What is CTV Retargeting and How It Drives ROI

Abandoned carts are high-intent buyers waiting for a reason to come back.

These shoppers have already engaged with your brand and taken meaningful steps toward a purchase. Converting them requires less investment than acquiring someone new.

The challenge is how to re-engage them in an environment that commands attention.

CTV retargeting puts your brand back in front of high-intent prospects on the biggest screen in their home. It reinforces interest across devices and prompts action with timely and personalized offers.

And unlike traditional TV, CTV lives in a data-rich, trackable environment. Advertisers can follow viewers across screens and serve tailored messages that convert.

But how does CTV retargeting work, and how do you implement it?

Here’s how to build a cross-device strategy that turns existing interest into conversions, with real examples of brands generating performance you can quantify.

What Is CTV Retargeting?

CTV retargeting delivers subsequent ads on CTV — any internet-connected TV or device that streams video content — to people who have already interacted with your brand.

It works in one of two ways. You can:

1. Show CTV ads to prospects who have gone inactive after visiting your site or engaging with your content
   
   
2. Serve follow-up audio or video ads to viewers after an initial CTV exposure, reinforcing your message across screens

In many cases, brands combine both approaches to create coordinated touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey.

The goal is to to maintain visibility and guide prospects toward conversion by re-engaging viewers until they’re ready to buy. Since prospects typically need seven or more brand interactions to take action, CTV retargeting provides that repeated exposure.

What Are the Benefits of CTV Retargeting?

When users leave without converting, the opportunity shifts rather than disappears.

CTV retargeting enables advertisers to reconnect with known audiences in high-attention streaming environments and reinforce messaging across devices. Instead of restarting the funnel, you build on existing exposure and behavioral signals.

Here is where CTV retargeting delivers measurable value.

Higher Attention and Stronger Engagement

CTV placements appear within user-selected, long-form streaming content in a non-skippable format. This combination typically drives high video completion rates and stronger post-view engagement.

A study found that CTV content garners more attention than a linear TV environment. Because viewers actively choose what they watch, ads run within content that already has their focus.

Attention is even higher when people stream TV with others. This expands influence within a single impression without increasing frequency.

When retargeting builds on prior exposure or site activity, messaging becomes more relevant. Relevance supports higher response rates and improves downstream performance.

Precision Audience Activation

Unlike the “spray-and-pray” approach of linear TV advertising, CTV enables more precise audience targeting, beyond demographics.

Advertisers can:

• Activate first-party CRM data to reach known contacts at the household level
  
  
• Suppress recent converters to reduce waste
  
  
• Sequence creative based on prior exposure or site behavior
  
  
• Extend CTV exposure into display, video, audio, and search across devices

With this level of audience targeting, you can get more out of your budget and reduce wasted ad spend by ensuring your ads reach the right viewers.

Better Reporting and Attribution Measurement

Linear TV can feel like a shot in the dark. You know your ads are running, but downstream performance visibility is limited.

CTV retargeting provides granular measurement that helps you connect exposure to action.

Beyond impressions and completion rates, advertisers can evaluate:

• Post-view website visits
  
  
• Cross-device conversions
  
  
• In-store foot traffic
  
  
• Revenue influenced by campaign exposure
  
  
• Performance by audience segment and geography

With multi-touch attribution tools from Strategus, you can also tie ad exposure to customer actions across channels, so you can adjust your advertising campaigns in real time to maximize ROI.

How Does CTV Work With Omnichannel Marketing?

Unlike direct-response marketing tactics that trigger immediate action, TV commercials often expose viewers to a product or service without providing a clear call to action.

Similarly, traditional TV ad campaigns don’t provide media buyers with information on which viewers see a given commercial, making it impossible to incorporate impressions into an omnichannel approach.

With streaming services like Hulu and CTV devices like Roku, this all changed. Advertisers now have the option to precisely target viewers using first- and third-party data, and then retarget those who watched an ad on other devices via display, online video, and audio.

In this way, brands and agencies began creating cohesive CTV-first experiences that nurtured buyers down the funnel. This turned a living room TV into a performance channel, allowing innovators to integrate CTV into their omnichannel strategy.

Examples of Connected TV Retargeting

CTV retargeting isn’t a rigid playbook. It can be fully customized based on how your buyers behave. You’ll also want to consider your unique marketing funnel and which channels are not worth it.

Here are some examples of CTV retargeting:

• Site visitors with a CTV ad
  
  
• Users who've been exposed to your brand on CTV with an audio ad
  
  
• Users who've been exposed to your brand on CTV with a display ad
  
  
• Prospects from your contact list (first-party CRM data) with a CTV ad
  
  
• Users who’ve been exposed to your brand on CTV with an in-game ad
  
  
• Users who've been exposed to your brand on CTV with an online video a

Ideally, you’d mix several of the tactics listed above and continuously test which channels and paths perform best.

CTV Retargeting Case Studies By Industry

These real-world examples showcase how businesses across different industries have successfully leveraged CTV retargeting to re-engage prospects and increase conversions.

Automotive

Strategus partnered with Nissan to implement a full-funnel CTV strategy. The campaign began with CTV ads to build brand awareness among in-market car shoppers on large screens.

Strategus then deployed a cross-device retargeting strategy that served display ads to these same users across multiple devices. This mult-touch approach kept the dealership top-of-mind as prospects researched their options and moved closer to a decision.

Results: The campaign generated an average of 1,788 monthly visitors and a 250% increase in website traffic.

Healthcare

Strategus worked with a children’s health system to develop a CTV-only campaign that achieved four times the industry standard for brand awareness. Location-based targeting ensured messaging about its pediatric services reached families with children and expectant parents.

The campaign also used CTV retargeting to re-engage viewers who had seen the health system’s ads. Our team optimized ad frequency to prevent ad fatigue and enhance brand lift.

Results: The 10-month campaign achieved a Brand Awareness Lift of +10.6%, which dramatically outperformed the Healthcare benchmark of +1.95%.

eCommerce

An online cosmetic and beauty brand partnered with Strategus to implement a full-funnel CTV campaign targeting women aged 25–54 across 9 Designated Market Areas (DMA). The company had a modest linear TV spend but decided to redirect those marketing dollars to test CTV.

The strategy used CTV ads to build brand awareness, then retargeted viewers with online video and display ads to drive online engagement and boost transactions. This full-funnel approach generated strong sales and ROI for weeks afterward, demonstrating how effective CTV campaigns can be for online retailers.

Results: The campaign generated 40,342 post-view website visits, 4,024 online purchases, and $203,137 in revenue.

How to Integrate CTV Retargeting into Full-Funnel Campaigns

CTV retargeting nurtures prospects from initial awareness to conversion. Unlike display retargeting, which can feel intrusive, it reaches viewers during their most engaged moments: when they’re actively choosing to watch content.

This creates unprecedented opportunities to guide prospects through their purchase journey without the aggressive tactics that plague other digital channels.

Here's how to strategically deploy CTV retargeting across each funnel stage to maximize ROI.

1. Initial Exposure and Pixel

The goal here isn’t immediate conversion; it’s building brand awareness and creating trackable audience segments for you to retarget in the future.

Cast a wide net with broad CTV campaigns to build your retargeting pool. Place tracking pixels across landing pages and website content. Segment target audiences based on content consumption patterns and engagement levels.

Track which shows and dayparts generate the highest engagement to refine your audience profiles. Use household-level data to identify high-value prospects to nurture.

2. Sequential Storytelling (Middle of Funnel)

Most consumers don’t want to see the same ads over and over again. Yet, companies are still deploying repetitive ad strategies that risk viewer fatigue.

68% of consumers report seeing the same ads repeatedly on streaming platforms like Hulu. 88% say repeated exposure makes them pay less attention to an ad.

Sequential storytelling creates a compelling narrative across multiple touchpoints. It helps build more memorable and personalized experiences than showing the same ads to prospects.

Deliver progressive messaging based on previous ad exposure and website behavior. Gradually increase ad frequency for viewers who've engaged but haven't converted. Implement cross-device retargeting to reinforce CTV messages across mobile devices and desktops.

3. Conversion Acceleration (Bottom of Funnel)

The bottom of the funnel is where you’ll deliver the final “nudge” to get prospects to take action.

Target cart abandoners with dynamic product ads featuring specific items they viewed. Deploy time-sensitive offers to viewers who've shown high intent signals to create urgency.

Activate companion display ads immediately after CTV exposure for instant action. Coordinate messaging across marketing channels to create multiple touchpoints and reinforce your value proposition. Test different creatives and measure results to determine which drives conversions.

4. Retention and Expansion (Post-Purchase)

With rising acquisition costs, businesses must focus on building lasting relationships to maintain profitability. After conversion, shift your CTV retargeting strategy to retention and customer lifetime value expansion.

Suppress recent converters from acquisition campaigns to avoid waste and prevent message fatigue. Retarget customers with product recommendations based on purchase history. Use CTV retargeting during peak buying seasons to reinforce brand affinity and drive engagement when customers are most receptive.

With your CTV retargeting strategy in place, the next step is understanding which metrics to track to measure impact and optimize performance.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Success

Measuring the performance of such complex campaigns requires advanced marketing attribution and reporting capabilities. While metrics about things like video completion rate (VCR) are widespread in the CTV advertising world, marketers need to dig deeper to tie ad impressions to revenue.

1. Attribution Touchpoints

To fully quantify the return on ad spend (ROAS), you’ll want to illustrate how your prospects progress down the path to purchase. It’s also key that you acknowledge every lead that was previously influenced by a CTV ad. This means going beyond first- or last-touch attribution and connecting all the dots along the way.

We’d suggest tracking the many attribution points that indicate CTV success. Depending on your goals and customer journey, these may include:

• After-Ad influence: Measure how your ad impacts consumers by tracking actions they take after viewing it, such as researching your products and services.
  
  
• Brand Lift Studies: Gain more intel about how campaign exposure influences awareness, attitudes, and opinions about your company.
  
  
• Post-View Website Visits: See direct traffic to your site that resulted from seeing your CTV ad.
  
  
• Foot Traffic: Use GPS to report on users who visit brick-and-mortar locations after viewing your ad.
  
  
• Online Purchases: Identify customers who made purchases from your online store after seeing an ad.
  
  
• First-Party Data: Determine whether your customers perform any actions, such as a form fill, as a result of your campaign via CRM matching.
  
  
• CPG: Use SKU-level purchase data to tie online ad impressions to offline purchase behavior, specifically for consumer packaged goods that are often bought in physical stores.
  
  
• Revenue: Implement a revenue tracking pixel to pass back the exact revenue associated with each online purchase generated by your ad campaign.
  
  
• Search and Social: Link conversions driven by your CTV ad efforts across search and social channels, including paid advertising on Google, Facebook, and Instagram.

At Strategus, we offer a full suite of customizable attribution solutions spanning the many touchpoints listed above. We also continue to innovate by making our attribution suite more robust, connecting marketers with a growing array of methods to track audience engagement.

2. CTV Metrics

Beyond using attribution measurement tools to gather data on the customer journey, it’s also a good idea to set goals based on the metrics that can be tracked in digital advertising environments.

Impressions and video completion rates do little more than prove that your campaigns are up and running. Ideally, you’d get much further in the weeds by measuring conversions, click-through rates, and the like.

Here are some metrics to track:

1. Impressions: This metric shows how many people saw at least a portion of your CTV ads. It doesn’t quantify revenue, but it still sheds some light on a campaign’s reach.
   
   
2. Video Completion Rate (VCR): Video completion rates are often high for CTV advertising because the ads are non-skippable and play within user-selected content. For this reason, you should demand more from your CTV reporting to drive performance.
   
   
3. Conversion Rate: Conversion rate measures the percentage of users who’ve completed a desired action. This could be filling out a contact form, making an online purchase, or foot traffic into brick-and-mortar locations. These actions should be customized to each brand and are tied directly to attribution capabilities.
   
   
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Click-through rate measures the number of clicks per impression. While CTR will mostly be low, any increase indicates that your efforts are resonating with viewers and driving action. This metric should always be considered in terms of the goal and channel. An awareness ad won’t have a high click-through rate, nor will a CTV ad that lacks clickable elements.
   
   
5. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS is calculated by dividing the profit made from advertising by advertising costs. Any figure greater than 1 indicates success because it means you broke even. By comparing ROAS across different campaigns, you can determine which tactics are more successful and optimize accordingly. Again, full-suite attribution is required to measure all revenue generated by a given campaign.
   
   
6. Audience Segment: Compare the metrics across audience groups to see how your message is resonating with different viewers and where there’s room for improvement. For instance, if a university finds that ads targeting individuals over age 40 aren’t converting well, they may consider adapting the creative to better connect with those viewers.
   
   
7. Geoperformance: Geoperformance lets you compare the metrics above across different geographic regions and determine which locations you’d like to invest more budget in based on performance.

Measuring all conversions, revenue, and clicks generated by a specific campaign is not always possible. Agencies and brands either need to streamline their efforts with a single CTV partner or build an internal team and dashboard to consolidate the data.

One of the major benefits of working with Strategus is we’re able to design comprehensive campaigns that use the entire programmatic ecosystem, and then provide real-time insights into the metrics detailed above on our 24/7 reporting dashboard.

Companies that partner with us can quickly see all conversions and clicks driven by a given campaign, even if those conversions occurred outside the digital ecosystem.

Closing Thoughts — CTV Retargeting with Strategus

Getting results with CTV retargeting requires navigating fragmented ecosystems, identifying and matching viewers across devices, and managing frequency caps. Without the right tools or expertise, you can waste impressions on the wrong audiences.

This is where Strategus provides a clear advantage.

As a fully managed service partner, we handle the complexity of your CTV retargeting campaign so you don’t have to.  Our team:

• Builds precise audience segments using first- and third-party data to target viewers most likely to convert
  
  
• Leverages cross-device targeting capabilities to ensure your message reaches viewers no matter what device they use
  
  
• Optimizes your retargeting campaigns and creative assets in real time to maximize ROI and drive measurable results

Speak to a Strategus expert today to learn how you can get the most from CTV retargeting’s big-screen impact without the complexity and risk.