Why Linear and Connected TV Are Better Together

Peanut butter and jelly. Movies and popcorn. Road trips with the windows down, music blasting. Some things are just better together. 

Including linear and Connected TV advertising. 

TV viewership has changed more in the past decade than in the last thirty years combined. While linear TV still boasts massive audiences, streaming platforms are rapidly gaining ground, changing the dynamics of how content is consumed. And how brands reach their audiences.  

 
 
TV viewership trends reveal blurring boundaries.

According to Nielsen, streaming now accounts for 38% of total TV usage in the US, led by services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. Despite this growth, linear TV remains strong, making up 51% of TV usage thanks to live events and sports.   

Plus, while there are more cord-cutters than ever, most viewers continue to use linear. In fact, 70% of households use streaming services in combination with cable TV. And consumers’ top definition for TV according to data from MRI-Simmons is simply ‘anything I can watch on my TV set.’ So if consumers aren't making a distinction between linear and CTV, why should advertisers?  

 

The strengths of linear TV. 

Linear TV remains one of the most prestigious marketing channels. It continues to draw large and engaged audiences, especially during live events. An analysis by WARC found that the most effective marketing campaigns use TV as the lead medium. And a study by Thinkbox found that linear’s signaling power causes people to perceive brands advertising on TV as more financially strong, high quality, and popular.  

There’s good reason for this.   

Since the first TV commercial aired in 1941, the channel’s mass reach and visibility have made it an excellent platform for brands to build awareness and trust. Today, those benefits are as real as ever—and achievable at much lower CPMs compared to CTV.  

 

The benefits of Connected TV. 

On the other hand, Connected TV advertising provides advanced targeting capabilities beyond what traditional TV offers—while maintaining the prestige of showing up on the biggest screen in people’s homes. Brands can deliver personalized ads based on viewers' interests, online behavior, and viewing habits. This ensures ads reach relevant audiences, boosting engagement and conversions.   
 
Plus, CTV allows for retargeting, so brands can follow up with viewers who interacted with their website or previously purchased from them, ensuring a cohesive brand experience across multiple touchpoints.  

 

Why use both linear and CTV in your campaigns?

So what happens if you include linear TV and Connected TV advertising in your campaigns? The benefits of combining the two forms of TV go far beyond keeping up with industry trends. Together, they comprise a comprehensive TV strategy that addresses the full spectrum of consumer viewing habits. 

1. Reach your audience wherever they watch. 

Combining CTV and linear TV advertising means you can get in front of your audience regardless of how they’re watching TV. Even better, you can reach your audience wherever it’s most cost-effective to do so.  

New streaming advertisers often overpay to reach audiences through CTV when those same audiences are accessible for less on linear. Now that’s a bad investment, plain and simple.  

When advertising across both forms of TV, you can fairly evaluate all opportunities to reach your audience and purchase the media that’ll drive the best possible outcome. 

2. Reinforce brand messaging.

Keeping your campaign consistent across both traditional TV and CTV only helps with building recognition and trust. So whether your audience is watching live sports on ESPN or binge-watching a true crime series on Hulu, they experience the same message, strengthening brand recall and loyalty 

This also supports the buyer journey. For example, you may use linear TV to build top-of-funnel awareness, then add in a CTV retargeting campaign to connect with website visitors. In both cases, the viewer could engage with similar creative.  

3. Tap into incremental reach.

Just because many households still watch cable, doesn’t mean everyone does. Younger demographics especially spend more time with streaming compared to older age groups. So if you really want to reach all potential customers, using both linear and CTV is a must.

Effectv reports that 73% of multi-screen campaign reach comes from traditional TV. But streaming is better able to reach no-TV or light-viewing households. Only 14% of traditional TV impressions reach this group, compared to 39% for streaming impressions and 88% of FAST impressions.

And according an analysis of 150,000 multi-screen campaigns, reach is greatest when 20-30% of the TV budget is dedicated to streaming and the rest goes to linear. When more than 30% of budget is dedicated to streaming, campaigns tend to run into frequency challenges and begin sacrificing reach. Of course, the perfect ratio will be unique to each business and campaign goals. 

4. Boost CTV campaigns with linear TV’s halo effect.

There’s also reason to expect your linear TV advertising to actively improve the performance of your streaming ads. The “halo effect” occurs when viewers who are exposed to your brand on one channel and then encounter your ads through other marketing efforts, respond more positively as a result.  

Traditional TV’s halo effect is especially strong, with outsized impacts on channels ranging from out-of-home to direct mail. According to Thinkbox, video-on-demand and online video specifically see a whopping 20% improvement when supported by linear TV. So using both linear and streaming in your TV campaigns boosts overall effectiveness. 

 

 

Challenges of integrated TV advertising.

However, managing campaigns across both forms of TV comes with challenges.

1. Frequency management becomes a must. 

Overexposure to the same ad can lead to viewer fatigue and inefficiency. In fact, CTV viewers already cite seeing the same ad too often as their top problem with the channel. And managing frequency becomes even harder with both linear and CTV.  

The solution is careful planning and monitoring including access to deduplicated reach and frequency across linear and streaming. So if a viewer sees your ad on both linear TV and a streaming platform, it should only be counted once in your reach calculations but twice for frequency.  

Strictly manage ad frequency across linear and CTV to avoid overwhelming your audience. Often, this will come down to making sure your reach on streaming truly is incremental. 

 

2. Measurement practices are inconsistent. 

Accurate TV measurement isn’t easy for any advertiser. But evaluating linear and CTV together only makes it harder.

Linear TV measures impressions by individuals. This makes sure advertisers get a clear picture of who’s watching, even when people co-view content together. But, like digital channels, CTV measures impressions by household. So a family of four seeing your ad for a meal-delivery service would be counted as just one impression. This disparity makes it difficult to compare the performance of campaigns across both formats directly. It’s apples and oranges.  

To solve this, implement cross-platform attribution and use multiple models to verify results. For example, if you’re using IP tracking to track consumer behavior from ad exposure to conversion, avoid being misled by over-generous device graphs by also running incrementality testing.  

At Marketing Architects, we developed our own reach and frequency model, TruReach, to better understand and optimize campaigns across both linear and CTV. This helps ensure brands achieve truly incremental reach without excessive overlap and clarifies the impact of both types of TV.  

 

Find a partner that buys both. 

Despite these challenges, getting the best of both worlds isn’t a pipe dream. To access the benefits of using linear and CTV together (while sidestepping the challenges), work with the same partner for your linear and CTV campaigns.  

A partner with access to the full TV landscape can develop a holistic view of your audience’s viewing habits, ensure consistent messaging and healthy frequency across all TV touchpoints, allocate budget efficiently between linear and streaming, and provide integrated analysis and insights. The result? You’re equipped to make campaigns as effective as possible. 

Learn more about how Marketing Architects buys both linear and streaming TV with our media-buying AI, Annika.