Winning the 2025 Shopping Season with Smarter CTV

With viewership surges, streaming ad inventory fills quickly, and competition for consumer attention hits its peak in the holiday season. 

The good news? Advertisers who plan smarter, act faster, and emphasize both quality and quantity will be the ones who win big in Q4.

In our earlier posts, we explored The Hidden Cost of CTV, where low-quality, fake environments can drain as much as 20.8% of spend, and Context Matters More Than Ever, which explained why context matters most when intent signals are harder to come by. Now, let’s bring it all together with the strategies that will help advertisers finish the year strong.

1. Prioritize Placement Quality First

Poor placement quality can quickly eat into ROI. Fake or irrelevant CTV environments not only waste impressions, they waste budgets that could be driving conversions.

Fake environments include things like ad-supported screensavers, white noise generators, “boyfriend simulators,” mobile apps misclassified as CTV, and wallpaper-like displays, which accounted for nearly 20.8% of open exchange inventory last year. By contrast, Peer39’s Safe From Fake CTV categories can reduce that down to just 0.9%, preserving spend for real, viewable CTV. 

Irrelevant environments such as kids’ programming, divisive news, or anime may be technically safe but misaligned with advertiser goals. Without proper targeting and exclusions, budgets risk funding placements that dilute campaign performance and brand message.

By filtering out both fake and irrelevant environments, advertisers can keep holiday budgets focused on programming that delivers real results.

2. Target by Context and Channel

When viewing is scattered across dozens of apps and services, content's context becomes a stronger signal than channel alone. Instead of buying broadly on “Lifestyle” or “Sports” categories, focusing on the granularity of program-level targeting and even custom keyword controls gives buyers the ability to align with a shopper’s mindset such as holiday cooking specials and other seasonal events.

Peer39’s contextual controls allow buyers to fine-tune targeting without sacrificing reach, helping ensure ads run when viewers are most receptive. In addition, custom channel lists give buyers the ability to get the content and channels they want, using market pricing.

3. Streamline Integration, Maximize Efficiency

Holiday campaign windows move fast. Missing a week or even a few days can mean missing a major sales spike.

Because Peer39’s contextual categories are available across major buying platforms, advertisers can activate targeting instantly without deal ID hassles. Paired with post-buy Analytics insights, it's the kind of agility necessary to adjust campaigns on the fly and optimize toward the highest-performing placements.

Extra Credit: Three Holiday CTV Best Practices

Straight from industry data and holiday performance benchmarks:

1. Leverage Viewership Spikes – Streaming viewership jumps 11% during Thanksgiving week and 19% over Christmas (AdExchanger).
   
   
2. Match Creative to Content – Aligning ad tone and visuals with the programming increases memorability and engagement (AdExchanger).
   
   
3. Enable Seamless Conversion – With 80% of viewers using a mobile device while watching CTV, interactive elements like QR codes can accelerate purchase paths (AdExchanger).
   
   

The Bottom Line

The 2025 shopping season will reward advertisers who combine placement quality, contextual relevance, and operational agility. By filtering out fake inventory, targeting and excluding content at the program level, and moving opportunistically, CTV buyers can make every impression count and turn Q4 pressure into measurable performance.

Ready to win this holiday season? Learn how Peer39 can power smarter CTV campaigns →