Why Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) and Connected TV (CTV) Are the Next Big Channels for Ecommerce and Retail Brands

Connected TV (CTV) and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) might be newer players to the ecommerce and retail media mix scene, but their value in advertising is proven through the ever-evolving demands of buying audiences. These two channels can help brands keep up with today’s challenges in capturing the attention of an ideal customer.

Challenge #1: Social media ads and paid search used to be the biggest channels for ecom and retail audiences, but those channels quickly became oversaturated and can’t be relied on as the only two channels for any brand.

Challenge #2: Not only are there more brands competing for attention on social and search, audiences’ attention spans are being drawn elsewhere (AKA: TV screens and IRL placements). 

Diversity in channels is the name of the game when it comes to truly building awareness, consideration, and driving conversions as an ecommerce or retail brand. In this guide you’ll learn:

• Why ecommerce and retail brands are adopting CTV and DOOH

• Where CTV and DOOH fit in your cross-channel strategy

• Common challenges with launching CTV and DOOH for ecommerce and retail

• What to look for in a CTV and DOOH platform

• The best platform for CTV and DOOH for retail and ecommerce

→New to CTV and DOOH? Check out our resources for your intro: DOOH Guide, CTV Guide.

Why Ecom and Retail Brands Are Adopting DOOH and CTV

In addition to being less saturated, DOOH and CTV offer a variety of benefits for retail and ecom brands. 

Full-funnel impact

CTV and DOOH used to be viewed as awareness-only channels, driving interest and brand recognition for audiences. While they both absolutely still drive such results, these two channels have full-funnel impact. 

In addition to their roles at each stage, the efforts from DOOH and CTV tend to have a halo effect or an overall impact on other channels that are running as a part of your ad mix. A winning ad in one place lifts all channels. We’ll dive into the specifics of this later on.

DOOH

DOOH is great for the top of the funnel for building unskippable awareness of your brand. 

At the middle of the funnel, you can nurture intent. By pairing DOOH with additional channels like CTV and other ad types, you can direct audiences to the next touchpoint. 

Bottom funnel is where DOOH is frequently underestimated. DOOH is great for impulse buys, specifically when placed in well-targeted areas like points of sale. 

CTV

At the top of the funnel, CTV shines for its ability to drive awareness and consideration. 

In the middle of the funnel, CTV can help direct audiences to the next step in their journeys. This is the perfect place to get them to the next stage with the appropriate level of information to make a decision. 

Can you use CTV for bottom-of-funnel? Yes, of course! CTV can help you trigger timely events for your audience. This is the perfect time to encourage your audience to take action, especially with their mobile device. You’ll learn more about how to do this later on.

Easy to adopt with programmatic placements

Traditional OOH and CTV campaigns frequently required choosing one billboard and leaving it up for however long you can afford with little to no measurement to prove its effectiveness, or producing a high-value commercial and hoping it reaches as much of your target audience as it can. 

With programmatic placements, you can use your first-party data, third-party audiences, and even control relevancy and frequency, much like your other digital ads. This allows you to adapt existing creative, target with precision, and measure your CTV and DOOH ads side by side with your other channels.

Measurable results

CTV and DOOH aren’t a guessing game.

With the evolution into programmatic channels, you can measure their individual and combined impact, both with their own performance metrics AND their influence on your other channels. 

DOOH metrics of success

• TOFU: impression delivery and modeled reach

• MOFU: brand lift, foot traffic, and visitation lift

• BOFU: web conversions, app downloads, sales lift

Learn more about measuring DOOH here.

CTV metrics of success

• TOFU: impressions, reach, CPM

• MOFU: video completion rate, brand lift, site visits

• BOFU: on-site actions, conversions, CPA, ROAS

Learn more about measuring CTV success here.

The proof is in the data: industry-level success metrics and an AdRoll ecommerce case study

Success metrics

According to Haus’ Cyber Week Incrementality Report 2025, big CTV investments pay off. CTV saw the largest median increase in the delayed effect of ads on prospects in the funnel; over double the delayed lift of the next highest channel.

CTV campaigns also saw a higher ROI into November of 2025 with continued investment past peak holiday shopping days, as per the report.

Research from Paramount’s CTV vs. Social Report shows:

• Paid search conversion rates increase by 22.3% when supported by CTV exposure

• Paid social conversion rates improve by 8.5% when audiences have previously seen a brand on streaming TV

• 51% of heavy CTV viewers search online after seeing something on TV

Case study

This ecommerce brand utilized AdRoll’s cross-channel attribution to find that CTV was the top conversion channel overall. 

Where CTV and DOOH Fit in Your Ecommerce/Retail Cross Channel Strategy

Depending on your current channel mix and decided role for DOOH, CTV or both, they can fit where you align them to your goals. Here are a few places you can plug these ads into your cross-channel strategy.

The Impact of CTV and DOOH on Online Conversions

We’ve already outlined the metrics of success for each channel above, but how do you gauge their impact on the ultimate goal for almost all advertising channels: influencing conversions?

Winning new customers

New customers often need more emotional connection and reasons to care about a brand or product. This cannot be done easily by relying solely on traditional display or native ads. These types of ads have a limited ability to communicate product offerings. Instead, CTV and DOOH offer a way to win over new customers by creating more nontraditional touchpoints, ultimately leading to a better chance of online conversions.

Increasing brand trust

Brand safety concerns are always on the minds of ecommerce and retail brands because social platforms can lead to brands showing up within feeds that don’t align well to their positioning. CTV offers a safer or more premium environment for higher brand value. A halo effect is afforded to brands that air within what their audiences perceive as high quality content. In a world of AI, brand trust is gaining importance. 

The more a potential customer trusts your brand, the higher likelihood they are to become a quality converting customer down the line.

Starting CTV and DOOH: Common Challenges for Ecommerce and Retail Brands

Ready to jump into these new channels, but afraid of the unknown that comes with testing new channels? Here are two problems many ecommerce and retail brands face and how to overcome them. 

1. Focusing on capturing demand you didn’t create

When you’re held to performance KPIs, you tend to learn toward a lower funnel focus. The miss usually comes from heavily funded bottom-funnel activities with fewer top-of-funnel activities. You need to build the top of the funnel first to successfully convert it later on. The balance of brand building with performance is key to success across the entire funnel.

How to overcome this:

CTV and DOOH have leading indicators across the funnel, but the impact really pays off with their influence in creating quality conversions. Find a balance with your budget and goals that allows each channel to play its role well.

2. Accurately measuring the impact of brand building efforts

CTV and DOOH should not be compared head to head with direct response ad channels. Responses happen on separate platforms from where ad exposure happens. CTV and DOOH are more constrained than a channel like display. Similarly to the problem above, you have to know the roles each channel plays in your customer’s journey to conversion. 

How to overcome this:

Measure the full-funnel influence of CTV and DOOH.

At the top of the funnel: brand surveys are great for understanding how CTV and DOOH are not only reaching audiences but also influencing how your audience perceives your brand. This can help you gauge how audiences are moving to consideration or favoring your brand compared to your competitors. 

In the middle of the funnel: brand engagement analysis measuring post exposure on search, site visitation, or even foot traffic for DOOH. 

At the bottom of the funnel: measure brand outcomes that show influence on app downloads, conversions, or sales. You can do this with advanced measurement like path analysis using multitouch attribution solutions. This allows you to see the impact of adding these channels to your mix.  

What to Look for in a CTV and DOOH Platform as an Ecommerce or Retail Business

There are a lot of CTV and DOOH vendors out there, but not all of them are familiar with ecommerce and retail brand challenges, wants, and needs. Use this checklist to vet your vendors before you sign the dotted line.

• Offers creative services. Not just AI generated, but AI assisted with a creative service team who can support bringing creative vision to life. This capability will unlock access for SMBs at a greater level.

• Offers cross-channel attribution. Very few brands pool all their budgets in one channel, but savvy brands work with platforms who provide comprehensive insights that empower them to understand where their marketing dollars are running and how each channel is contributing to their overall goals. 

  • Bonus: offers cross-channel execution. If a vendor offers the ability to unify reporting and buying media across channels, like CTV, DOOH, social, and even video, you can login to just one platform to manage your entire cross channel strategy. You’ll save time, and see holistic results across channels. 

• Provides meaningful measurement capabilities. Whether platform reported, third-party, or even better – a hybrid that offers the trust of independence with the granularity and speed of platform provided – measurement is no longer a nice to have. 

• Has integrated AI: At this stage, you should expect platform partners to be leveraging AI to help you get more from your time, budgets, and team. Learn more about AdRoll’s AI Assistant here.

• Offers managed services. Resource constraints are one of the biggest struggles in being able to take advantage of the opportunities that CTV and DOOH represent. For many, these are brand new channels, and while self-serve platforms offer access, the learning curve can be steep. Having a partner that becomes an extension of your team with managed services is often the difference for a brand who can only run tests vs. one who can grow.

• Can integrate with your other tools and platforms. The ability to integrate with your ecommerce store, product inventory, and sales data is what takes retail and ecom advertising from good to great. When everything works in concert, the more agile and optimized you can be.

Learn more about AdRoll ecommerce integrations.

Questions to ask if you’re new to CTV or DOOH

Onboarding:

1. What does onboarding look like?

2. How long before my first campaign is live?

3. Will I have a dedicated point of contact? Are there help docs?

Campaign planning:

1. Will you help me set goals and KPIs as relevant to where I am using the channel in my funnel?

2. How do you recommend splitting budget between CTV, DOOH, and existing channels as a test?

Creative help:

1. Can I repurpose existing video or social assets?

2. What support do you offer to adapt or produce creative?

Spend:

1. What’s the minimum budget, and what budget and campaign length to do you recommend for meaningful results?

2. Are there setup, creative, or service fees in addition to media spend?

Optimization:

1. How often are campaigns optimized? How is that done?

2. How quickly can I change out creative, budget, or targeting during a campaign?

Measurement:

1. When should I expect to first see results?

2. Which metrics should I be using to judge my first campaign on?

Best Practices for Ecommerce and Retail CTV and DOOH 

DOOH

For digital billboards, use the 10 second rule. Drivers have limited dwell time. Use high contrast visuals and brief copy. 

For environments like bus shelters, offer contextually relevant products. This can be something like an umbrella on a rainy day. 

When you can, be locally relevant. If you have a brick-and-mortar retail store nearby, choose locations that are within a reasonable distance. Think office buildings, residential buildings, gyms, and shopping centers. Take into account time of day, too.

For your creative, one image and one message is best, no one stands around looking at an outdoor advertisement for very long. Remember to use bold colors to stand out.

Refresh your creative for each campaign. Rotate within longer ad flights. 

General best practices include:

• Simple copy

• High contrast visuals

• Contextual and dynamic triggers

• Accessible text

Things to try

Creative elements like shoppable QR codes, live sports tickers, and weather overlays have a positive impact on brand recall.

Experiment with motion. Subtle movement can capture attention. Avoid long videos that require too much attention.

CTV

Test, test, test. Different hooks, CTAs, and formats. Each audience segment will need something different.

Keep things fresh every 6-8 weeks for always on or more frequently if your performance flattens.

Implement frequency capping. Ad fatigue is a major turn off for audiences. ~6-12x per household over the flight. Adjust for awareness, pricepoint, and purchase cycle. 

Use 15 second videos for offers, 30 seconds for testimonials. 

Things to try

Interactive elements, like QR codes, that drive immediate interaction. 

Series-based story telling is a differentiator for CTV. You have the ability to run a series of connected ads that bring an audience along the journey over time. This approach encourages repeat engagement.

The Best Platform for Ecommerce and Retail CTV and DOOH

AdRoll offers the channels, integrations, and support that retail and ecommerce brands need to succeed in a highly-competitive ad environment. AdRoll has worked with thousands of ecom and retail brands over 10+ years. We know the challenges and demands of the industry. 

Since last year, AdRoll CTV customers saw a display conversion volume increase of 10% YoY when CTV was used alongside display retargeting. A mid-market brand working with AdRoll display’s CPA fell 72% and CTR went up 11% when adding CTV to their channel mix. A clear sign of success with new channels when working with the right vendor.

Learn more about how you can launch successful ads on CTV, DOOH, and other important ecom and retail channels with AdRoll today.

Last updated on October 28th, 2026.