From Spray and Pray to Chase and Waste: The Growing Pains of CTV
In the linear TV era, advertisers lived by “spray and pray.” You bought prime-time networks, blasted your ads, and hoped enough of your audience saw them. Waste was inevitable, but at least the reach was real.
CTV promised to fix that with targeting, frequency caps, and cross-device measurement. But in practice? We’re now facing a new problem: chase and waste.
The Inventory Problem
Every month, new streaming platforms and FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels enter the market, eager to sell inventory. On paper, this looks like endless reach. In reality, many impressions land on channels no one actually watches.
Meanwhile, the ads people are paying attention to sit inside walled gardens like Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+—platforms that guard their inventory and prove engagement. Everything else risks being filler, with DSPs and platforms clipping fees along the way.
The Frequency Factor
One of the biggest promises of CTV was frequency control. Linear campaigns often overshot—viewers saw the same ad 10+ times just to guarantee a baseline of 3 exposures.
With CTV, we can (in theory) cap frequency at the ideal sweet spot of 4–6 exposures per viewer. Research shows that’s where recall peaks without tipping into annoyance. Too few exposures and your brand gets forgotten. Too many, and you’re wallpaper—or worse, irritating.
The challenge is fragmentation. Without coordination across platforms, it’s easy for one household to get hit with the same ad again and again on different apps.
The Measurement Gap
Unlike digital display, CTV doesn’t have universal viewability standards. An ad “served” isn’t always an ad “seen.” Brand lift can only be measured through post-campaign studies—something many advertisers skip.
That leaves marketers with shiny dashboards full of impressions, but little clarity on whether those impressions actually mattered.
Why This Matters for Your Brand
- Linear TV = spray and pray (wasteful, but at least tangible).
- CTV = chase and waste (precise on paper, but often fragmented or unseen).
At Brandtailers, we don’t just buy impressions—we buy impact. That means focusing on premium placements, managing frequency across platforms, and baking brand lift measurement into campaigns.
CTV is still one of the most powerful tools for building awareness. But success comes down to one simple truth: it’s not about how many ads you serve—it’s about how many are actually seen (and seen just enough times to make an impact).
