CTV Retargeting: Everything Marketers Need to Know

Connected TV (CTV) advertising has experienced significant growth in recent years thanks to its ability to combine the broad reach of traditional linear TV advertising with the precise audience targeting, real-time measurement, and attribution capabilities typically associated with modern digital advertising. But another area where CTV excels is in retargeting campaigns.

With CTV retargeting, the channel transforms from a top-of-funnel awareness tool into a powerful performance driver, allowing marketers to deliver sequential messaging and re-engage audiences across multiple channels and devices.

In this blog post, we’ll explain what CTV retargeting is, how it works, and the ways marketers can use it to move viewers further down the funnel and drive them toward conversion.

What Is Connected TV Retargeting?

CTV retargeting is a programmatic advertising strategy that allows brands to serve targeted ads to viewers who have previously interacted with them. It uses audience data to re-engage viewers while they watch content on streaming services like Disney, Max, and Peacock or across other digital advertising channels.

How CTV Retargeting Works

It all starts with an ad.

In the most common scenario, a viewer is at home watching TV on an ad-supported streaming service like Paramount+ or Pluto TV. When they reach an ad break, a bid request gets sent to a demand-side platform, such as StackAdapt, which processes it based on the advertiser’s campaign parameters and determines whether to bid on it.

Once the ad is delivered to the viewer, a cross-device or identity graph links their exposure to other digital touchpoints by matching residential IP addresses, device IDs, and other deterministic or probabilistic signals. This allows marketers to place them into an audience segment for retargeting and deliver follow-up ads on other devices across digital advertising channels like display, native, and video.

Unlike CTV, where direct engagement usually isn’t possible, these channels provide opportunities for users to take a specific action, such as clicking a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase—moving them further down the conversion funnel.

Ultimately, though, there’s no defined sequence regarding what channels you use and in what order as part of your retargeting campaign.

For example, you could use native or display ads to drive initial engagement and then use a retargeting pixel, which identifies and pools users who either visited your site or completed a specific action into a retargeting audience, to re-engage site visitors on CTV devices by serving them ads while they’re streaming content. This allows you to make a greater visual impact on a bigger screen than a laptop or smartphone—perfect for brands with strong visuals and more of a story to tell.

CTV vs. Traditional TV

Although traditional linear TV has long been prized for its broad reach and brand-building capabilities, things are changing.

After peaking in 2018, linear TV ad spending is on a downward trend, with ad spend expected to decrease from $60.56 billion USD in 2024 to $56.83 billion USD in 2027. At the same time, CTV usage is increasing, with EMARKETER forecasting that US adults will spend 20% of their entire media time watching CTV by 2026.

As a result, EMARKETER reports that CTV ad spending will experience consistent double-digit annual growth between now and 2028 when it will officially surpass traditional linear TV ad spending for the first time.

A big part of that is CTV’s precise targeting capabilities. 

Although addressable TV is helping to bridge the gap, an IAB survey found that 84% of marketers believe CTV delivers better audience targeting capabilities than traditional linear TV. CTV becomes even more effective when used as part of a multi-channel retargeting strategy, allowing marketers to run campaigns more efficiently and at a lower cost than relying on traditional TV alone.

Benefits of CTV Retargeting

Along with its growing audience and enhanced targeting capabilities, here are a few reasons why you should use CTV as part of your retargeting strategy:

Higher Viewability and Completion Rates

Unlike traditional linear TV and other video advertising formats, viewers often can’t skip ads while streaming TV. That’s part of why viewability rates on CTV are so high, with CTV having an average viewability rate of 93.3% and a completion rate of 94.5%.

As a result, CTV ads offer greater ad exposure and higher engagement, making them a valuable tool for brand awareness and performance-driven campaigns.

For example, a marketer could retarget users who watched a CTV ad in full and serve follow-up ads encouraging users who are more likely to convert to click through and complete an action, such as a purchase, sign-up, or form fill.

Enhanced Engagement

Although the exact number is often debated, the average person sees anywhere from a handful to hundreds of ads per day. 

How sticky they are—or, to phrase it another way, how memorable they are—often depends on the channel.

CTV—with its lean-back viewing experience and big-screen impact—is more immersive than other forms of digital advertising. It captures people’s attention, making it easier to build brand awareness, whether used as the first touchpoint in a campaign or to reinforce messaging when retargeting users.

Premium Ad Placements

On a similar note, because CTV provides access to high-quality inventory in the form of ad breaks that air before, during, and after prestige programming, live sports, and popular TV shows—content that naturally drives high levels of engagement—it’s often easier for viewers to recall the brand message and associate it with premium content. 

This is especially important in retargeting campaigns, where repeated exposure and consistent messaging across multiple touchpoints help reinforce brand recognition and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Incremental Reach

Linear TV viewership continues to decline as more audiences shift to streaming platforms. Meanwhile, ad blockers can reduce the reach of traditional display and video ads on desktop and mobile. CTV fills this gap by engaging cord-cutters and streaming-first audiences who may be unreachable through traditional linear TV or digital display ads. When used in retargeting campaigns, it extends reach beyond desktop and mobile, ensuring brands stay top-of-mind across multiple screens.

Multi-Channel, Cross-Device Targeting

Last but certainly not least is the ability to use CTV as part of full-funnel, end-to-end campaigns. A platform like StackAdapt provides access to not just CTV but other channels—like native, display, video, and more—on devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers. This allows marketers to deliver a seamless brand experience across multiple screens, ensuring consistent messaging and better engagement throughout the customer journey.

Developing a CTV Retargeting Strategy: Best Practices

Now that we’ve gone over what CTV retargeting is, how it works, and its benefits to marketers, here are a few tips and considerations to keep in mind as you start planning your campaigns:

Keep Creatives Consistent

Whether you design your CTV ads in-house or work with an external creative agency, you want to ensure that they match the look and feel of one another. This will help reinforce brand identity and create a cohesive user experience.

For example, you could repurpose your CTV ad creatives for an in-banner video ad that auto-plays in a display placement online to reinforce brand recognition and further drive engagement.

Avoid Going Too Granular

The goal of any retargeting campaign is to re-engage a user who’s shown interest in your brand to keep them engaged and move them closer to a conversion.

Although you can use data to make informed targeting decisions, it’s hard to know what devices they’ll use, websites they’ll browse, or shows they’ll stream after seeing your ad.

So, instead of layering on overly restrictive targeting criteria, which can limit your scale, go broad with your choice of inventory and device types for your retargeting campaign to ensure you reach your audience wherever they are.

Track Return On Ad Spend to Understand Campaign Impact

There are a ton of metrics you can track. But any data analyst will tell you that it can get really fragmented once you go down the rabbit hole and start breaking down too many individual metrics.

With any marketing campaign, at the end of the day, you’re trying to prove how effectively your ad dollars are driving measurable results.

Thankfully, that’s easier in multi-channel campaigns, where CTV’s flexibility allows for real-time optimizations. Tweaking inventory types, adjusting audience segments, or optimizing ad placements based on engagement can provide immediate insights that help fine-tune campaign performance.

To get the full picture, marketers need to work with technology partners to track the entire customer journey—from the moment a user sees a CTV ad to when they visit a site, engage with follow-up messaging, and ultimately convert—to understand its effectiveness as part of an end-to-end, multi-touch strategy.

Want to learn more about the power of CTV advertising? Download our latest guide or speak to someone on our team to learn more about what you can do with CTV retargeting in StackAdapt.