CTV Has A Fragmentation Problem: These People May Have A Solution

The TV ad world loves a good buzzword, and right now, “performance” might be the buzziest of them all when it comes to connected TV. But at a closed-door roundtable hosted by Wurl during Cannes Lions and co-moderated by me and Wurl GM Americas Dave Bernath, it quickly became clear that while nearly everyone uses the word, very few agree on exactly what it means.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The group—15 senior execs from across the ecosystem—dug into the nuances of performance in CTV and landed on a consensus that’s more expansive than rigid: CTV is now a full-funnel performance medium. But how that performance is defined and measured still varies widely depending on the brand, the budget, and the KPI.

The answers weren’t so simple. But they were telling.

Performance Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder

Some defined performance using traditional direct response metrics like CPI (cost per install) or CPA (cost per acquisition). For others, it was about ROAS (return on ad spend), site visits, or even foot traffic. One theme that emerged quickly was incrementality—using CTV as a way to extend reach and drive outcomes above and beyond what brands are already getting through channels like search and social.

There was a clear consensus that CTV is now very much a full-funnel medium. It’s no longer just a branding channel, nor is it solely a DR play. It’s both. And depending on the brand, the product, and the campaign objective, “performance” can live at the top, middle or bottom of the funnel.

That flexibility is one of CTV’s biggest strengths—but it’s also what makes defining performance on CTV so difficult. 

There’s no single benchmark or universal KPI. A CPG brand may care about incremental sales lift. A mobile app may just want installs. A car brand could be looking for favorability or showroom traffic. And because so many different players are involved—media buyers, brand marketers, creative teams, data partners—it’s easy for campaigns to wind up getting fragmented or misaligned.

Attribution Remains Murky

One major pain point raised was attribution. Too many brands are still stuck on last-touch models that disproportionately credit search and social platforms, while undercounting the impact of CTV. That’s starting to change as more advanced measurement tools come online, but it’s still an uphill battle—especially in the absence of standardized methodologies and a strong client preference to have some sort of attribution metric, even a specious one.

The Need For Consistent Standards

Standards, or the lack thereof, came up repeatedly. Multiple participants cited the need for consistent definitions and expectations around key metrics like attention, viewability, and outcomes. 

Without them, performance can mean anything—or nothing. 

There was interest in emerging frameworks like the IAB Tech Lab’s 2.6 spec, which is actually made for streaming, unlike the display-era protocols still in use today. If adopted widely, participants felt it could help improve efficiency and measurement in programmatic CTV.

Fragmentation Remains An Issue But There Is Hope

The discussion also turned to what’s driving—or holding back—CTV investment. For large national brands, the conversation is usually about shifting dollars between channels and figuring out how to unify measurement across them. But for small and midsize businesses, the issue is more fundamental: how do they even buy into this space?

That’s where CTV still struggles. Unlike search or social, which offer streamlined self-serve platforms with simple KPIs and centralized targeting, CTV is fragmented across dozens of apps, devices, platforms and vendors. 

One participant likened it to a small business trying to buy “the rest of television” after signing a deal with a single publisher. There’s no clean way to execute a campaign across the entire CTV landscape without cobbling together a half-dozen tools and partners.

This fragmentation not only hurts scale and efficiency—it creates real friction for brands that are used to simpler platforms. Everyone in the room agreed that if CTV is going to attract SMBs and long-tail advertisers, the path to buying and measuring needs to be significantly easier.

That’s where AI could play a key role. Several execs pointed to emerging use cases in creative generation—brands and agencies using generative AI to produce hundreds of variations of a 30-second ad for localized or performance-driven testing. Others noted that AI is already enabling smarter audience segmentation, uncovering patterns and cohorts that go beyond traditional demographics. AI could also help streamline workflow silos across media types, particularly for brands moving their infrastructure to cloud-based platforms like Snowflake or Databricks.

There was also some cautious optimism about previously hyped formats like pause ads, which have reentered the conversation. The appeal is understandable: they’re standardized, non-intrusive, and highly visible. The challenge, of course, is measurement—something still lacking for newer formats like these. Still, several attendees expect we’ll see more experimentation with units like pause ads in the coming year, particularly if they can be folded into existing programmatic workflows.

The Message Matters

Another hot topic was creative. As more linear dollars shift to streaming, brands are looking for ways to repurpose their TV spots for CTV—but with added functionality. 

There was discussion of ads that shrink or squeeze back to reveal interactive overlays, or dynamically swap in dealership locations based on user geolocation. These are small tweaks that can transform a traditional brand spot into a performance asset.

Throughout the conversation, one big question loomed: will the industry be able to put an end to fragmentation and move towards the level of standardization that was, well, standard in the pre-streaming era? 

Most felt the answer was yes—eventually. Whether it’s through industry bodies like the IAB or through cross-platform collaboration, standardization feels inevitable. But it’s going to take more than just tech platforms agreeing on specs. Brands, agencies, publishers, and measurement vendors all need to align.

The Real Challenge: Getting Everyone On the Same Page

What became clear during the roundtable is that CTV’s biggest hurdle isn’t technology—it’s alignment. Everyone’s building, but no one’s building together. Until the industry agrees on some common standards, it’s going to keep tripping over its own potential.

Right now, CTV isn’t broken. It’s just unfinished.