Performance marketers are confronting a series of fundamental challenges as the media channels they have come to rely on undergo profound changes. Artificial intelligence is radically changing how search engines operate. Advertisers are maxing out audience reach on social platforms. Social media campaigns are becoming inefficient before budgets are fully activated. As advertisers look for scalable, effective ways to drive action and reach new audiences, Connected TV (CTV) is emerging as a powerful solution.
Performance marketing’s once-dominant channels are under pressure
AI is wreaking havoc on search. In 2025, 80 million Americans will use a generative AI system to search or get answers to questions outside the context of traditional web search engines, according to eMarketer. In response to this shift, consumers have started encountering AI-generated summaries atop their search results. This shift is inadvertently eroding the value of search ads.
According to a March 2025 Pew Research Center analysis of the search data of 900 Americans, AI summaries have driven down clicks on search results by 50%. As a result, marketers are seeing steep declines in performance from a channel that once delivered predictable ROI. Nikhil Lai, principal performance marketing analyst at Forrester, told The Wall Street Journal that “SEO teams have been caught flat-footed,” underscoring the speed and scale of this disruption.
Simultaneously, the rocket ship that is social media has hit a wall – or if you prefer, is experiencing “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.” Nearly 75% of performance marketers report a decline in efficacy in their social media spend. Diminishing returns are becoming a reality for a significant portion of advertisers, often occurring before they reach 50-70% of their planned spend. The saturation of target audiences on social platforms is leading to rapidly climbing customer acquisition costs, forcing brands to seek new avenues to reach incremental audiences.
The enduring power of TV: stable audiences and tremendous reach
In a climate where old-school digital performance channels are failing, advertisers now have a new solution: CTV. Once thought of for just brand awareness, CTV now provides advertisers with scale, engagement, and the ability to drive action. CTV offers dynamic, emotional ad messages that can reach new audiences in novel ways, which maxed-out performance channels can’t deliver.
In recent research, Samsung Ads finds that 83% of all Smart TV owners and 96% of younger owners do more than “just watch” their TVs. Americans use their Smart TVs for classes, gaming, smart home management, and much more. They expect their TVs to be as actionable, interactive, and responsive as other digital screens in their lives. And, as Smart TV engagement deepens, the data it generates becomes increasingly valuable. Smart TV manufacturers now access a wealth of data which, combined with advances in machine learning and AI, is transforming TV from a branding tool into a performance marketing engine.
The TV has been a central fixture in American homes for more than 70 years, successfully weathering the rise of other media like tablets and smartphones. This consistency helps CTV offer what other performance channels struggle to deliver: massive reach and emotional resonance. Nearly all U.S. households own a TV, and Connected TVs now reach more than 88% of Americans. In stark contrast, In stark contrast, Facebook, the largest social platform, only reaches 54% of the U.S. population. Even in the aggregate, social media does not have the reach of television — just 70% of Americans use some form of social media,
CTV Brandformance: awareness + action
Not only does CTV reach audiences that social media often misses, it effectively connects with those who might be present on social platforms but are less responsive to direct calls to action within those environments. CTV offers multiple ad formats to advertisers that can be combined in different ways to drive action. Traditional :15s and :30s video ads continue to be the workhorse of marketers’ awareness campaigns. New ad formats and placements, including interactive ads that invite action, vertical video units that match social content, and native placements on TV home screens that reach every user as they browse power performance, are driving viewers to action.
Perhaps most importantly, CTV doesn’t force marketers to choose between brand and performance. It delivers both. Recent research shows that “the distinction between ‘brand’ and ‘performance’ advertising is a false choice. Advertising is most effective when it pursues both of these jobs.” Campaigns that strategically connect upper- and lower-funnel tactics deliver what the study refers to as a “multiplier effect.” The report goes on to suggest that marketers “think in terms of full-funnel creative platforms, where different types of assets reinforce each other.” With emotionally engaging, full-screen creative and precise, data-driven targeting, CTV campaigns both build awareness and drive immediate action.
CTV is ready for the performance spotlight
Advertisers who have hit the limits of traditional performance channels are finding that CTV offers a path forward. It reaches new audiences that social media can’t. It reconnects with existing audiences in a more powerful format. And it delivers measurable results, thanks to advances in attribution, targeting, and interactivity.
