Why is CTV creative still operating like linear TV?

CTV is a digital-first channel, but many advertisers still manage creative like traditional television. Only 25% of respondents rotate CTV creative weekly compared to 34% for social media. Just 9% of marketers rotate CTV creative multiple times per day, while 21% do the same for social. Slower creative cycles mean fewer chances to test, learn, and optimize before performance starts to fade.

How does creative velocity impact CTV performance?

95% of respondents agree that the variety and speed of creative variations have a greater impact on campaign performance than audience targeting alone. Reaching the right household is only part of the equation. Marketers also need the right message, format, and the ability to refresh creative quickly based on what's working.

What measurement gaps exist in CTV creative?

61% of respondents lack creative-level performance insights and 61% lack a single source of truth for CTV measurement. Without clear creative intelligence, marketers are left guessing which messages, visuals, and formats actually drive performance.

Forrester CTV Creative Study

Q: What prevents marketers from achieving social-grade CTV creative?

While 99% of respondents are interested in bringing social-grade creative effectiveness to CTV, many teams are held back by legacy production timelines, fragmented technology, and disconnected workflows. This results in CTV campaigns generating fewer creative variations, rotating less frequently, and missing the rapid feedback loop marketers rely on in social.

How to Get the Agility of Social from CTV

According to this commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Smartly, 99% of respondents want to bring social-grade creative efficacy to CTV.

See what’s holding them back, and learn what it takes to build, test, and optimize your CTV creative faster.
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Inside you’ll discover:

Where leading marketers see the next opportunity for CTV growth
Why legacy creative workflows are limiting performance
How to build a faster, more effective approach to CTV creative

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Download the 2026 study

Highlights at a Glance:
Dive Deeper in the Full Study

We pulled together a few key findings below. For the full data, context, and recommendations, download the complete report.

CTV Still Operates Like Linear TV

CTV is a digital-first channel, but many advertisers still manage creative like traditional television.

According to the study, only 25% of respondents can produce a new CTV creative variation in two days or less, compared to 34% for social media. And while 21% of marketers rotate social creative multiple times per day, only 9% do the same for CTV.

That gap matters. Slower creative cycles mean fewer chances to test, learn, and optimize before performance starts to fade. For CTV to reach its full potential, creative needs to move at the speed of modern media.

Creative Velocity is a Performance Driver

For years, CTV success has been tied to audience targeting, media buying, and measurement. Those still matter, but they’re no longer the whole story.

The research points to a clear shift: 95% of respondents agree that the variety and speed of creative variations have a greater impact on campaign performance than audience targeting alone.

In other words, reaching the right household is only part of the equation. Marketers also need the right message, format, and the ability to refresh creative quickly based on what’s working (and what isn’t).

Marketers Want Social-Grade CTV. So Why Isn’t it Happening?

The appetite for change is nearly universal. 99% of respondents are interested in bringing social-grade creative effectiveness to CTV.

But interest and execution are two different things. Many teams are still held back by legacy production timelines, fragmented technology, and disconnected workflows. The result? CTV campaigns often generate fewer creative variations, rotate less frequently, and miss the kind of rapid feedback loop marketers rely on in social.

The opportunity isn’t to make CTV look exactly like social. It’s to bring social’s best creative habits, like speed, iteration, and optimization — to one of advertising’s most powerful channels.

Measurement Gaps Keep CTV Creative in the Dark

Creative can’t improve if teams can’t see what’s working. The research found that 61% of respondents lack creative-level performance insights, limiting confident testing and iteration. Another 61% lack a single source of truth for CTV measurement, making it harder to connect creative decisions to business outcomes.

That’s a major barrier for teams trying to modernize CTV. Without clear creative intelligence, marketers are left guessing which messages, visuals, and formats actually drive performance.

Unified Workflows Could Be the Missing Link

Marketers often plan, build, measure, and optimize CTV and social in separate systems. That fragmentation slows teams down, keeping valuable creative learnings trapped inside individual channels.

More than half of respondents said they need a better way forward: 56% said a unified platform for social and CTV creative would help determine what works, while 54% said comparable KPIs across social and CTV would help them evaluate performance more effectively.

For marketers looking to scale smarter video advertising, the next step is clear: connect creative workflows, measurement, and optimization so CTV can benefit from the same agility that transformed social.