content and seeing the same ad together at the same time, making tracking unique households a more accurate metric in terms of measuring reach than individual impressions alone.

5. Completion Rate

The completion rate measures how much your CTV ad users watch from start to finish. Completion rates are typically higher in CTV than in other forms of video advertising because ads on CTV platforms are generally unskippable. Still, the completion rate is worth monitoring to assess audience engagement and the effectiveness of different ad creatives.

6. Cost Per Completed View (CPCV)

CPCV measures the amount an advertiser pays to a CTV platform or ad inventory provider when an ad is viewed through to completion. This pricing model ensures that advertisers pay exclusively for completed views. CPCV is particularly effective in CTV because, as previously mentioned, unskippable ads contribute to higher completion rates and provide better value for advertisers.

7. Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

ROAS measures the revenue earned for every dollar spent on CTV advertising. Similar to return on investment (ROI), ROAS measures the ROI of the money that was invested into a CTV campaign, helping you understand the effectiveness your campaign has on driving revenue and achieving your campaign goals.

8. View-Through Conversions

This metric measures how many people converted (for example, visited your website and made a purchase within a specific period of time) after viewing your CTV ad. Since CTV ads typically lack direct clicks, this metric highlights a CTV ad’s impact on driving conversions through indirect paths, supplementing traditional click-through metrics and providing actionable insights into brand recall and campaign effectiveness.

9. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate measures what percentage of viewers took a specific action—for example, visiting an e-commerce site and making a purchase—after seeing your CTV ad campaign. This is calculated by dividing the total number of CTV-certified conversions by the total number of CTV-certified visits and multiplying by 100 to arrive at the conversion percentage.

Using CTV Measurement to Gauge Brand Lift

Another strategy for CTV measurement is to leverage a brand lift study.

A brand lift study shows incremental lift through metrics like brand awareness, ad recall, and brand favourability.

Through this survey-based approach, advertisers can measure consumer sentiment and brand affinity by comparing the results of users who have been exposed to your CTV campaign and a control group who haven’t. You can then use this data to understand ROAS in more detail.

For example, Add3Connect used an in-platform brand lift study in StackAdapt to measure ad and brand recall for their client, Nuun, and demonstrate how their CTV campaign improved relative lift for ad recall by +18.7%. Learn more below.

The Future of  CTV Measurement

Although CTV is primarily known as a channel for increasing brand awareness at the top of the funnel, CTV is increasingly being used for lower-funnel marketing.

As EMARKETER reports, through partnerships and their own streaming services, retailers are making CTV more appealing to performance marketers by providing shoppable ads and closed-loop attribution.

But it’s not only retailers who benefit from recent advancements in CTV measurement.

Despite a lack of standardization hampering growth, CTV measurement, as a whole, is moving toward more accurate, privacy-compliant, and improved cross-device attribution.

Soon, expect CTV advertising platforms to provide more actionable insights—not just on awareness, but performance metrics like visits, conversions, and incremental lift—to help advertisers refine targeting, maximize ROI, and ultimately measure the success of their campaigns more effectively.

To learn more, request a demo of StackAdapt.