What CTV means
CTV stands for connected TV: any television that streams video over the internet. That includes smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Vizio), streaming devices plugged into a TV (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast) and games consoles. A CTV ad is the commercial that plays inside a streaming app on that screen, in Paramount+, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Peacock, Hulu, Netflix's ad tier and hundreds more.
To the viewer it looks like a normal TV commercial. To the advertiser it behaves like a digital ad: you choose who sees it, you set a daily budget, and you get reporting on reach, frequency and completion.
CTV vs OTT vs linear TV
| Linear TV | OTT | CTV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it describes | Scheduled broadcast or cable TV | Video delivered over the internet, on any device | Streaming on a TV screen |
| Screens | TV | TV, phone, laptop, tablet | TV only |
| Targeting | Programme and time slot | Household, device, audience data | Household, device, audience data, and for B2B company lists |
| Bought | Upfronts and spot buys, high minimums | Programmatically or direct | Programmatically, direct, or inside LinkedIn Campaign Manager |
| Skippable | Viewers change channel | Sometimes | Almost never |
In practice the industry uses CTV and OTT almost interchangeably, and "CTV/OTT" in a media plan means streaming TV ads. If you care about the living room screen, you mean CTV.
How CTV advertising works
- You pick an audience. Consumer brands pick demographics and interests. B2B advertisers upload a company list or pick job titles, industries and seniority.
- The audience is matched to households. A platform links people or companies to the TVs in their homes, using logins, IP addresses and device graphs. LinkedIn does this with its own member data; DSPs use IP and modelled data.
- An ad slot opens in a streaming app. When a matched household watches, the app offers the ad break to buyers in real time, and the winning spot plays.
- You get reporting. Impressions, reach, frequency, completion and, where a pixel or partner is in place, site visits and conversions after the view.
The spots themselves are 15 or 30 seconds, full screen, sound on and almost always non-skippable. That is why completion rates look extraordinary: in our panel of LinkedIn CTV campaigns, 98.7% of started spots completed, against 3.9% for in-feed LinkedIn video.
Can B2B companies advertise on TV?
Yes, and this is the part most B2B marketers have not caught up with. Broadcast TV was never an option for a company selling to 5,000 accounts: you paid for millions of viewers to reach a few hundred buyers. CTV changes the maths because you only pay for the households you target.
There are three ways a B2B company does it today:
- LinkedIn CTV. Since April 2024 LinkedIn has sold CTV inside Campaign Manager, targeted with LinkedIn data, on publishers including Paramount, Roku, Samsung and NBCUniversal. It runs in the US, Canada and the UK.
- LinkedIn audiences in a DSP. Since May 2026 LinkedIn's job title, industry and seniority data can be activated on CTV through Amazon DSP and The Trade Desk, and since October 2026 through Google DV360. US only, sold as private marketplace deals.
- Account-based programmatic CTV. Your account list matched by company IP and household in a DSP or an ABM platform. Wider inventory and markets, looser matching.
Adoption is new. In the Kiin Labs panel of 1,000+ LinkedIn advertisers, accounts running LinkedIn CTV went from 2 in September 2025 to 31 by September 2026, and 28 of the 31 targeted the US.
What CTV costs
Consumer CTV is commonly quoted at $20 to $50 per 1,000 impressions. For B2B on LinkedIn we have the spend itself: 31 advertisers, 118 campaigns and $811,149 in the 12 months to 7 September 2026.
| LinkedIn CTV, per account | Cheaper quarter | Median | Dearer quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | $20.31 | $25.76 | $50.88 |
| Completion rate | 97.5% | 98.7% | 100.0% |
| Daily budget | $35 | $75 | $130 |
| Campaign length, days | 19 | 40 | 66 |
Two things move the price. Audience size: under 50,000 members the CPM nearly doubles to $46.97. And the route: DSP deals carry their own minimums, reported at $50,000 over 30 days for LinkedIn audience deals. The full breakdown is in How much does LinkedIn CTV cost? and the method in the LinkedIn CTV Ads Benchmarks 2026.
Where to buy it
| Route | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Campaign Manager | A named B2B account list in the US, Canada or UK | Small lists cost double; no inventory outside those markets |
| Amazon DSP, The Trade Desk, Google DV360 with LinkedIn data | Programmatic teams already buying in a DSP, US only | Deal minimums, a DSP seat, up to five days to set up a deal |
| Self-serve CTV platforms (MNTN, Vibe and others) | Consumer or SMB reach, fast tests | Targeting is household and interest, not company |
| B2B CTV platforms and ABM tools | IP-matched account lists across more inventory | Household-to-company matching is modelled; ask for match rates |
For a side-by-side of the first two against the rest, see LinkedIn CTV vs programmatic CTV for B2B.
Is it worth it, and what it will not do
CTV is cheap, unskippable reach into a list. That is real and measured. What is not yet shown is the claim it is usually sold on: that the TV spot makes your other LinkedIn campaigns perform better. We tested that halo three ways on 12, 15 and 26 accounts and none of the results was statistically significant; the strictest test, the same account's feed on CTV days against dark days, found nothing.
So buy it for the price of the reach, run it above campaigns that can turn attention into meetings, and measure it against a holdout of accounts that did not see it. When that is done properly it can show up where it matters: at Storysnap, 15 closed-won deals had a CTV touch before the deal was created.
It will not produce leads by itself, and it is not for everyone. Below roughly $30,000 a month on LinkedIn, without a named account list, or with buyers outside the US, Canada and the UK, the same money does more elsewhere.
How to start
- Build the list. Your target accounts with job titles layered on, 20,000 to 60,000 members for LinkedIn CTV.
- Cut two spots. A 15 and a 30 at 1920 x 1080: brand in the first two seconds, the name spoken and shown, one claim.
- Plan reach, not leads. Aim for about 20% of the list at a frequency of 3 to 5 over eight to twelve weeks.
- Keep the feed running underneath. Thought leader ads, retargeting and conversation ads on the same list.
- Agree the holdout first. Leave some accounts out, then compare pipeline in your CRM at the end.