General Marketing
New to CTV? How to Choose Your First CTV Agency
New to connected TV? Here's a plain-English checklist for choosing your first CTV agency: 8 questions to ask before you sign, the red flags, what a fair first pilot looks like and how agency, self-serve and buying direct compare.
The Short Answer
Choose a CTV agency that tells you exactly where your ads will run, caps how often each household sees them, measures results in your own sales data instead of the platform's report, and starts with a short, fair pilot before any long contract. Here's the checklist.
This is for founders and marketing leads about to put their first real money into streaming TV.
If you've never bought TV before, good. You have no bad habits to unlearn.
Why Your First CTV Partner Matters More Than the Platform
A few days ago I searched "CTV agencies," the way a brand new to streaming TV would.
I kept getting the same answer. A list of names.
A list is a fine place to start. But it can't tell you which partner fits a brand that has never run TV. Questions can.
Here's why the partner matters so much. Connected TV is real television: full screen, sound on, in the living room. And it's where people watch now. In Nielsen's July 2026 report of The Gauge, streaming reached 49.0% of all TV viewing.
Budgets are following. IAB's September update to its 2026 outlook projects U.S. CTV ad spend up 15.6% this year, while linear TV is projected down 1.5%. The same study found 63% of buyers now name customer acquisition as a top media goal.
So the channel is ready. The platforms are good.
What decides your first campaign is who makes the spot, who picks the households, what number you're judged on and who tells you, honestly, whether it worked.
Your first CTV campaign is won or lost the day you pick the agency. Not the day it airs.
If you need the basics first, start with our CTV advertising 101.
The First-CTV-Agency Checklist: 8 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
1. Where exactly will my ads run?
Ask for the named apps and publishers, not "premium inventory." Ask whether they buy only from sellers each app has authorized in its app-ads.txt file, the IAB Tech Lab standard built to fight inventory fraud, including on connected TV.
2. How do you control frequency per household?
The same home seeing your ad six times in one night isn't reach. It's waste. Ask what the cap is and how they check it. (More on frequency caps for brands.)
3. How will results be measured, and by whom?
You want a reading that doesn't come only from the company that sold the ads. Ask how they'll check platform numbers against your own orders, and whether they'll hold back a group of households to see what CTV actually added. We call this triangulating CTV measurement.
4. What does a first test cost, and how long before we judge it?
Get both answers before you sign. A test that's too small or too short can't tell you anything, and that's not CTV's fault.
5. Who owns the accounts, data and creative when we stop?
Ask it plainly, and get the answer in the contract. You should know what you walk away with.
6. Can our spot be built for a TV screen, not a phone?
A vertical social ad stretched across a living-room TV looks like what it is. Ask who writes, shoots and cuts the spot.
7. How does CTV connect to our search, site and CRM?
TV sends people to search, visit and buy later. Ask how that path gets tracked from the ad to your own customer records.
8. Who on your side watches the buy every week?
You want a senior CTV specialist making the calls, not a handoff after the pitch.
If an answer is vague, ask again. A good partner likes these questions.
Red Flags When You're New to CTV
- "Premium inventory," with no list of where the ads actually ran.
- No KPI agreed in writing before launch.
- Results that come only from the platform that sold the ads.
- No plan to take your current customers out of the audience.
- A long contract before any test has been read.
- A verdict in week two, good or bad.
- Nobody can show you the plan, the delivery and the invoice side by side.
Every one of these is a buying problem, not a CTV problem. And every one is fixable before you spend a dollar.
What a Fair First Pilot Looks Like
A first campaign is a test. Its job is to give you a clear answer. Here's the shape of a fair one. The right column is how we do it at CS & Co., from our published terms.
| Pilot piece | What to ask for | How we do it at CS & Co. |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | A media budget big enough to read a result, sized to your KPI, not a round number | A $5,000 flat CTV Growth Plan sizes it. Media runs at cost, with no commission and no CPM markup |
| Length | Long enough for TV's delayed buying to show up, agreed before launch | Plan in ten business days; most campaigns live within 30 days |
| What you measure | Your own orders and new-customer cost, checked against the platform report | Weekly scorecard from your sales data, plus a held-back group of households where the budget supports one |
| Decision at the end | Scale, change or stop, in writing | A written decision. Success fee only if the KPI agreed in writing is hit |
The honest asterisk: a great partner can't promise your first test will win. Some tests say scale. Some say change the offer or the spot. Some say stop. All three are worth paying for, as long as the answer is clear. CTV fits best when you can see the sale in your own data and have an offer people can act on.
Agency vs. Self-Serve vs. Buying Direct
There are three ways in. Each one fits a different brand.
| CTV agency | Self-serve platform | Buying direct from a publisher | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | A team plans, buys, often makes the spot and reads results | You do, in the tool | You and the publisher's sales team |
| Reach | Many apps and publishers in one plan | Whatever the platform can access | That publisher's apps only |
| Measurement | Should be read in your own sales data, across the whole plan | Mostly the platform's own reporting | Mostly the publisher's own reporting |
| Creative | Often included or managed | You bring it | You bring it |
| Best for | A first campaign with a number to hit and no in-house TV team | Teams with CTV experience and time to manage it | Brands that want one specific show or app |
Self-serve tools make buying a few clicks. But clicks aren't management. Somebody still has to choose the households, set the frequency, check the delivery and read the sales. We've written about the self-serve risks and what an unmanaged CTV buy looks like.
How We Do It: The CS Method™
The CS Method™ is CS & Co.'s proprietary system for CTV. It pairs senior CTV specialists with AI and runs in four phases: Foundation, Execution, Optimization and Proof.
- Foundation: define the offer, the audience and the measurement, and agree the KPI in writing.
- Execution: put creative and media live with clean tracking, the held-back household group set up and current customers suppressed.
- Optimization: tune targeting, creative and frequency every week to lower the cost of each real result.
- Proof: tie spend to outcomes across several measurement layers, then decide in writing whether to scale, change or stop.
A senior operator owns every account. If you want the full picture, here's how we work as a CTV advertising agency that's paid on results.
FAQ
How much budget do I need to start CTV advertising?
There's no honest one-size number. Size the test backward from your KPI: what a new customer is worth to you, what you can afford to pay for one, and how many you need to see to trust the result. Then add the cost of a spot built for TV.
How long should a first CTV test run before I judge it?
Long enough for TV's delayed buying to show up. People often search, visit and buy days after seeing the ad. Agree before launch when you'll read early signals, when you'll read orders and when you'll make the scale, change or stop call.
Should a new brand use a CTV agency or a self-serve platform?
If you have no in-house TV team and a clear number to hit, an agency usually fits a first campaign better. Self-serve works for teams with CTV experience and the time to manage frequency, delivery and measurement themselves, every week.
How do I know a CTV agency's results are real?
Check them outside the platform's own report. Match results to the orders in your own system, reconcile delivery against the invoice, and ask for a held-back group of households that never sees the ads. The difference is what CTV caused.
What's the difference between CTV and OTT?
OTT is streaming video delivered over the internet, on any device. CTV is that streaming content watched on a TV screen, through a smart TV, streaming stick or game console. For advertisers, CTV means the full-screen, living-room version of streaming.
Do I need a new TV commercial to start on CTV?
Usually, yes. A spot made for a phone rarely works on a living-room screen. You don't need a big shoot, though. You need a clear offer, made for a TV screen with the sound on, in the lengths the plan calls for.
The Final Take
When you're new to connected TV, every list of agencies looks about the same.
So don't start with the list. Start with the questions.
Where will my ads run? How often will each home see them? Who measures, and in whose data? What does a fair test cost, and when do we judge it?
The partner who answers all eight clearly, and in writing, is the one to call.
Then make sure your first campaign ends the way every campaign should. With a decision. Scale, change or stop. In writing.
Thinking about your first CTV campaign? Find out if CTV is a fit.
Cory Poccia
CEO, CS & Co. Marketing Studio™