Connected television this week moved closer to claiming its place as a measurable performance channel, at least on paper. IAB Europe published on 11 March 2026 a detailed Q&A with five industry experts from its CTV Working Group, laying out where the technology stands, where it falls short, and what the next 12 to 24 months may bring for advertisers trying to link a big-screen ad impression to a real business outcome.

The document draws on input from Ekaterina Vagner, Marketing Director for EMEA at Verve; Samir Chabab, VP Global Marketing at Ogury; Michael Möller, CTO at Visoon Video Impact and Chair of the Digital Video Working Group at BVDW; Andreas Hamdorf, Lead Strategic Partner Management at esome advertising technologies for BVDW; and Todd Randak, SVP of Corporate Development and Strategy at DoubleVerify. Their combined answers sketch a channel that has made genuine measurement progress but still confronts fragmentation, shared-device complexity, and the absence of universal identifier standards.

The measurement foundation has shifted

For years, CTV sat firmly in the upper funnel. Awareness. Reach. Brand recall. The idea that it could support conversion objectives was largely dismissed because the plumbing to prove it did not exist. According to Chabab, that position has changed: "CTV is no longer just an awareness channel. It's becoming a measurable, outcome-driven environment that can support real performance objectives."

The shift rests on several interconnected developments. Mobile Measurement Partners can now connect a CTV exposure to downstream app installs and actions using household-level signals and cross-device graphs, according to Vagner. That makes the channel "measurable in a way that looks far more like mobile attribution than traditional TV reporting," she noted. Programmatic access changed the dynamic further: buyers can now transact impression by impression, optimise toward outcomes, and feed campaign data back into predictive models.

Randak pointed to improvements in cross-device matching as the underlying driver. According to him, "advertisers can increasingly link a streaming ad viewed on a TV screen to actions taken later, such as website visits, app downloads, or purchases." Impression-level verification adds another layer, ensuring that reported conversions are based on confirmed ad exposure rather than modelled inference.

At the technical level, Hamdorf described the mechanics: CTV inventory can be purchased via demand-side platforms and measured through ad servers or specialist measurement providers, connecting advertising contacts to website visits, app downloads, lead generation, and conversion tracking. Data clean rooms offer an additional route, matching conversion data to advertising contacts on streaming services using hashed email addresses - though that option remains limited to providers who hold user subscription data.

Möller framed the infrastructure requirement precisely. According to him, the shift from awareness to performance requires cross-device attribution, search lift and conversion lift measurement, QR codes or vanity URLs, and first-party data for precise audience targeting. Without that infrastructure, CTV stays in the upper funnel. With it, the channel becomes "measurable, optimisable, and performance-relevant."

Attribution: still the primary friction point

The progress is real. So are the obstacles. The working group was direct about where the breakdowns occur, and the answers are consistent enough to form a pattern.

Randak named attribution as the primary friction point. Streaming ads are typically viewed on shared household devices. Conversions happen on personal devices - smartphones, laptops, tablets. The two populations do not always match cleanly. "Limited cross-device visibility, restricted data sharing in closed platforms, and inconsistent standards make it difficult to see the full customer journey," he said.

Germany presents a specific technical complication that Hamdorf raised. Private IP addresses in Germany change constantly, making it harder to assign identifiers across different devices within the same household, even with a time delay. The problem is compounded by the variety of consumption models - FAST, BVOD, AVOD - each of which produces different identifier availability depending on how the viewer accesses content.

Fragmentation runs through every answer. According to Chabab, signals between CTV and other environments are inconsistent, there is no universal standard for attribution or performance metrics, and many advertisers struggle to build a clear end-to-end view of performance across screens. Without coherent audience approaches and privacy-safe measurement frameworks that operate consistently across environments, CTV risks being measured in isolation rather than as part of the broader consumer journey.

Vagner identified a measurement philosophy problem as well. CTV does not behave like click-based media, and applying the same attribution windows produces misleading results. The user journey frequently spans several days, meaning short attribution windows miss real impact. Signal density is lighter in bid requests, so optimisation relies on modelling rather than deterministic tracking. Fragmentation compounds the problem: not every platform integrates cleanly with measurement stacks, creating partial visibility unless the technology ecosystem is carefully aligned.

This challenge sits squarely within the broader measurement crisis documented across European digital advertising. IAB Europe's inaugural Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report, published in January 2026 after surveying over 170 advertising professionals across 27 European markets, found that nearly 70% of respondents identified CTV as a top opportunity - yet measurement frustration ran at 70% across the survey population.

Where CTV is working for conversions

The working group did not simply catalogue problems. The members were specific about the scenarios where CTV is already generating measurable lower-funnel outcomes.

Chabab described the most effective setup: CTV plays a defined role within a broader omnichannel strategy. The big screen drives awareness and consideration through high-impact storytelling; other digital environments handle retargeting and conversion. When messaging and audience strategy are aligned across screens, and when CTV exposure is reinforced through complementary digital touchpoints, brands can guide consumers along a more coherent path from discovery to action.

Hamdorf added a practical creative dimension. CTV works for conversion campaigns when promoting a product that viewers can easily remember or that is highly relevant to them. Some users pause their stream to respond to a QR code or call to action. The majority, however, remember the commercial and visit the provider's website at a later time, often while streaming on a smartphone or tablet. According to Hamdorf, ad blocks of no longer than 120 seconds, with a relatively low number of commercials, give individual spots the best chance of recall and impact.

Möller pointed to downstream effects that performance teams can measure indirectly: increasing ROAS in search, decreasing CPAs from stronger pre-qualification, and measurable brand lift. CTV generates "particularly high levels of attention due to the large screen and lean-back viewing environment," according to Möller, and that attention "often translates into downstream user action, such as branded search volume increases, direct traffic rises, app installs grow, and conversions occur later on mobile or desktop devices."

Randak made the case for interactive and shoppable formats. Retail, direct-to-consumer, and app-based brands are seeing strong performance when CTV is integrated into broader cross-screen strategies and measured against outcome-based KPIs. The key condition is cross-funnel measurement: when advertisers can verify media quality and connect exposure to real results, they "no longer have to choose between brand impact and performance - they can achieve both."

This performance push tracks directly with industry moves catalogued by PPC Land. Teads launched deterministic CTV measurement in October 2025, enabling advertisers to move beyond impressions and completion rates and track exposure to action. LG Ad Solutions partnered with Taboola in December 2025 specifically to connect Smart TV exposure to site visits and down-funnel conversions. Ogury extended its persona-based advertising to CTV in February 2026, applying the same audience framework across mobile, desktop, and connected TV within a single platform - a move that Chabab's employer announced directly.

The next 12 to 24 months

Each working group member offered a view of where CTV's conversion role is headed. The threads converge on a few common themes: better standards, longer attribution windows, closer collaboration across the supply chain, and a gradual shift from single-channel evaluation to integrated measurement.

Randak framed the requirement plainly. As marketers shift from reach and frequency toward metrics like sales and customer acquisition, channels that can demonstrate incremental impact will capture performance budgets. CTV has the audience quality and engagement. What remains to be built is clearer cross-channel measurement, stronger data connections between devices, and greater transparency into how and where ads are delivered.

Vagner predicted that execution discipline will matter more than innovation hype. Winners will be those who align supply paths, measurement frameworks, and creative specifically for performance goals rather than repurposing brand playbooks. She expected better standardisation of integrations, longer and more realistic attribution models, and closer collaboration between buyers, DSPs, and supply partners to curate inventory around outcomes. CTV, according to Vagner, will settle into a hybrid identity - operating alongside brand advertising as a programmatic channel that drives both attention and acquisition.

According to Chabab, the next phase will be defined by merging brand and performance measurement within privacy-first frameworks. Persona-based planning, consistent cross-screen activation, and attention-driven metrics will allow advertisers to evaluate the quality of engagement. Programmatic accessibility and improved interoperability between CTV, mobile, and desktop will further reduce fragmentation. With budgets shifting from linear TV to digital environments, CTV will increasingly operate as both an upper- and mid-funnel driver.

Hamdorf identified the identifier problem as the linchpin. If the industry can define a uniform basis of identifiers linking advertising contacts on the big screen with subsequent purchases on a website or in an app, measurability and demand for conversion campaigns will increase. Data clean rooms offer one path, but only for CTV providers who hold user subscription data.

Möller drew the competitive map. Compared to traditional linear TV, CTV offers granular household and audience targeting, frequency control, real-time optimisation, and clearer conversion measurability. Strategically, it sits between traditional TV and performance channels such as paid social and paid search - not replacing either, but functioning as a multiplier within a holistic media mix.

Why this matters for the marketing community

The stakes for advertisers are substantial. CTV's share of media budgets doubled from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, with 72% of marketers planning to increase programmatic advertising investment. That capital is flowing into a channel where measurement standards remain inconsistent, attribution windows are contested, and identifier availability varies by platform and content type.

The IAB Europe working group's document arrives as a cluster of industry initiatives are attempting to resolve exactly these problems. The IAB pushed standardised Conversion APIs in October 2025 to bridge CTV's outcome gap with search and social, noting that two-thirds of advertisers improved ROAS after implementing CAPI. IAB Tech Lab published six standardised CTV ad formats in December 2025, covering pause ads, menu ads, squeezeback formats, overlay ads, in-scene insertions, and screensaver ads. IAB Spain set standardised bid request parameters for CTV programmatic buying in February 2026, establishing P1 and P2 priority fields for streaming transactions.

DoubleVerify's Todd Randak, one of the Q&A contributors, had called in December 2025 for accelerated adoption of transparency and measurement standards in streaming, noting that over one-third of CTV ad impressions are delivered in TV-off environments - contributing to an estimated $1 billion in annual wasted advertising spend. Attention measurement is also advancing: Lumen Research announced a partnership with Netflix on 5 March 2026 to deliver eye-tracking attention measurement for CTV, desktop, and mobile ads across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain - six days before this working group document was published.

The convergence of these developments - standardisation, deterministic attribution, attention metrics, persona-based targeting, and clean room matching - describes a channel that is being rebuilt from the measurement layer upward. Whether that rebuild delivers the "hybrid brand-plus-performance channel" the working group envisions will depend on how quickly the industry can align on common identifiers, open its closed platforms to cross-device verification, and extend attribution windows to match the longer consumer journeys that CTV actually produces.

Timeline

  • July 2024 - IAB Tech Lab releases VAST CTV Addendum 2024, standardising ad IDs and adding SIMID interactive support across CTV environments - PPC Land
  • April 2024 - DoubleVerify earns MRC accreditation for CTV viewability metrics - PPC Land
  • July 9, 2025 - Smartly and EMARKETER publish research showing 72% of marketers reuse creative assets across social and CTV platforms - PPC Land
  • July 15, 2025 - IAB Europe publishes retail media best practice guides covering CTV and identity solutions - PPC Land
  • July 16, 2025 - Wunderkind launches programmatic CTV pause ads with QR code integration, reporting 79% cost reduction per store visit - PPC Land
  • August 5, 2025 - Microsoft launches Premium Streaming campaigns including Netflix inventory - PPC Land
  • August 19, 2025 - Viant integrates with Wurl for scene-level CTV contextual targeting via BrandDiscovery and IRIS_ID - PPC Land
  • August 19/20, 2025 - Kargo CTV campaigns achieve 78% higher attention than industry standards in TVision study - PPC Land
  • August 20, 2025 - IPG Mediabrands launches Acxiom Contextual CTV solution powered by IRIS_ID across 1,200+ content categories - PPC Land
  • October 5, 2025 - Samsung Ads and Publica extend CTV programmatic partnership - PPC Land
  • October 23, 2025 - Teads launches deterministic CTV measurement connecting streaming exposure to site visits and sales - PPC Land
  • October 30, 2025 - IAB releases Conversion API guide for CTV outcome measurement; two-thirds of advertisers report improved ROAS after CAPI implementation - PPC Land
  • November 3, 2025 - IAB and IAB Europe release incremental measurement guidelines for commerce media - PPC Land
  • November 5, 2025 - Industry expert warns advertisers against treating CTV like display campaigns - PPC Land
  • November 6, 2025 - IAB Europe publishes analysis on retail media and CTV convergence - PPC Land
  • December 3/7, 2025 - LG Ad Solutions and Taboola partner for CTV performance tracking connecting Smart TV exposure to conversions - PPC Land
  • December 4, 2025 - DoubleVerify urges streaming industry to adopt transparency standards; flags $1 billion annual waste from TV-off ad delivery - PPC Land
  • December 11, 2025 - IAB Tech Lab releases six standardised CTV ad formats for public comment through January 31, 2026 - PPC Land
  • January 17, 2026 - IAB Europe's inaugural Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report finds 70% measurement frustration among advertisers across 27 European markets - PPC Land
  • February 1, 2026 - IAB Spain publishes first harmonisation guide for CTV bid request parameters under P1/P2 priority framework - PPC Land
  • February 24, 2026 - Ogury extends persona-based advertising to CTV, applying same audience framework across mobile, desktop, and connected TV - PPC Land
  • March 5, 2026 - Lumen Research announces partnership with Netflix for attention measurement across CTV, desktop, and mobile in five European markets - PPC Land
  • March 11, 2026 - IAB Europe publishes CTV Working Group Q&A on measurement, attribution challenges, and CTV's conversion role over the next 12-24 months

Summary

Who - IAB Europe's CTV Working Group, comprising experts from Verve, Ogury, Visoon Video Impact/BVDW, esome advertising technologies/BVDW, and DoubleVerify.

What - A published Q&A examining whether connected television has matured into a conversion channel, covering measurement technology, attribution challenges, effective use cases, and the likely trajectory of CTV's performance role over the next 12 to 24 months. The group's central finding is that CTV is measurably improving but remains constrained by fragmented identifiers, shared-device attribution gaps, inconsistent platform standards, and the absence of a universal cross-screen measurement framework.

When - The document was published on 11 March 2026 by IAB Europe.

Where - The Q&A was published on the IAB Europe website and addresses conditions across European and global CTV advertising markets, with specific reference to Germany's changing IP address challenge.

Why - Connected TV's share of media budgets has doubled from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, and 72% of marketers plan to increase programmatic advertising investment. Advertisers are moving significant budgets into the channel at the same time that attribution, identifier standardisation, and cross-device measurement remain unsolved. The working group document provides a practitioner-level assessment of where the gaps are, where the channel is already delivering results, and what infrastructure changes are needed before CTV can operate consistently as a hybrid brand-and-performance channel.

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