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# How Connected TV is Taking Advertising by Storm
Karina Margit Erdelyi
Updated 10.29.2024
6-minute read
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Change is the only constant in the media world, and Connected TV is changing the face of television advertising. Here’s how.
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The contours of the media landscape are ever-changing. What was once ubiquitous is now far less so. By the end of 2022,  cut the cord on traditional cable, a number expected to hit nearly 47 million households by the end of 2024.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that so many are saying bye (or never saying hello) to traditional cable with a plethora of streaming services like Netflix, Prime TV, Hulu, Apple TV+, Disney+, and more, which allow viewers to watch what they want, when they want, for less than the cost of a traditional cable subscription.
## **What is CTV?**
In this rapidly shifting landscape, digital marketing is experiencing major change, with Connected TV—or CTV—emerging as a pivotal player, transforming how audiences engage with content. CTV is any television set that connects to the internet and streams digital video content through built-in smart TV functionality or external devices like streaming sticks like Roku, set-top boxes, or gaming consoles.
With this technology, viewers can access a wide range of content that goes far beyond traditional broadcast channels, like streaming services, on-demand video, and internet applications. All of this is causing major shifts in how brands advertise to their audiences, with CTV advertising in ascendancy and changing the TV advertising game. Let’s dig in.
## **The What and the Why of CTV Advertising**
CTV advertising refers to video ads delivered through a streaming service while a viewer watches a TV show, movie, or other video content on an actual TV set via a connected device like Firestick or Roku or directly from a smart TV. For most streaming services, , the remainder occurring on other internet-connected devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
Unlike traditional television advertising, CTV advertising leverages viewer data like demographics, viewing habits, and interests, allowing for a more targeted and personalized ad experience. Advertisers gain improved measurement and tracking abilities, allowing for smarter and more efficient ad spending — and the ability to reach more niche audiences with greater precisions.
### **Evolution of TV Advertising**
Traditional or linear TV advertising lets advertisers reach millions of viewers all at the same time. Linear TV advertising is what you see when you watch broadcast or cable TV — the traditional, old-school TV advertising that’s been around for decades. Linear TV ads reach *everyone* watching a particular program rather than just their intended audience. And measuring the success of a linear TV ad campaign is more nebulous — it’s hard to know if anyone went to go buy something after watching the ad.
With changing viewer behavior as cable and satellite TV use continue to drop, advertisers are instead following their viewers over to CTV, lured by more measurable ad performance metrics and better-optimized campaign management overall. As linear advertising spend declines, CTV ad spend is fast on the rise.
 in 2024, an increase of 16.2% from 2023. In 2025, it is forecast to hit $24.4 billion, growing year over year by 13.9%.
### CTV Advertising vs OTT Advertising
OTT means “Over-the-Top,” referring to content that goes “over” your cable box, providing access to TV content via an internet connection instead of with a cable cord or satellite. While OTT and CTV are often used interchangeably, and *can* refer to the same thing, it’s important to note that OTT is *how* video content is delivered to viewers — it can stream content across all devices, like mobile and desktop. CTV only streams content onto smart TV screens, which is why it is often referred to as streaming TV advertising.
OTT ad inventory tends to differ from CTV, which typically has premium network content similar to what you would find on traditional TV. In contrast, OTT offers a much wider range of inventory.
### So, Why Use CTV ads?
If you want your ads to help you find users who actually want your products or services, CTV ads are the way to go. As streaming services like Hulu and Netflix adjust their pricing models to an ad-supported tiered system that displays more ads to folks on less expensive plans and fewer or no ads to those on higher plans, marketers can now zero in on their demographic with far more precision.
Here are a few other perks that come with CTV ads:
1. ### **Multiple precision targeting methods**
With linear TV, targeting is limited to finding shows that best index against ratings — the system network television uses to make programming decisions and to price advertisements. But Nielsens’ typically can only offer broad age and gender demographic metrics, like women 25 – 54 and men 18 – 49. But CTV advertisers can leverage similar digital targeting to Google and Facebook, which means audience segments can be based on everything from income or education level to personal interests and more.
Some of the top CTV targeting options to get familiar with include:
* Geolocation targeting
* Contextual targeting
* Retargeting
* Time-of-day targeting
* Lookalike targeting
2. ### **Hyper-local targeting**
With CTV ads, it’s far easier to pinpoint consumers based on their IP address, which means ads can be hyper-localized and served to viewers in far smaller geographic areas than with linear ads. Messaging can be highly customized based on where the viewer is located. For example, a spa with four locations can send the right commercial to the right viewers closest to each location.
3. ### **High Video completion rates**
Superior targeting means that CTV ads are far more likely to be truly relevant to those viewing them—which means they are more likely to be interested in the ad and engage with it until completion. Using automatic content recognition technology, or ACR, CTV providers can provide real-time, second-by-second completion rate data, which helps advertisers hone the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
4. ### **Detailed attribution measurement and accuracy**
CTV ads allow advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their brand campaigns more accurately via conversions — they can see who came to the brand’s website and completed a purchase after viewing an ad. With time and increased data, advertisers can learn what creative worked best and which publishers, dates, times, and other factors had the greatest impact on conversions.
**BOTTOM LINE**Marketers, if you want to lead your company’s CTV marketing innovation charge but need help figuring out where to start,  can provide the talent and build the teams to help you perfectly craft and precisely target your brand to shine on the TV screen. The media landscape is fast evolving — to succeed, it’s important to prime your business to be in step with the times.
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# Social Media Magic: 5 Quick Tips
Kayleigh at Creative Circle
Updated 09.23.2024
7-minute read
Running a business’ social media account is easy, right? Take some pictures, reshare relatable memes, post links to your products — simple!
Not quite.
I’m a freelance content creator for Creative Circle; I write blogs, manage our candidate newsletter, and own our  and  accounts. To me, creating content is equal parts exciting and complicated, especially when it comes to social media.
I get to share job search advice and tips, feature interviews with , highlight exciting new , spotlight our talented candidates, and I even get to sprinkle in the occasional Taylor Swift meme. It’s exciting and rewarding — especially when someone finds my content useful.
But sometimes my content doesn’t reach the audience I want to. That’s the complicated part. Maybe I jumped on a trend too late, or posted at the wrong time, or didn’t align my post caption strategically enough with the latest hashtags and keywords.  And when a post receives little engagement, that can be deflating.
Social media content creation and management requires careful planning, strategic execution, and skill. Don’t just take it from me; take it from the 800+ voters and dozens of comments from social media creators . As Kiara F. says, managing socials is like 
If you’re like me, you’re constantly looking for ways to level-up your social media chess game — to get new followers, to increase engagement, to deliver the content your audience truly cares about. And you know what my favorite source of inspiration is? Other creators.
**I’ve partnered with two Creative Circle freelancers to compile a list of five tips to produce quality, engaging social media content.**
 has four years of experience managing and creating social media content. She finds it thrilling to curate content that excites her audience and piques their curiosity. She’s currently working with clients in the fashion and beauty space.
 has five years of experience as a social media art director. He enjoys how the spontaneity and limitations of tight deadlines and less-than-desirable shooting locations push him to think creatively. His clients are in the technology, entertainment, and ecommerce space.
## **Here are 5 tips to consider:**
### **Don’t constantly scramble to hop on the latest audio trend. It might not be as impactful as you think.**
Trending audio has taken social media by storm. It’s fun, catchy, and very in-the-moment, but it truthfully . It has its time and place, but it doesn’t well-suit the content you want to remain evergreen.
“Sometimes content production timelines can run longer than expected, and the trendy music can really date that edit,” says Brian. “You don’t want your video to feel outdated when someone comes across it on their TikTok Discover or Instagram Explore page for the first time.”
### **Listen. Listen. Listen.**
Yes, we do get paid to scroll. And for good reason. Scrolling, listening, and exploring is where ideas are born as you identify emerging trends, understand your audience’s behavior and preferences, monitor your competitors’ activity, and more.
Jordin says, “Listening is my number one tip. I scroll social media searching for anything that excites me. I listen to what people are saying, what they’re listening to, and what they want more of.” She suggests listening to what your audience sounds like and tailoring your content to that.
Brian warns creators about replicating what their competitors are doing. “Consider finding inspiration one or two degrees away from your direct competitors. For example, if you are creating content for a high-end pet brand, see what high-end fashion is doing.”
Since scrolling for research can quickly turn to “”, consider setting a timer for 30–40 minutes each day and limit yourself to that time. As you scroll, save the content that inspires you or note it down somewhere.
### **Stand out with a strong brand voice.**
In a crowded market, your unique voice can set you apart from your competitors. What personality traits do you want your brand to embody? Is it friendly, authoritative, humorous, or professional? You can shift your voice slightly from channel to channel, too. Remember — your voice doesn’t just shine through in your content and post captions, but also in the way you 
Jordin says “The demographics from platform to platform are different, so I tweak my voice accordingly. LinkedIn gets the professional voice, TikTok gets the younger, cooler voice, while Instagram gets the voice of the big sister.”
Brian suggests some ways to get creative with your tone. “To stand out, try giving a more casual piece of content a professional feel or vice versa. Consider shooting something that is funnier or more trend-driven with great lighting and a high-end camera. Or use viral TikTok style editing for a more serious piece of content. This can help keep personality in posts while remaining on brand,” Brian says.
### **Have fun.**
Splashing some fun into your content can help humanize your brand and make your page a place where your followers want to hang out. Try being real about your industry and adding tasteful humor; for example, , or the  working with clients.
LinkedIn polls usually reach ! Try asking your audience a lighthearted question or get their opinion on a topic that means something to your brand. Drop an open-ended question in the post body and encourage your followers to engage. This can be a fun way to create conversation with your audience in a more personal way.
### **Post when your followers are online.**
This is unique to each business and channel — check your channel insights to know when the majority of your followers are online. Identify peak times of engagement and post then. Experiment with posting at different times and days of the week, then track the performance of those posts.
At Creative Circle, our followers (mostly jobseekers) spend some time online in the evenings, so we’ve tested posting during those hours and have seen some success. When in doubt, you can always fall back on  as a starting point, to give your content the best possible chance of success.
If you’re craving more tips, consider following these three accounts on Instagram. They’re constantly serving digital content tips to my feed:
If you’re currently working in social media content creation and enjoying your work, stick to it — you have one of the ! And, according to market.us, the digital content creation market is projected to climb to  (from 27.1 billion in 2023).
If you’re looking for work in this industry, sign up for our  and . If you’re in need of a social media content creation or consultation for your business,  — we have an impressive pool of talent ready to work for you!
**About the Author.**Kayleigh is a Creative Circle freelancer — when she’s not chasing around her two young boys or laughing at  videos, she spends her time creating content for us! She specializes in sharing advice for our talent community, so if you’re a creative with an appetite for blogs on market trends, job search guidance, and freelance life,  and  to ensure you never miss the latest.