Social and search have long been the go-to places for performance dollars. But for a growing number of advertisers, CTV ads are now taking up a large portion of that space.
In our latest report, How SMBs Can Win the Year with CTV, we asked advertisers how they’re splitting their digital budgets, and CTV was the only channel they planned to grow in the second half of 2026, from 25% to 28% of their total budgets. Which made CTV the #1 priority channel, overtaking social for the first time.
A shift like that raises an obvious follow-up: what is CTV doing for the advertisers using it? The report’s other findings answer that. CTV is reaching audiences social and search can’t, building brand awareness at scale, and lifting performance in the channels around it. It’s part of a wider move to give TV a bigger slice of the media budget as streaming viewing grows.
Read on to learn the CTV advertising statistics and report findings, and how to shift ad budget to CTV without giving up what already works - with Q4 still open, and a 2027 plan to build.
Where connected TV advertising budgets are going in 2026
The easiest place to see the shift is in the budgets themselves. More than half of the advertisers we surveyed (54%) increased their CTV ad budgets this year, for two key reasons:
- They wanted to get in front of net-new audiences they weren’t capturing on social or search.
- Their CTV campaigns were driving strong results that they wanted to keep replicating.
Both are practical reasons, and both point to the same thing: CTV is earning its budget.
CTV ads work across the full funnel
Budget follows results, so it helps to look at what advertisers are asking CTV to do. A year ago, brand awareness was the primary CTV goal for 59% of advertisers. This year it’s 43%.
Better measurement has made it easier to see what CTV ads drive after the view, and advertisers have started asking more of the channel: more sales, more retargeting, more proof that it’s helping their other channels. Brand awareness is still the most common goal. It just has company now.
Brand awareness
If you’re deciding whether to start with awareness or go straight to sales, the advertisers getting the best results have a clear answer. Brand awareness was the primary goal for 53% of top performers (the advertisers who told us they’re meeting or exceeding their goals), compared with 36% of everyone else. They build the audience first, so the retargeting and sales campaigns that follow have people to reach.
Especially when you’re reaching the audiences of TV’s biggest shows: Paramount+ has a 21% higher ad attention rate than other AVOD services, and CTV ads on Paramount Ads Manager run as unskippable 15 or 30 second spots on the biggest screen in the house.
Net-new audience reach
Awareness works best when it reaches net-new people, and that’s where CTV shines. 68% of advertisers said CTV has put them in front of audiences they couldn’t reach on social or search.
Paramount’s audience data shows how that plays out. Most Paramount viewers (84%) engage on social monthly, so for them CTV is another touchpoint with your brand while they’re leaned in to a favorite show.
The other 16% aren’t active on social, so they’re net-new reach your social buy won’t touch. Add Paramount to a Facebook buy and it adds 44% more reach. Add it to a YouTube buy and it adds 64% more.
Cross-channel lift
For the viewers who are on social and search too, CTV gives those channels a head start. Among advertisers who saw lift when they ran CTV alongside other channels, 55% saw it in paid search and 55% saw it in paid social. Part of the reason is likely the mood viewers are in: 9 in 10 people are in a good mood when they’re watching TV. A brand they see during a favorite show is more likely to be recognized, and remembered fondly, when your social ad or search result shows up later.
What CTV costs: Perception vs reality
If budget is the sticking point, you’re in good company. Among the advertisers we surveyed, 67% think CTV costs more than social.
But the numbers tell a different story. The average Meta CPM runs $11.54 to $13.48, and CTV campaigns on Paramount Ads Manager start at $7 CPM.
Pricing scales with the placements and goals you choose, and you can use our pricing calculator for estimates around how far your own budget could go before you commit a dollar.
Social and CTV work better together: How to shift ad budget to CTV
Streaming TV advertising works for small businesses the same way your other digital channels do: you pick a goal, set a budget, choose your audience, and measure what happens.
Compare CTV vs. social advertising side by side, and the data favors running both. So a good budget shift keeps social going and gives it a stronger partner. Here’s how to do it in six steps.
- Carve out a test slice. Move a portion of your social or search budget to CTV ads, and hold it for at least 30 days so you have enough time to see results.
- Give it more than one run. The instinct with any new channel is to run one test and judge it on the result. But with CTV, our findings point to a longer game. Only 56% of advertisers with under six months of CTV experience felt confident in their Q4 media mix, compared with 80% of advertisers with two or more years. And advertisers who ran 2+ campaigns on Paramount Ads Manager saw 5.3x higher ROAS than one-time buyers. So plan your test as a series, and make the call at the end of it.
- Install the Pixel before you launch. Paramount Ads Manager is a performance TV ad platform with attribution built in: the Pixel connects to Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, BigCommerce, and Weebly, and it shows the site visits, leads, and purchases your CTV ads drive. Advertisers with a pixel were 28% more likely to meet or exceed their goals, and the earlier it’s in place, the more data you’ll have.
- Pair always-on brand awareness campaigns with seasonal sales pushes. Only 18% of advertisers run always-on and seasonal campaigns together, yet 71% of that group met or exceeded their goals. An always-on awareness campaign builds the audience, and seasonal pushes for your biggest moments land on a warmer one. Then run a social campaign with similar messaging alongside it so each channel reinforces the other.
- Run Retargeting campaigns on Paramount Ads Manager. With awareness running and your Pixel installed, you’ve built an audience worth reconnecting with. Retargeting brings your site visitors back on the biggest screen in the house.
- Work with a measurement partner to see cross-channel lift. Paramount Ads Manager partners with independent providers including Haus, INCRMNTAL, and Northbeam so you can see how CTV performs alongside search, social, and your other channels with incrementality testing. Explore Partner Directory >
Keep social running through all six steps. As CTV and social work together to build the audience and turn viewers into customers, you’ll have the numbers to decide where the next dollar goes.
Why now is the time to move budget to CTV
Act now before Q4 closes
Q4 is where all of this comes to a head, and top performers know it. 56% of them plan to raise CTV spend around the Winter Holidays, more than any other Q4 moment, with fall TV programming and fall sports close behind.
And Paramount’s audience is ready for it. Paramount Streaming viewers are 11% more attentive to ads in Q4 than in Q3, and Paramount viewers are 82% more likely to make a purchase after seeing a holiday TV ad than non-Paramount viewers.
Plan now before 2027 hits
Planning ahead is another pattern that separates top performers. Advertisers who plan their CTV campaigns three or more months out were 46% more likely to hit their goals, and 80% more likely to confirm cross-channel lift (36% vs. 20%).
So when you’re locking in quarterly plans, bring CTV into the conversation early. Use that time to pick the moments you want to show up for, get your Pixel installed, and line up creative before the calendar fills up.
Start running more CTV ads with Paramount Ads Manager
Ready to start moving more of your budget to CTV? Get your brand in front of TV’s biggest shows, and let the results show you where the next dollar should go.
