The state of contextual commerce on CTV | How shoppable ads are changing the tactics for streaming TV

While these shoppable ads permeate search and social media, they’re making waves across streaming and CTV with high-impact creatives and unique experiences, often in the form of interactive ads, QR codes, product carousels and more. 

“CTV has been historically seen as a brand awareness driver,” said Derek Gatts, vp of advertising strategy and innovation at Warner Bros. Discovery. “The job to be done right now for the entire marketplace is to start to hone in on the types of solutions and capabilities that will drive a viewer to actually take action from what they see on the big screen in their living room.” 

In this State of the Industry report, Digiday and Warner Bros. Discovery surveyed 90 agencies, brands, retailers and marketers to understand their approach to contextual commerce on CTV and how shoppable advertising is shifting the way these teams approach streaming TV. This report highlights the tactics teams find successful, the challenges they’re facing and how they plan to overcome them.

Unsurprisingly, our respondents have ranked social media as the channel they most prioritize when investing in shoppable advertising — 57% place it first. OOH was the only other channel with a clear consensus, with 82% of respondents placing it fifth. 

The middle of the pack was much closer to each other, however, CTV/streaming edged out ahead of social and mobile to take second place (33%), while third is a tie between display and mobile (33%), with CTV/streaming also taking the lead for the fourth slot with 37% of respondents placing it there.

Display and mobile are the only channels that don’t have clear priority placements and instead share one. Considering shoppable advertising across streaming is a relatively emerging space, it’s a good sign to see it in both the second and fourth place spots, signaling a wide range of investment. 

“I think this generally reflects how the marketplace sees the ease of driving a conversion-based experience on each of these platforms, so social is in a more mature state and buyers are hungry to harness the attention of CTV,” said Gatts. 

While the majority of respondents (73%) allocated 1–20% of their overall budget to CTV/streaming in 2024, that’s shifting this year to most (66%) spending in the 21–40% bracket. In 2024, only 2% indicated they spent 41–60%, up to 9% for 2025, with 2% in the 61–80% range. 

“The early stages of CTV shoppability will see more traction and engagement with bigger box retail companies that have a wide variety of products for sale because it’s easier for them to maintain the types of pipes that you have to have in place to facilitate this type of ad experience,” Gatts said. “When you talk about being able to draft off the inspiration that content provides and convince someone to make a purchase, you have to have a broad swath of products for sale to do that at scale. As capabilities evolve on the supply side, it will be easier and easier for brands with fewer products for sale, down to DTC brands that might only have one product for sale, to be engaged in a true shoppable ad experience.”

In 2024, the most popular channel our respondents were taking budget from for contextual commerce/shoppable advertising on CTV and streaming was mobile at 96%, closely followed by display at 89%. In 2025, the amount of respondents reallocating budget from other channels has increased, with a nearly four-way tie for second place, behind mobile at 96% again — display (95%), social media (94%), DOOH (93%) and linear TV (92%). 

“The entire industry is aligned with wanting to drive more engagement, interactivity and action from a CTV or base,” Gatts said. “The way that we do that is by collectively investing in these types of premium solutions. For a media company to derive consumer habits around something like shoppable, we need brands to partner with us to provide visibility into the products they have for sale, so we can start to train those viewers on how to engage with these shoppable experiences. 

“Across the streaming landscape, shoppable advertising is still in its early innings,” he continued. “That being said, now is the ideal time for brands and media companies to begin testing early-stage capabilities and formats, like shoppable advertising across a CTV environment.”

Respondents have a variety of methods they’re either using or plan to use this year to improve their CTV and streaming shoppable experiences. One response stood out, selected by nearly half, partnering with streaming platforms and agencies.

Increasing budget for creative development (16%) and hiring specialized talent (9%) are at the bottom of the list, signaling a hesitancy to invest in staff and a preference for spending money on tools, especially due to the nature of shoppable advertising and its technology-heavy nature. 

“There’s no way to do [shoppable advertising] through human intervention and creativity alone — a technology layer and artificial intelligence are almost a prerequisite to making this work,” Gatts said. “I think that’s one piece of this natural gravitation toward the investment in technology, but in addition to that, the industry has not yet fully aligned around a standard as it pertains to shoppable. Everything from the vernacular used to describe it to the technologies required to support it will all benefit from some common fundamentals.” 

Those on the buy side likely find it hard to invest in staff who would currently need to solve many different things. Instead, Gatts believes they’re focused on nailing down the technology and investing while the marketplace is working toward a standard, and will then build talent around supporting a standard once there is one. 

Gatts cautions against a fully standardized space; however, emphasizing the importance of a balance of standards and creativity. 

“The hope is that we never get to fully standard because when you get to that point, you end up with a collection of advertising formats that a buyer can invest in that scale well, but might not speak very strongly to every audience,” he said. “So, we want to be able to speak to each unique audience, and that’s where the media company should be stepping in to show their strength by knowing their audience, while the way we measure it, talk about it and transact against it is standardized.”

The top three ways our respondents are using contextual commerce on CTV are shoppable ads (QR codes, clickable overlays, carousels) at 62%, programmatic ad placements (via DSPs) at 60% and AI-powered contextual analysis for contextual targeting at 56%. 

While the top uses are in line with our experts’ expectations, those at the bottom pose some concerns: dynamic product feeds (9%), interactive storytelling (9%), cross-device integration (8%) and gamification (8%).

The lack of investment in dynamic product feeds is risky for brands, retailers, marketers and their agencies — immediately and long-term. 

“A lack of investment in dynamic product feeds leads to many problems and erodes the consumer trust we all want to win right now,” Gatts said. “If a viewer engages with a shoppable experience and gets to a destination where the product price is different or is out of stock entirely, we quickly train that viewer to stop scanning the QR code, stop clicking on their remote, etc. One of our biggest focus areas right now is figuring out how to standardize the connection of these product feeds, so that lighting up a deal is quick and the products shown are dynamic.”

A lot of terminology is conflated in this space, adding to the need for standardization and further education. 

For example, according to Gatts, many believe adding a QR code on a video spot makes it a shoppable ad, and while there’s a valid argument to be made, much more needs to be done to drive the desired viewer habit. 

Streaming platforms will need to look at their audiences much in the way Instagram and TikTok first did upon launching shoppable behaviors: Pairing a shoppable experience natively built into the platform that feels hyper contextually relevant to the audience engaging with it. This will be the needed differentiator between running a video spot with a QR code and creating shoppable experiences inspired by the surrounding content to lead a viewer to purchase a product. 

“It’s like owning a hammer and saying you have a house,” said Gatts. “A QR code is a great tool and should be used in a shoppable strategy, but it isn’t in and of itself, shoppable.” 

As for the technology and platforms our respondents said they’re leveraging to deploy or measure their contextual commerce strategies on CTV, the top three include AI/machine learning (60%), streaming platforms and partnerships (53%) and interactive advertising (50%) — aligning with the tactics and strategies they’ve prioritized so far. 

While the platforms and technologies our respondents indicated they’re relying on mostly align with their strategies, there are some notable differences. While 62% are using shoppable ads across streaming and CTV, only 10% said they’re using this kind of technology to deploy and/or measure their contextual commerce strategies across CTV. The discrepancy was similar with voice commerce — 23% use the approach, but only 12% say they’re deploying the technology. Additionally, 56% indicated they were using contextual analysis and contextual targeting across CTV, but only 12% said they were using this technology. 

“I think the usage of generative AI for producing contextual signals is essential. Media companies can’t fully capture the value within their content without using machines to evaluate and unpack it,” Gatts said. “Historically, human curation has focused on genre, which is valuable but often oversimplifies content. Every drama has comedic moments, and every comedy has tension.

“So, labeling content as comedy, drama, or thriller doesn’t accurately represent it,” he continued. “This approach isn’t very relevant for aligning ads to specific moments and doesn’t speak to what the story is actually about, just how the story is told. We lean heavily into AI technology with human curation to unpack the story’s emotions, the products seen, and achieve true contextual alignment for advertisers.”

Some of the ways AI is undoubtedly helping our respondents is to achieve the primary goals they list for their contextual commerce investments: expand customer reach and tap into new audiences (58%), drive direct conversions and sales (52%) and improve customer experience and convenience (46%). 

AI and machine learning pop up again for how brands, retailers, marketers and their agencies are scaling contextual commerce efforts across CTV. It’s not surprising a majority (66%) use AI in this way, although it’s unusual to see testing and iterating at scale at the bottom (11%). Perhaps respondents are primarily accomplishing this through AI and selected one over the other.

While technology like AI can be a bit of a comes-with-the-territory situation, with so many respondents leaning on AI and machine learning throughout their contextual commerce efforts, teams need to remember AI still requires human intervention. 

“It’s more cautionary [with AI],” said Gatts. “I find the space thrilling, and I think it’s the closest thing to magic we’ve seen in the technology space in a long time. That being said, I’ve also seen AI do completely incorrect and nonsensical things, and the reason we see it is because we look for it — we pressure test it. You need to control how your content gets defined, so having that human element of control to box in AI is important.”

When asked to list what features and capabilities from respondents’ current platforms and technology are most effective, interactive ad formats (including shoppable features) (49%), robust reporting and collaboration (42%) and detailed analytics and attribution (37%) were most selected.  

The bottom two features/capabilities, RMN partnerships (16%) and interactive storytelling (11%), are things the industry is moving toward and should be utilized more by brands, retailers and their agencies. 

However, interactive storytelling is at the top of features teams wish they had from their current platforms (46%), in addition to increased flexibility with streaming platform collaboration (47%) and deeper personalization (i.e., advanced AI, dynamically adjusting ads) (46%). The latter two are frequent requests that are likely partially hopes for improvement as the industry continues to evolve. 

Unsurprisingly, ensuring privacy compliance while maintaining effective targeting (48%), is the biggest challenge our respondents face when expanding their use of shoppable ads on CTV. Ad fatigue and frequency management came in second at 43%, however, only 12% said they wanted this feature from their current platforms. 

Third place had a three-way tie between fragmentation in CTV platforms and audiences (38%), resistance to change from traditional TV practices (38%) and ROI concerns and skepticism (38%). 
The rest of the answer options received a fairly robust percentage, unfortunately showcasing the degree to which teams struggle to implement and scale shoppable ads across CTV. 

“It is interesting to see frequency concerns near the top of the list of challenges,” Gatts said. “As shoppable advertising matures and becomes more defined, there may be opportunities for us to evaluate specific frequency standards for this type of media. If the products displayed in shoppable ads are truly dynamic, these creatives should carry a longer shelf life as they provide broader utility to a streaming viewer.”

A normal use case may warrant a frequency of one ad per three hours or a few times a day, but a use case with a dynamic product feed, where there could be 3,000 different versions of that product tailored to the content being watched, may need more frequency. 

“Over the next couple of years, there might be a different set of frequency rules based on the appetite consumers have for this particular type of format that might be different from a 30-second brand spot,” said Gatts. ” We have seen some cases where consumers were taking action, on average, after the sixth or seventh exposure. As shoppable advertising becomes more commonplace in streaming, it will be interesting to see if time-to-action decreases.” 

Whenever something new is introduced, it takes time for consumers and the industry to understand what it is and how it works — all of that needs to be considered when thinking about measurement, standardization, etc.

Half of survey respondents plan to tackle these challenges by building close relationships with streaming platforms for custom solutions, followed by implementing frequency capping across platforms (39%), leveraging cross-platform ad tech solutions (37%) and testing and optimizing ad formats (31%).

As Gatts pointed out, for many of these shoppable ad formats, frequency caps may only hinder their performance. With 50% of teams aiming to partner with streaming platforms, hopefully, they’ll gain further insight into why frequency capping may not be the best move.

As brands, retailers, marketers and their agencies adjust to continuously changing consumer viewing habits, some of the most common challenges they’re facing are privacy and compliance (i.e., limited personalization due to less consumer data) at 53%, difficulty creating ad experiences that align with shorter attention spans (47%) and lack of consumer awareness regarding engaging with shoppable ads on CTV (40%).

With these difficulties in mind, teams have implemented several different initiatives, including experimenting with AI and emerging technologies at the top (58%), followed somewhat distantly by partnering with emerging CTV platforms and innovators (38%) and optimizing for multi-screen and multi-device behaviors (37%).

Two strategies at the bottom of the list for our respondents might be worth reevaluating: adopting more flexible and dynamic strategies (14%) and aligning with binge-watching behavior (12%). Both fit well with incorporating dynamic product feeds and more contextual strategies, ultimately delivering less intrusive experiences that feel more relevant to viewers — a win-win for marketers, their agencies and consumers.

While the strategies our respondents are using contextual commerce for across CTV and streaming are varied, the outcomes have largely included increased brand awareness (41%), improved video completion rates (39%) and greater innovation and competitive advantage (36%).

While broader demographic reach (16%) and enhanced customer loyalty (4%) are at the bottom of the list, these are likely results that take more time for teams to see, especially with many of the challenges our respondents have indicated they’re encountering.  

The outcomes teams hope to see this year that they haven’t yet experienced include increased direct sales (47%), higher ROI on ad spend (39%) and access to younger, tech-savvy audiences (39%).

When looking to the future of the shoppable advertising space across CTV, our respondents had a list of innovations they hope to see, with two pulling ahead: improved personalization with AI-driven targeting (58%) and improved measurement and attribution (56%).

Personalization and measurement are almost always on the list of improvements across most industries and spaces. These areas are ever-evolving, though often not fast enough to meet the expectations of many teams. 

“When we as an industry talk about personalization, we are almost always talking about leveraging historic data in a privacy-compliant way to target an individual or a group of individuals,” said Gatts. “I think that with shopability, personalization is likely going to be just as much, if not more important, to align to the content you’re watching rather than the person you are. For example, if you’re selling paper towels and have data that shows the last time I purchased those was six months ago, then you have a reasonable chance to convert me to buy more. 

“That being said, if I, as a consumer, am watching a show and I see a nasty spill at a dining room table, and then you show me an ad to buy paper towels, that is a powersignal to me as a consumer that I want to buy that product, and one that feels complementary to the content that I’m enjoying,” he continued. “So, personalization is something that I hope, over time, we redefine to pull in the contextual signals that media companies are investing in. The more we continue to rally around shopability and intelligently invest in the solution on the buy and sell sides, the more we’ll see platforms start introducing new functionalities into their platforms that will make shoppable less of an ad feature and more of an always-on capability.”

To truly make contextual commerce and shoppable advertising an always-on feature across streaming and CTV, brands, retailers, marketers and their agencies would do well to look for a true partnership, not someone looking at the relationship as just a transaction. 

“It’s more than just conversion,” Gatts said. “In some of our early campaigns, we’ve seen lists of 17x favorability and over 3x in brand recall, so there’s mid-funnel impact to doing shoppable advertising as well as driving lower-funnel engagement. Contextual alignment is the foundation to everything that will be shoppable advertising, and that goes from offering to enhance a title sponsorship against a single title, or allowing marketers to buy a rotational shoppable spend and draft off of that contextual inspiration across the entirety of Max. So, we are scaling our content and can connect it to those product catalogs at a massive scale. When you’re talking about scale, you’re talking about millions and millions of contextual signals that could potentially be mapped to billions of product SKUs to find that right blend of the right product for sale at the right time against the right contextual signals.”

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As streaming continues to reshape consumer behavior, shoppable advertising on CTV is gaining momentum, with marketers increasing budgets and experimenting with formats. While budget for shoppable ads on CTV has increased, execution remains uneven. And even though AI and interactive formats like QR codes are common, few brands are investing in dynamic product feeds, risking broken shopping journeys. 

Marketers and agencies are leaning into AI to scale, improve targeting and match ads to the context of content, but standardization and consumer adoption are lagging. Ad fatigue, measurement challenges and privacy remain key obstacles, while desired innovations include better personalization and attribution tools. Despite early signs of success, such as improved brand awareness and engagement, many teams have yet to see gains in sales or ROI.  

Shoppable CTV ads are no longer a novelty, they’re a strategic priority. Turning attention into action requires stronger technology, smarter creative and closer ties between brands and platforms. The future of contextual commerce depends on innovation and a deep understanding of how people watch, feel and shop.  

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About Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of branded content across television, film, streaming and gaming. Available in more than 220 countries and territories and 50 languages, Warner Bros. Discovery inspires, informs and entertains audiences worldwide through its iconic brands and products including: Discovery Channel, Max, discovery+, CNN, DC, TNT Sports, Eurosport, HBO, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery en Español, Hogar de HGTV and others. For more information, please visit www.wbd.com.