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We ran a Connected TV (CTV) test for one of our clients in the high ticket local service space.
Three days later the pipeline held $60,000 in lead value.
CTV works extremely well, even on small budgets when the targeting is tight enough.
This test proves it. We targeted only 5 high-value zip codes that we knew would convert.
But most marketers still misunderstand how CTV advertising actually works.
Here’s what’s worth learning…
What most marketers get wrong about CTV
Three things you probably didn’t know:
- Entry costs. Most self-serve CTV platforms start around $50/day in minimum spend. Our $500 outcome came in just the first few days of a fresh campaign running around $150/day.
- Creative. The best performing CTV ads are 15 second spots. You don’t need to film a video essay. Be short, direct, and built for the living room. One offer, one call to action, readable from the couch.
- Measurement. A pixel on your site connects the TV view to everything that happens after. Someone sees the ad on their TV, then visits the site on their phone later that night. The pixel ties it together. Visits, pages, purchases, form fills, all of it.
How $500 found $60,000
The setup was simple.
- One ad, built for the living room
- One service area (only 5 zips)
- One audience
- One offer
The test had no room for confusion:
- No search ads layered on top
- No social retargeting
- No organic boost
Just CTV, zip code targeted around the areas this client already serves best.
The leads that came in had an average value of $15,000 per customer.
The Lesson: You don’t need a huge/national budget to test TV anymore. You need a tight geography, a clear offer, and a way to track every inbound lead back to the campaign dates.
13X sell-through from zip code targeting
We ran the same campaign structure in a different category, for one of our retail clients.
The CTV test ran for a month in zip codes around their strongest stores.
Then we compared in store sell-through against the year over year average across the same stores.
Sell through in the CTV markets ran 13X the average store.
Local CTV moves people off the couch & product off shelves.
They cut lead cost 57% by leaving search
A payroll provider just showed what happens when you reinvest your existing ad spend into CTV.
Seer Interactive and StackAdapt shifted spend out of paid search and into programmatic CTV and video.
They used account based marketing (ABM)* and cross channel attribution to drive significantly cheaper lead costs.
Within one month, cost per qualified lead fell 57% (Source Link)
* Account Based Marketing
The practice of targeting specific companies / contacts with multi-channel marketing campaigns.
4x ROAS and 27% cheaper customers
Playtika ran Bingo Blitz through Samsung Ads for three months, then decided to keep it on permanently.
The numbers:
• Nearly 4x ROAS
• 60% lower cost per install
• 54% more impressions.
Brew Dr. Kombucha put 28% of paid spend into CTV.
As a result their blended customer acquisition cost (CAC) cut 27%.
Down from $38.40 to $28.10.
And a +19% incremental lift in total purchases.
The pattern behind all four case studies
Every one of them measured the result outside the ad platform.
- Pipeline value
- Store sell through
- Qualified lead cost
- Install volume tied to spend
Both 2POINT tests used tight geography and short campaigns.
Both outside lead cases funded CTV by pulling budget off search or social.
- Keep a small footprint
- A clean comparison
- Use a key business metric as the scoreboard for success
Next steps if you want to test for yourself
- Run a small geo targeted CTV test around your best locations or service areas.
- Hold out one comparable market so you can prove it performed better.
- Track leads and in store sales first, then watch branded search and direct traffic as the secondary signal.
If $500 can surface $60,000 in demand…
Why are you waiting to find out what it’ll do for your business?
Are you spending on CTV?
Guessing costs more than testing.
A short audit shows whether your media budget is ready for it.
