The news: Marketers are increasingly turning to performance TV to drive measurable results in the digital-first era—but key challenges remain that are limiting confidence in the strategy, according to a tvScientific report.

• Marketers rated performance TV and social media as the most effective marketing channels, with each earning 25% of marketers’ confidence.
• Performance TV was rated as the top channel for media spend in 2026 (cited by 24% of respondents), above social media (20%).
• 67% stated that performance TV helped them achieve revenue and growth goals in 2025; 90% expect this to be the case in 2026.
• Marketers cited access to attentive, engaged viewers (49%), scalability across audiences and platforms (45%), and precise audience targeting (40%) as some of the top factors that makes the format effective.
• But 56% said a lack of transparency in performance TV reporting was one of the biggest risks to their team’s success, indicating lingering problems with isolated reporting and a lack of transparency in CTV measurement.
• Other challenges included a lack of consistent measurement standards (52%) and limited tools or technology integrations (43%).

The challenges: Despite improved targeting and growing confidence in performance TV, a lack of transparency continues to hinder CTV marketing strategies by limiting measurement clarity and the ability to prove return on ad spend.

• Digital advertising professionals cited measurement (32.8% of respondents) as one of the top addressability challenges in CTV in 2025, per ID5.
• Marketers also cite transparency as a key issue in CTV advertising. Twenty-seven percent of ad buyers stated that a lack of inventory transparency prevented greater CTV investment in 2025, per Olyzon and EMARKETER. And while tvScientific notes that many marketers feel performance TV marketing helps reach revenue goals, actually proving ROAS is a challenge for 37.9%.

What marketers should do: To fully capitalize on performance TV’s effectiveness while overcoming persistent transparency gaps, marketers must be more selective about the platforms they use and more intentional in their use of contextual targeting within CTV.

• Investing in performance TV providers designed to provide transparency, cross-channel measurement capabilities, and incrementality testing will yield the best results, tvScientific notes. Vetting performance TV platforms before partnering is paramount.
• Marketers can prioritize channel-level contextual targeting to combat some of the core issues of CTV advertising. This approach improves visibility into where ads appear and who they reach while aligning messages with appropriate environments.